With the release of Terrell Owens for the Cowboys the potential suitors are being named about the rumor mill and both New York football teams are rumored to be suitors.  That’s becuase both teams currently lack a #1 receiver, the Jets released Laveranues Coles last week and Plaxico Burress’s status with the G-men is still up in the air.

While Owens numbers look good, the negative side of Owens is something this fan of Gang-green can live without at The Meadowlands.   The guy is a huge distraction and his “me first” attitude is not something that coach Ryan and his staff would be willing to deal with this season or any season for that matter.  The Jets still haven’t named a replacement at quarterback for Favre and Owens would eat alive any of the guys on the current roster and a rookie wouldn’t stand a chance having to deal with his antics.

I’m not knocking the guys talent and desire.  Owens has plenty of both and his work ethic is superb, but the ego and “me first” attitude make him a more of a risk than a reward on the roster for the 2009 season.  Let Tannenbaum and Coach Ryan figure this one out and keep our fingers and toes crossed that T.O. only comes to New York one Sunday a season as in years past.

According to reports out of Boston, Fox Sports,  and the NFL Network it seems the “Mangenius” will be roaming the NFL sidelines after all in 2009.  The reports indicate Eric Mangini will be hired as the new coach of the Cleveland Browns with a press conference scheduled for Thursday.

So why the title above you might ask?  Simple, Romeo Crennel who was just recently fired as the head coach of the Browns was, just like Mangini, an assistant under Bill Belichick in New England.  There has been a lot of talk on sports radio and TV across the nation about the “Belichick tree” and how unsuccessful the branches have been.

The Browns were a hot pick going into the season after Derek Anderson put up big numbers in 2007 and ended up staying in Cleveland after many teams were interested in him if he opted to sign elsewhere last offseason.  Those teams are happy now because the 2008 season was a far cry from ‘07 as Anderson’s numbers ended up costing him his starting job to Brady Quinn late in the season and he now may be just a backup in Cleveland unless he’s released.  Quinn didn’t help save the season, or Crennel’s job, as the Browns finished a very disappointing 4-12.

The Jets, one of those teams interested in a Derek Anderson towards the tailend of the ‘07 season ended up with a new signal caller for 2008, but not the guy anyone could have predicted.  Brett Favre became a member of “Gangreen” and with the offseason acquistions of Faneca, Pace, and Jenkins seemed like the perfect ingredients for a playoff run.

After beating the rival Patriots and the undefeated Tennessee Titans on the road, the Jets were 8-3 and talk started of an all New York Super Bowl.  Wow do those days seem so far away, the Jets lost four of their last five, the only win a gift at the hands of the Buffalo Bills, lost the season finale to the guy that wasn’t good enough anymore in Chad Pennington, and watched Pennington’s team celebrate a division title in the Meadowlands.

Mangini did have two winning seasons in New York, but after a 4-12 run in 2007 everyone knew that anything less than the playoffs would likely mean he would be out of a job and the way the season feel apart, there was no doubt.

So Cleveland, good luck with more of the same with Eric Mangini at the helm.    Whomever the new GM is going to be has his hands full knowing no matter what you give this guy in talent he can find a way to blow it.  While Paul Brown is rolling over in his grave, the fans in Cincinnati finally have something to cheer about.

Greeting Jets fans,

      Since my girlfriend is a diehard Steelers fan and refers to their former coach Bill Cowher as “the Chin”, I figured it fitting to make the title of this blog just for her.  If you haven’t heard by now the former Steelers head man is willing to talk to the Jets about the vacany left by Mangini’s departure earlier today.

       Now I certainly don’t want to put the cart before the horse, but this would be a great hire by Woody Johnson and the entire organization.  Cowher has a proven track record, can develop talent, just look at the Steelers defense, and won’t put up with a potential soap opera that Brett Favre might start if he isn’t pushed to make a decision on whether or not he’ll return for the 2009 season.

