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.

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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.

Once Jonathan Vilma hit the Injured Reserve, the Jets season officially ended. Before this misunderstood misfortune took place, the Jets had virtually no injuries on the team at all, particularly on 1st string lines. The Gang Green did suffer a major loss on the offensive line that we have mentioned since the first podcast, Pete “veteran” Kendall. Attempting to stray from that specific player, the Jets had entered this season with more experience for the returning veterans and kept the same coaching staff intact.

This scenario would seem ideal from a newcomers’ perspective and from a die-hard fan with higher expectations from the last several years that displayed playoff contention and appearances. However, this year is obviously an obstacle in the Mangenious-oriented team structure. Last year’s results proved to be an overachieving year with regards to the personnel and schedule. Mangini seemed to have been risen to an upper-echelon of coaches in the league.

The year 2007 has brought nothing but criticism on the entire team and coaching staff, showing nothing but inconsistency in execution and poor play-calling on both sides of the ball. There have been moments of shine but not one respectable second half effort this entire season.

Referring back to the linebacking core and its new leader, David Harris, the intelligent, physical linebacker from the great university of Michigan, has stepped in after the injury to our franchise focal point on defense and capitalized on his opportunity. One week prior to his first NFL start, Harris played respectably in short-term play. In his last 5 games including limited play, he has 28 tackles, 19 solo. Note that 17 of those were in last week’s game against Buffalo. The possession time was almost even, so this demonstrates excellent play.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a HUGE fan of Vilma, as you may have heard in the podcast, but this 6′2”, 243 lb. beast has been getting me excited since he was chosen 47th overall in this year’s draft. As you may know, I am a Wolverines fan and covet any prime talent from the school that is active in the league. Mr. Harris is showing me what its like to have picked a player with premier fortitude.

After becoming only the 2nd player in franchise history to gain 1300+ yards in consecutive seasons, the other was some guy named Payton, Thomas Jones signed with the Jets in the offseason and looked to solidify a running game that was near the bottom of the league since the future Hall of Famer Curtis Martin retired. In fact Jones’s backup last season in Chicago, Cedric Benson gained only three fewer yards than the Jets leading rusher Leon Washington.

Add Jones to a team that went a surprising 10-6 in a conference looked upon as the bigger brother to the NFC and it looked like a recipe for another trip to the playoffs with the possibility of giving a scare to the Colts, Pats, Steelers, and Chargers.

Jones has been known for slow starts and this season started no differently, but at the halfway mark he’s not far behind last year in yards rushing, 557 this compared to 612 last season. The big differences are in yards per carry, 3.8 this season compared to 4.4 last season, and rushing touchdowns, still none this season yet 3 at this point last season.

So, is Jones to blame for the team’s unpredictably poor first half of the season? I think Schottenheimer deserves some of the blame for not being able to get Jones in a rhythm. Jones will get two, maybe three carries in a row then disappear for a drive or sometimes more. Last season Jones would get six, seven, sometimes more consecutive carries in a row on drives because he was getting five plus yards a carry.

An example of this happened last week against the Bills, Jones had a five yard run, then a six yard run, then a seven yard run to start a drive. The next two plays Chad dropped back to pass and both were incomplete ending what started as a good drive. Also, the trick play on 3rd and 1 late in the first half when the ball was snapped to Brad Smith and he handed off to Washington who fumbled and killed that drive in the red zone taking at least three points off the board. The Jets paid big money for Thomas Jones, yet the offense has to run a trick play to get a first down and 3rd and 1. That sums up the first half of the season right there.

With Jones still on pace for a 1000 yard season, does he deserve some of the blame for the offense’s struggles? Maybe so, and he’ll get a bigger finger pointed at him if he can’t take some of the pressure off of Clemens now that he is the starter. But be happy we have him here Jets’ fans because the Bears look to be dreading putting all theirs eggs in the Cedric Benson basket.

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