() FA Rank

QB Kellen Clemens

FB Tony Richardson

WR Santonio Holmes (#7)

Normally receivers going to new teams struggle. After being exiled from Pittsburgh for character reasons, Holmes caught 52 passes for 746 yards and 6 touchdowns in 12 games for the Jets this year. The Jets have to make a decision between Santonio Holmes and Braylon Edwards this offseason. It won’t be difficult.

WR Braylon Edwards (#45)

Talented, but inconsistent, drop happy and somewhat of a head case. His 80 catches for 1281 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2007 are his upside, but 16 drops to 55 catches in 2008 and only 45 catches for 630 yards and 4 touchdowns in 2009 are his downside. He’s a former #3 overall pick, but his 53 catches for 904 yards and 7 touchdowns, and only two drops, this year might have been just an effort to get a longterm deal. With 4 other Jets on this list to deal with, in addition to Brad Smith, and Brodney Pool Edwards might have to find a new team this offseason.

WR Brad Smith

TE Ben Hartsock

OT Damien Woody

OT Wayne Hunter

C Robert Turner

NT Kris Jenkins

3-4 DE Shaun Ellis (#18)

Ellis turned in another fine season in 2010 and dominated New England’s line in their AFC Divisional win, but he’s 34 in June and the Jets have other free agent needs.

3-4 DE Trevor Pryce

3-4 DE Vernon Gholston 

RLB Jason Taylor

RLB Jamaal Westerman

RLB Lance Laury

MLB David Harris (#12)- franchised

Harris is one of the better inside linebackers in the game. In 4 years with the Jets he has 428 tackles and 14.5 sacks.

CB Antonio Cromartie (#43)

Inconsistent, streaky, and a bit of a head case, but when he’s on he’s on and his type of size, speed, and ball skills are rare in this league. He’s best in a scheme where he can play deep, rather than in close in bump and run and it appears tackling and stopping the run are against his religion.

CB Drew Coleman

S Brodney Pool

S Eric Smith

S James Ihedigbo

K Nick Folk

P Steve Weatherford 

Offseason moves:

Cut Ben Hartsock

Cut Vernon Gholston

Cut Jason Taylor

Cut Kris Jenkins

Cut Damien Woody

Franchised David Harris

Signed Nick Novak

Draft

By Kevin Harrison

We all wondered what would happen and how the Jets would respond after getting mauled this past Monday night by the Patriots.  We all hoped the Jets would squish the fish.  The only thing that was squished is the hope of wining the division after losing to the Dolphins at home by a score of 10-6. 

The first loss of the year we had 3 field goals.  The second loss of the year we didn’t score.  The third loss of the year we had 1 field goal.  This fourth loss of the year we had 2 field goals.  That’s not a good pattern and now we will have to figure out how to beat Pittsburgh and the Bears on the road if this team wants to make the Wild Card.  I don’t want to say it but this is eerily starting too look like the collapse of 1986 all over again. That year we started out 10-1 and lost the last 5 games of the season starting with a Monday Night Mauling.  This year we started out 9-2 and were mauled this past Monday 45-3 which is the same score of the mauling 24 years prior.  We are now on a two game losing streak.  Are you all getting as nauseous as I am?  I’m ready to puke as this once promising season where it was looking like we could host two playoff games has now turned into a three game season to try and make it in as the Wild Card.

This was ugly again.  For the first time in 40 years, I was now sitting in the rain as I was spoiled the past 39 years with covered seats.  So, this was a change for me but players play in the rain all of the time and it look as if this was the first time these Jets played in the rain from the sloppiness I was witnessing. 

First of all, we were killed by the Miami Dolphins punter.  Every time this guy punted the ball, it looked like it sailed 60+ yards.  Reading after the game, their punter had the highest punting average in a single game since 1970 with an average punt of 56.4 yards.  So, every time I thought we’d have decent field position, we were backed up much more than I expected.  This guy killed us.