       We are aways away from a new leader of the green and white, but let’s hope a proven winner takes the helm.  A new episode recapping the 2008 collapse of the Jets, the Mangini firing and a look ahead to this weeks playoff games to come later this week.

       Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays even without the Jets playing into January.

   After road victories in some of the league’s toughest enviroments including Nashville against the lone undefeated team the Titans, the Jets and their fans were on top of the world.  More attention was given nationally after the thrilling OT win in Foxboro, but not until the win over the Titans did the national media start to talk about the Jets as one of the top teams in the NFL.

   The Jets were now more than just the team Brett Favre was traded to after a Hall of Fame career in Green Bay.  The league knew how good the defense was from their play in the 2nd half of 2007, but now everyone could see the hard work of Woody Johnson and the coaching staff to bring this team with all the offseason acquistions together to be a worst to first football team.

     Everything was wonderful, division lead with a possible division title, a home playoff game, maybe a first round bye in the playoffs, and those dreaming big; an all New York Super Bowl.  It all seemed like it was meant to be until about 7:15 eastern when the Denver Broncos left all of us Jets fans feeling like we spent the day in the rain just like those dedicated fans at the Meadowlands.  The 34-17 defeat felt to this fan of “Gangreen” like the 2007 season reared it’s ugly head.    The offense couldn’t make a play when it needed to the most.  Thomas Jones did his thing with a pair of touchdown runs, but the rest of the offense just couldn’t get on that roll it had been on for more than a month. 

     The defense appeared to resemble the one that took the field durin the first half of the 2007 season.  Unable to get to the quarterback, not forcing turnovers, not stopping the opposition on 3rd down, getting beat off the line of scrimmage, no pressure from the front seven, and worst of all; being beat by a guy not even close to a household name.  The Jets had yet to give up a 100 rushing day all season until last Sunday when Peyton Hillis went off for 129 yards and a touchdown.  The same Peyton Hillis who blocked for All-American Darren McFadden last season at Arkansas, a player highly coveted by the Jets prior to the 2008 NFL Draft.

    So is it all doom and gloom?  Is the season over?  Will the Jets lose five straight, finish 8-8, and be on the outside looking in come playoff time?  Highly unlikely Jets fans, in fact I predict the Jets run the table, finish 12-4, and win the AFC East.  So expect a big bounce back by Brett and Company this Sunday in San Fran against the 49ers.

  Have to admit I was wrong on the impact Ty Law could have on a short week in the biggest game of the season, if not the last decade against the Patriots on Thursday night.  I felt Law made be useful in nickel and dime packages on passing downs, but to my, and probably a lot more people’s, surprise Law was up to the challenge of covering one of the leagues premier receivers, Randy Moss. 

    In a contest that saw Matt Cassell put up “Brady-like” stats both through the air and on the ground ( 400 passing yards and teams leading rusher with 62 yds ) Moss only caught three passes for 26 yards.  Of course Moss’s last catch was the biggest on 4th down for a game tying touchdown with one second remaining and forcing overtime after the Jets held a first half advantage of 24-6.

     Law played like he hasn’t missed a beat being off the field all season.  He played like he did when I couldn’t stand him as a member of the Patriots.  He played that physical style of football that shut receivers like Marvin Harrison and Hines Ward down just a few seasons ago.

      Whether or not Law can keep this level of play up for the remainder of the year remains to be seen.  Lots of discussion after the game about whether or not Law should start opposite Revis.  It was even the question on SNY during Jets Postgame Live after Thursday’s game.  Can/will he be the starter this week against the undefeated Titans?  Don’t know, but I know this, if Law plays up to the level he played against the Patriots, he will give the Jets a chance to knock Tennessee from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Hey Jets fans!!!  Week 3 of the preseason is typically the “showcase” game when the starters play at least a half of football and we truly get a grasp of what the team will look like once September arrives.  Well a 10-7 win over the defending Superbowl Champs is ok, but there were both positives and negatives inside this one.

