how will Rex Ryan do as Head Coach?

[philipthegreat]

After Eric Mangini failed to capitilize on his 8-3 record, missed the playoffs, and was subsequently fired how will Rex Ryan do?

[football junkie]

If you're a Jet's fan you certainly have to like the move made Saturday to acquire two-time pro bowl corner back Lito Sheppard for two draft picks spaced out, a fifth round pick in 2009 and a conditional middle round pick in 2010. Sheppard has also re-upped for four more years at $40 million starting after this season.

Lito should be able to step right in and play, even if he's only in on nickle packages.

You have to love the signing of LB Bart Scott. Not only does he already know Ryan's defense but he finally replaces the bigtime LB the Jets let go a year ago when Jonathan Vilma left for New Orleans.

But in answer to the overall question, I guess we're all holding our breath to see who the Jets get to play QB. Now with Favre gone, the franchise might have to do the unthinkable and draft a QB in 2009.

Word is that Kurt Warner is visiting San Francisco, if they sign him, that team's already dwindling interest in Mark Sanchez may disappear. Leaving the Jets to nab him with the 17th pick. In my opinion that would be a disaster.

(Sanchez = BUST) Sanchez reminds me of very slightly smarter Akili Smith. Let's just say they're both 20-watt bulbs and that's just not good enough in the comparatively glaring world of the NFL.

Signing four-time pro bowl QB Jeff Garcia for a year or two and drafting Ball State's Nate Davis, in the second or third round, might be the better long-term solution.

With Ryan's defense and an adequate running game, a flashy QB will not be required to win. Davis managing the game in 2010, after Ryan has his defense in place would win a lot of games for the Jets.

But what do I know?

[football junkie]

Coming off a 9-7 season that got the last head coach fired, Ryan stands at 6-6 heading into a game against the 1-11 Tampa Bay Bucs on 13 Dec. It is an away game for the Jets but I see no reason, including starting Kellen Clemens, why the Jets don't come away from this game with a win.

The Sanchise has suffered his first major injury of his pro career, a sprained posterior cruciate ligament. He may return in week 14, or not. I still think drafting him was a huge mistake. But, when he comes back all he has to do is be mediocre for this team to win.

If the Jets keep the ball on the ground, in the hands of Thomas Jones, and eat up the clock after getting on the board first -- the Bucs will fold.

To be honest, the team isn't good enough yet to do anything in the playoffs. By next year, this defense will be elite: Bart Scott, David Harris, Calvin Pace, Shaun Ellis, Lito Sheppard, Kerry Rhodes and Darrelle Revis are the core of an awesome unit.

But Braylon Edwards is unfortunately still Braylon Edwards. Thomas Jones and Alan Faneca aren't getting any younger. Leon Washington seems to want/need to go to another team and prove he's not a NFL-worthy starting running back. And the Sanchise has already suffered a significant injury.

The season's almost over. The Jets are going in the right direction. Time to spend some 2010 high draft picks on some offensive weapons, I think.

AFC East Champs in 2010! :shhh:

[football junkie]

The Pats are coming apart. It reminds me of the slow, sad decline in the late 1990s of the Dallas Cowboys. All the assistants and executives had left. Most of the key players were gone or on the wrong side of their career peaks. The team was usually good enough to make the playoffs but not good enough to run with the elite.

The Pats lost to the Dolphins today on a late Brady interception. :(

One team's decline is another team's rise. And I'm thinking the Jets will be that team out of the AFC East. It sure won't be the Bills. The Dolphins have lacked identity since Dan Marino retired. It's the Jet's time to shine. They're just a draft away.

Ryan sure won't be an Al Groh.

[football junkie]

The Jets are at 8-7, with a good chance of winning their final regular season game and snaring a wildcard playoff spot.

Mangini + Favre = 9-7

Ryan + (Sanchez, Clemens) = 8-7 + likely playoffs

This tells me that the Jets could start most anybody at QB and still win a majority of their games, due to the excellence of the defensive unit. And that Thomas Jones is criminally underrated. No, not the mathematician, the running back!

It's a wacky world we live in.

[football junkie]

It's now official. The 9-7 Jets are in the playoffs, after beating two franchises that rested starters: Indianapolis and Cincinnati.

2008: Mangini + Favre + 9-7 - playoffs = Fired!
2009: Ryan + (Sanchez + Clemens) + 9-7 + playoffs = Genius!

Houston deserved the final playoff spot. But as Bill Munny pointed out in Unforgiven, "deserve's got nothing to do with it."