The Dolphins lone touchdown was a gift as the Jets only had nine guys on the field.  Chad Henne threw for just 55 yards with the entire team gaining only 132 yards and we still lost.  So, even though the team had a brain fart on the touchdown, the defense played pretty well all day with Sione Pouha standing out with his best game as a pro.  Ever time there was a tackle, it seemed that it was Pouha. 

With the poor weather conditions, the Jets offense had some better yardage, a total of 286, but a lot of that was because they were playing from behind and had no choice but to throw the ball in this weather.  So, I’m not going to blame weather but the Jets did drop a bunch of balls including a heartbreaking Santonio Holmes drop in the endzone. 

The Jets had two turnovers (one fumble, one interception) but Sanchez was not accurate and probably could have thrown 5 picks if the Dolphins could catch.  It seemed as if a lot of the game that Sanchez and his receivers weren’t on the same page?  What happened to this offense?  We have so many weapons and we just don’t use them.  We run into piles when we need short yardage.  When we need 8 yards, we throw the ball for 5 yards.  To me, that’s coaching and it falls on our offensive coordinator, Brian Schottnheimer, who’s needs to open it up.  I’d love this to be a change for the future.  We also keep on telling teams we are a ground and pound team.  Why tell teams anything?  If they known we are going to run, we need to them mix it up better.  It just seems so predictable this offense and it’s not executed well as we are always playing from behind.  Can we ever have a lead?

Our defense played well forcing three turnovers and couldn’t capitalize on good field position.  I’m just at a loss for words with this team. Something needs to change and I believe it’s the offense.  When this team has moved the ball this season, they are doing it with a more vertical offense.  This offense moves more horizontal to the sides.  To get to the first down marker, you need to move forward and I’m not seeing this happen as we’ve gone now 8 quarters with out a touchdown.  That’s pathetic.

So, we move on to Pittsburgh where the Jets barely win.  And now this becomes a must win game as this bleeding has got to stop.

http://khbirdmantalkingjets.blogspot.com/

Go back to Jets Fan Spot 

By Kevin Harrison 

It was typical Jets.  We were opening a new stadium on Monday Night Football against Rex Ryan’s and Bart Scott’s prior team.  It was no longer Giant’s Stadium.  The atmosphere was GREEN.  And the result was “The Same Ole Jets.”

The fans were going crazy during the announcing of the team’s starting defensive players and went nuts when Revis was announced last.  The Jets have one of the Top 5 defenses in the league so you know that they would be in every game.

The game was delayed a half hour due to thunderstorms.  It’s too bad they just didn’t cancel the game as it would have given me three hours of my life back.  Yes, three more wasted hours watching this team of misfits.

After an inept start to the game by our offensive, the defensive got it going on the first play with Shawn Ellis sacking Flacco and Sione Pouha recovering the ball deep in the Ravens’ end.  It looked like the start of good things to come until the offense struggled again to do anything and we had to settle for a 3-0 lead.

Things started to look even better when the Ravens somehow fumbled and there was Pouha to pick up the ball for his second fumble recovery in the first quarter.

Things then got a bit uglier with the Jets having penalty after penalty.  In this game, they had 14 penalties for 125 yards with 10 of the penalties for 100 yards coming in the first half.  How the hell does this team have all of these penalties?  I thought they were a disciplined team?  What killed me is that most of the penalties were on 3rd down keeping Raven drives alive.

There was one play which killed me.  It was 3rd and 28 and the ball was thrown to the right side of the field.  However, on the left side of the field, our rookie Wilson was flagged for holding giving the Ravens an automatic first down.  How pathetic is that!

It was it wasn’t Wilson or Cromartie getting beat by Anquan Boldin, it was Wilson or Cromartie getting flagged for another penalty.  I know Revis missed most of camp but why wasn’t he covering Boldin on every play?  It seemed like it was either Wilson, or Cromartie, or Eric Smith.  Revis should have blanked Boldin all game.