Got to pound on the offense for not playing smart football.  The false start and illegal motion penalties were a near disgrace.  The first three plays of the Jets first 2nd half position didn’t get off because of penalties.  The most penalized the Jets have been under Mangini and one came at the worst time when Favre hooked up with Cotchery for a big TD in the 2nd quarter, but an illegal formation penalty killed that play and killed a lot of momentum in the first half.

The running game was unable to get going because of 1st and 15’s and 2nd and longs.  Field position didn’t help either.  The MVP of the first half of a zero zero game had to got to Giants punter Jeff Feagles.  He has been in the league seemingly forever, and still got the job done putting the Jets inside the 10 on two or their first three possessions and their best starting position was due a touchback on one of Feagles’s punts.

I don’t want to throw the offense under the bus completely because the line did a great job in giving Favre time to both setup and execute in play action.  Considering Jones and Washington couldn’t do much damage on the ground I was surprised by the amount of time Favre was getting to throw in the pocket.

The D was in a word destructive.  Eight sacks in the game is unheard of these days.  The biggest one being Calvin Pace’s 2nd just before the half moving the Giants back 16 yards resulting in a 42yd field goal hitting the upright just before the half after the Giants ran their two minute offense very well.

Like the headline states, a win is a win.  The final preseason game against the Eagles is Thursday night, so let’s get through one more without any major injuries and get ready to visit an old friend, Chad Pennington, down in Miami next weekend.

I’ll be doing a preseason recap show early next week which will include going through the regular season schedule, figuring the Jets season record, the playoff participants, league MVPs, and my Superbowl winner.  Join in the festivities, send your 2008 season predictions to hosts@jetscast.com, call the listener line at 347-410-9093, or track me down on my myspace page www.myspace.com/blueduece2. 

                                         Go Jets - Jeremy Molchan co-host of Jetscast

You know what really grinds my gears……less than one week after this years draft I’ve already seen 2009 NFL Mock Drafts on the net. You have got to be kidding me. This is absolutely absurd.

These rookies haven’t even put on a set of pads with their new teams and already the so called experts are starting to analyze how things will shakeout next April. There are simply things in this world you can’t predict and one for sure is what will happen on the field from September to February in late April/early May.

There are two prime examples of this lunacy from the 2008 NFL Draft. I can’t imagine the odds Vegas would have given someone if they walked into a sportsbook last April after the 2007 Draft and wanted to put $100 that the Patriots would lose their first round pick because of forfeit. Why such unimaginable odds? Well, prior to this year the NFL has never made a team forfeit a first round pick.

The “Spygate” incident simply won’t go away and as I’ve said time and time again during Jetscast shows, I’m ready to move forward. Matt Walsh, the former video operator of the Pats, will finally meet with commissioner Roger Goddell on May 13^th and give his testimony of this mess and handover any additional tapes/other items he still has in his possession during this meeting. Let’s hope this is the light at the end of the tunnel.

The other example is the Atlanta Falcons and Michael Vick. Same reach if someone had said in April of ’07 that the Falcons would pick a quarterback in the first round, let alone be drafting in the top five. The Falcons were forced to go through the motions of an underachieving season with Joey Harrington and Byron Leftwich after losing Vick to suspension in August and followed up by a 23-month sentence on dogfighting charges in December.

The Falcons were expected to contend in the water-downed NFC in 2007, but the Vick suspension came at the worst time just weeks before the start of the regular season. That left the Falcons scratching their heads after losing 2006 backup Matt Schaub to free agency, a player many fans of the feathered wanted as the starter due to Vick’s inconsistency completing passes.

Now, Matt Ryan removes any chance of Vick returning behind center for the Falcons, which many had still speculated Ryan has big shoes to fill because of Vick’s popularity in Atlanta and to chore of putting a messy situation in the rearview mirror.

So a mock draft for the following season is not a wise move considering the team that just won the Super Bowl, The New York Giants, were considered by many to be the weakest team in their own division at the beginning of the 2007 season and the mock drafts I’ve seen have our beloved Jets picking in the top 10 next spring so the free agent signings apparently will only vault the Jets to a 5 or 6 win season and no reason to watch the games.

And that’s what grinds my gears.

What grinds your gears Jets fans? Send your thoughts via email at hosts@jetscast.com or call the listener line at 347-410-9093.

In the week of closing remarks following the Jets listless win over Kansas City to end misery of a 4-12 campaign, Mike Tannenbaum and Eric Mangini made it clear – in their unique language – that change was in the air. When free agency opened at midnight last Friday, Gang Green ripped a page out of the Daniel Snyder manual for running franchises. In one week, the Jets remade the run game and upgraded the defensive front 7, while jettisoning the faces of the disappointing 2007 team. So much for building through the draft.

Start with priority #1, offensive line. The Jets could not run the ball all season, or keep the quarterback upright in many games. A year after creating a firestorm with Pete Kendall over $1 million, New York forked over $32 million for four years to Alan Faneca, to fill the hole vacated by Kendall. Faneca, the premiere offensive lineman on the market, leaves Pittsburgh after 7 Pro Bowls in 10 seasons. Hard to criticize this move, the Jets had a need, and grabbed the best available player. Maybe they slightly overpaid, but 4-12 teams have to. Offensive lineman age better than most NFL players, at 31 Faneca shows no signs of deteriorating. A fringe benefit, adding arguably the best guard in football between youngsters D’BrickShaw Ferguson and Nick Mangold will help both players, particularly Ferguson, who struggled at times last season. Great players make those around them better, expect Ferguson to benefit.

Staying on offense, Tannenbaum snatched utility lineman Damien Woody from Detroit and Pro Bowl fullback Tony Richardson from Minnesota. At under $2 million for one-year, Richardson adds a much-needed lead blocker for Thomas Jones and Leon Washington with a low risk contract. Coming off his third Pro Bowl season, the 36 year old gives Pennington or Clemens a reliable outlet out of the backfield. Meanwhile, at 5 years, $25.5 million with $11 million guaranteed, Woody comes at a higher risk. He adds versatility, playing C, G, and T, but he only played tackle last season after losing his starting guard job. The Jets addressed the need on the right side of the line, replacing disappointing RT Anthony Clement. Though Mangini coached Woody in New England, guaranteeing that money to a mediocre player with a history of weight problems is a gamble. Right place, maybe the wrong player.

As bad as the Jets running game was last year, the run defense was worse at times. Blame a personnel mismatch with Mangini’s 3-4 scheme, blame the players, blame the coaches, either way it needs fixing. Mangini is sticking with the 3-4, hell or high water. Exit under-sized LB Jon Vilma and NT Dewayne Robertson, two former first round picks. Insert 335-lb Kris Jenkins to clog the middle. Jenkins, the 29-year-old former pro bowler, cost the Jets third and fifth round draft picks and $20 million guaranteed. The signing comes with questions: things didn’t end well with Carolina bringing up attitude questions, combined with no experience in the 3-4 and Jenkins injury history. Jenkins proved he can dominate in the right situation, this appears to be a good fit.

While the other signings add proven, veteran players, Calvin Pace comes aboard because of his potential upside. At 27, off a 6 ½ sack season at OLB in Arizona, the Jets inked Pace for a team free-agent record 6 year, $42 million contract with $22 million guaranteed, banking that he is on the cusp of stardom. Pace fills the void left by Bryan Thomas and Victor Hobson, who both struggled to find opposing quarterbacks last year and will not return in 2008. Look for Pace’s sack numbers to improve, especially if the Jets get a complementary bookend at the other OLB position.

As Washington and countless other recent examples prove, free agent spending does not directly equate to wins. The Jets biggest offseason question remains, who plays quarterback. After the roster makeover, Mangini clearly plans to rely on the running game heavily. Without signing a big play receiver – they should have been involved with Berian, Muhammed, or Porter – the passing game will remain limited. Lots of running, short passing, game control, sounds a lot like Chad Pennington.