So, the Jets have a 6-0 lead and Cromartie picks off a ball deep and runs it back for near 70 yards with the help of a nice Revis block.  When it looks like the Jets have all the momentum, Shonn Greene continued his fumbling ways dropping the ball and giving possession right back to the Ravens.  Then, it got even uglier with the Ravens driving and having this drive extended twice on third downs with brutal penalties.  The first was Braylon Edwards roughing the kicker on a field goal.  The second was a holding penalty in the endzone which lead to the Ravens’ only touchdown right before half.

The Jets had some chances earlier.  After a turnover, we had a 4th and 1 deep in the Raven’s end and we went for our 2nd field goal.  What happened to Rex Ryan’s balls?  He should have gone for the one yard and stabbed the dagger in the Ravens’ hearts.

Despite all of the penalties and some poor play from Cromartie and Wilson, the defense still played decently only allowing 10 points and putting some nice pressure on the quarterback.  I thought Jason Taylor played a great first game in green and white.   The defense held the Ravens to just 49 yards rushing but the story of the game was letting up 20 first downs with many of them being converted from 3rd down penalties by the Jets.

As for the offense, there was no offense.  The Jets had only 6 first downs all game, their lowest output since 1976.  We were 1 for 11 on third downs.  The Jets had just 176 yards of offense with Sanchez passing for just 74 yards.  It didn’t help that we dropped the ball a few times including a brutal Shonn Greene drop.   But, I don’t blame it all on Sanchez.  The play calling stank.  We ran when we should have passed.  We passed when we should have run.  We couldn’t do anything on first down leaving us with 2nd and long.  There was zero ground and pound.  And the offense barely had the ball, 22 minutes vs. 38 for the Ravens.

Sanchez made one great throw to Keller but that was called back on a penalty.  I thought LT did a decent job running the ball going for 62 yards.   But the loss of Faneca and Thomas Jones showed as the running game wasn’t quite was it used to be.

And still, at the end of the game, the Jets were only down 1 point and had a chance.  Sanchez makes a nice pass to Keller who didn’t even know where he was on the field and stepped out of bounds one yards shy of the first down marker on fourth down…game over !

It was an ugly display highlighted by mistakes, penalties, poor coaching, bad play calling, and it all results in another storybook lowlight for all of us suffering Jets fans.

We are now entering game #2 at home against the New England Patriots who will light us up if we don’t change the way we did things in week #1.  The season just started and we are now in a MUST WIN game already.

http://khbirdmantalkingjets.blogspot.com/

By Kevin Harrison 

It was a huge battle for first place on Sunday night with the Jets playing their nemesis, the Miami Dolphins.   It was time for revenge as the Jets hadn’t been swept by the fish since back in 2003.

If you take away the Monday Night Miracle and the 51-45 game, this rivalry has had a ton of heartbreak for the Jets from the Mud Bowl loss to the fake spike and numerous Duper / Clayton touchdowns in between.

But, this is a new era.  This was the first game where once hated Dolphin, Jason Taylor, was on our side.

I was a little nervous as Revis, Jenkins, and Pace were out with injuries.  Jason Taylor and Nick Mangold were a bit banged up but playing.  And Braylon Edwards was suspended for the first quarter as punishment from the Jets for his DWI.  So, that’s a lot of talent off the field or not at 100%.

The offense looked in sync.  And what a great way to start the game with an 11 play, 6 minute drive ending in a touchdown.  Sanchez looked great making some clutch throws and then hit Keller, his go to guy, for a 24 yard score.  Doesn’t look like the Jets needed Braylon “DWI” Edwards on that first drive.

Our second touchdown was just as sweet.  Sanchez hit Keller for a long gain.  The drive was then helped out with a personal foul on 3rd and 20 to give the Jets a first down which was followed by a 20 yard run by LT.  Did San Diego actually say this guy lost a step?  Then, Sanchez hits Keller again for another TD!