Next on the docket is the NFL Draft. Sitting at six, while Darren McFadden rumors continue to permeate, the right pick is Vernon Gholston from Ohio State. Stick Gholsten opposite Pace at OLB, with Harris in the middle, three young players to anchor the 3-4 defense with a run stuffer up front and young, exciting defensive backfield – exciting prospect. Next, will the Jets surprise everyone and try to move up to grab that big play receiver – perhaps a Mario Manningham late in the first round? They need a speedster outside to complement Cotchery and Coles.

The Jets have in-house business to address – mainly contract situations with Coles, Kerry Rhodes, and Chris Baker. After delving out big money to veteran free agents, the locker room may rumble a bit if management fails to take care of its own. Indications are Rhodes and the Jets remain far off, but Gang Green had better move quick with the market for safeties increasing and Rhodes play warrants the extension. Coles is an interesting case, an aging veteran who showed some signs of slowing down last season and a few injuries, will the Jets commit the dollars. Viewed as a team and locker room leader, this could become Pete Kendall 2008 if they refuse to offer an extension, Coles already said he will not attend Mangini’s first workout program. Stay tuned!

A disappointing 4-12 season has concluded and the time has come to dish out the grades for the 2^nd half of the season. A 3-5 record in the 2^nd half was certainly better than the 1-7 of the 1^st half, but the grades haven’t changed as much.

Offense – D While there were a couple of positives, Thomas Jones finished 10^th in the league in rushing yards and Jerricho Cotchery finished in the top 20 in both receptions and receiving yards. The negatives on both of those players is that Jones only found the end zone once the entire season on the ground and of Cotchery’s 80+ receptions, only two made it to the house.

The quarterback position is still a question mark as Kellen Clemens took the helm after Pennington was benched. Clemens wasn’t able to showcase the big arm Pennington continued to be ridiculed for not having because the Jets top 2 receivers ( Coles and Cotchery ) only were on the field together for two plays during the 2^nd half of the season. This allowed teams to load up the box to stop Jones and pound lumps on Clemens to the tune of 22 sacks after he became the starter and he only played two plays before being hurt in the New England game and didn’t see action due to injury against Tennessee.

Pennington was Pennington-esque while filling in for the injured Clemens and now after talks of Chad being traded or even released during the offseason because of his 4.8 million dollar cap number Tannenbaum has said he feels Chad will be back with a

chance of being the starter because neither he nor Mangini are 100% sold on Clemens just yet.

The biggest disappointment was by far the offensive line. It was just that, offensive. Pete Kendall being traded during training camp didn’t seem to be a big issue at the time, but it may have been the biggest difference between the 4-12 record and an outside shot at a return trip to the playoffs. No one was able to fill the void he left and the rest of the line underachieved. The line was outplayed week in and week out. Their inconsistency was the sole reason for the rotation Mangini put in the play the final two games of the season.

Defense - B This is where the biggest change occurred, a unit that was

oversized, overmatch, and simply pushed around the first half of the season became a cohesive unit that continually put pressure on the opposition and kept the Jets, with the Dallas game being the exception, in every game during the 2^nd half of the season.

While skeptics talked about the Jets needing to change out of 3-4 style, Mangini made them believers again. Jonathon Vilma’s season ending injury very well will be looked at as a positive as David Harris emerged as a leader of the defense. Harris finished 8^th in the league in tackles with 127, 112 of which were in the nine games he started after Vilma went down. Others think Vilma is expendable with Harris in the mix, but I think Vilma could complement and even make Harris better and bolster the linebacking core and help a still undersized defensive line.

Darrelle Revis, outstanding, superb, all-pro, shutdown corner, could be how he’s described in the coming years and he is a big reason for the 180 pulled by the defense down the stretch. He faced every teams #1 wideout week after week and suffered through a lot of growing pains early on in the season. Very few, if any corners in the league can say they kept Randy Moss out of the end zone and gave up a meaningless TD to TO in the same season, but Revis did.

Speaking of keeping Patriots out of the end zone, the Jets were the only team to keep Tom Brady out of the end zone during his record breaking season where he threw 50 touchdowns. Very impressive, but ever since the Steelers game when the defense sacked Big Ben six times after coming into the game with only nine we’ve come to expect surprising results from this defense. While Mangini deserves some credit for stepping in the turn the defense around, he should have stepped in earlier.

Special Teams - C The special teams were just that. Leon Washington became a threat to return every kickoff or punt return to the house. Some began comparing him to the Bears Devin Hester. As with Harris replacing Vilma due to injury, Washington surprised everyone replacing Justin Miller after he went down. Washington helped the Jets offense start many drives in good/great field position because teams kept kicking away from him more and more as the season went on. Because of that, Leon didn’t have any kick returns to the house during the 2^nd half of the season.

Mike Nugent put a couple of bad missed field goals during the first half of the season behind him. Other than a missed field goal against New England and a blocked extra point Nugent was money. The blocked extra point changed the game against Tennessee, forced the Jets to go for a touchdown to win late, rather than kicking a field goal to force OT. The miss against NE kept the Jets down two scores, but it was a game no one thought they should have been in to begin with anyway.

The punting game which seemed ok, took a odd turn the last two weeks of the season as Jeremy Kapinos got the start against the Titans. No real explanation given as to why Graham was benched, but it only lasted one week as Graham was back punting against the Chiefs in the season finale. Perhaps it was a tryout for Kapinos, who was in camp with the team during preseason, or just Magini simply letting Graham know no one’s job is safe. The offseason and 2008 training camp will answer that question.

So, as a whole the 2^nd half wasn’t much better than the first. The defense and the return game are big positives, but an inconsistent offensive line is the big negative and the quarterback position is the big question mark. Let’s hope the issues on offensive are solved this offseason in case the expectations of the defense and return game aren’t fulfilled.

During a season where a team underachieves it’s very difficult to find positives, but when the playoffs aren’t a possibility it’s what you need to do when looking towards the future. The Jets began the 2007 campaign against the Pats are the defense was carved up like a Christmas goose by Tom Brady all day. They tried to blitz, but he hit the hot read, they dropped eight into coverage but with six, seven, sometimes eight seconds to throw the ball eventually he found an open receiver. This luckily was the worst showing be the defense during the season, but it wasn’t a far cry from the norm. It was heightened when pro-bowl linebacker Jonathan Vilma went down in the Cincinnati game with a season ending knee injury.

The team only had seven sacks while Vilma was in leading the defense and almost all of those came when the defense blitzed. The D-line was just unable to get any sacks let alone pressure on the opposing quarterbacks. The Jets headed into the bye with only nine sacks in as many games, but things started to change after the bye week.

The D chocked up seven sacks against a Pittsburgh team should have rolled the Jets, but instead just rolled over and were beat in possibly the biggest upset of the season 19-16 in overtime at the Meadowlands. The line finally led the charge with Ellis and Robertson getting 4.5 sacks and the team racked up seven in all.

They followed that up with another three and did a really good job of putting pressure on Tony Romo for a little more than a half until they ran out of gas because the offense couldn’t stay on the field. Against Miami they got three more including a couple of forced fumbles which they recovered in a rout of the fish 40-13. This turnaround was a change in scheme, the pressure came from all over, not just blitzing corners and safeties. It’s been a total team effort by the defense.

David Harris continues to pile up tackles, but he isn’t alone. Mosley has started to find his way to the QB and Ellis has been found in the backfield consistently. Dewayne Robertson while still not living up to that #4 pick in the draft has been getting on the right side of the line also with 3.5 sacks in the last three games.

This defense certainly misses #51 roaming from sideline to sideline making big hits both filling gaps and stopping running backs and laying receivers out over the middle, but the front seven stepping up with the leader only a spectator is a good sign for 2008 and beyond if a top notch defensive end can be found to accompany a group that the numbers won’t show, but is playing solid defense as the 2007 season comes to a close.