The second quarter was a disaster as the Jets let the stinkin’ fish right back in the game with poor defense and a lack of any offense combined with some penalties.  The Dolphins were picking apart our defense.  We even had great field position on one of our drives with a great kickoff return for 54 yards by Brad Smith and the drive just stalled.   At the end of the quarter, we had an opportunity for a long field goal and we had our millionth false start to make a long field goal attempt even longer and the ball was tipped at the line.  Still, we were going into the locker room with a 14-10 lead.

After the defense once again looked disgusting, like a puddle of vomit giving the Dolphins another touchdown for a 17-14 lead, Sanchez comes out and hits Braylon Edwards for a 67 yard touchdown to regain the lead, 21-17.   I’m not sure Braylon deserves a touchdown based on what he did but, I’m a frustrated Jets fan so I’ll gladly take the score!

The Jets D started the third quarter stinking another egg letting the Dolphins walk right down the field but luckily only gave up a field goal.

After some back and fourth, Eric Smith blocks a punk and we are sitting pretty on the 10 yard line until Edwards gets called for a trip and Slausen gets called for a hold.  After a terrible call in the Wildcat that got Brad Smith a first down, we were sitting pretty again.  However, another Slausen hold on a Sanchez TD run stalled the drive and gave us only three points.  How many penalties are we gonna have?  Don’t you wish we resigned Faneca as this Slausen experiment isn’t working.  And, wouldn’t it be nice if we threw more than once at the endzone when we were so close?  Why did we get so conservative again?  The Jets were up 4 points but I was quite disgusted with the series of downs when you start with the ball on the 10 yard line.

Before I could blink, the Dolphins booted a 50 yard field goal.  The Jets were up just one.   I had a bad feeling on how this was going to play out based on how poorly the defense was playing this evening.

The Jets didn’t feel my pessimistic attitude.  They got the ball with 6+ minutes to go and drove right down the field while mixing up the run and the pass and eating up valuable time on the clock.  The drive ends with a LT one yard touchdown score to put the Jets up by 8.

Now it was up to the defense to seal the victory.  The defense had it’s moments in the game with Ellis having one sack and Jason Taylor with a sack and a pressure.  They were great in the first quarter giving up just 16 total yards.  But, now it was under two minutes with the game and first place in the AFC East on the line.  It didn’t look like the defense was up for the task letting the Dolphins walk all the way down the field.  However, the Jets stopped them on four straight plays ending with a Drew Coleman interception in the endzone to seal the game.

Can you say FIRST PLACE !!!

http://khbirdmantalkingjets.blogspot.com/ 

By Kevin Harrison

Depressed.  Disgusted.  Disappointed.  Those are three D’s I got right now.  That’s a lot more D than the Jets had last night in the first half. 

Championship Games don’t come around often.  There was well over a decade wait between the Mud Bowl and the Debacle in Denver. Then, we had to wait over a decade again for the collapse against the Colts.

So, defying the law of averages, we didn’t have to wait over a decade; the Jets were back in the AFC Championship and for their 3^rd AFC Championship Game, they only played thirty minutes of football. 

This one was much different.  The Jets were winning against the Broncos and the Colts and fell apart in the second half.  This time, they didn’t play at all in the first quarter until that last drive to get three points on the board.’

This game was a disaster from the start letting the Steelers run right down the field for an almost 10 minute, 18 play drive, resulting in a touchdown.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  They were running like the Jets didn’t even exist.  The running defense has been one of the strong parts of the team and the way we were manhandled was shocking.  Things were looking as bad as the Monday Night Massacre in New England a few weeks ago.

One of the big issues I had was deferring and giving the ball to the Steelers.  That was basically a message saying that we want the ball to start the second half because we are going to be playing from behind and want the ball later rather than now.  Why would you give the opposition the ball first when on the road in a hostile environment?  You take the ball Rex.

I’m not going to blame Sanchez on this loss.  Yeah, he fumbled the ball on a questionable call to give them more points in the first half but this guy was standing back there to try and make things happen offensively when the defense wasn’t holding up their end of the bargain.

The Eric Smith personal foul for 15 yards was a complete joke on 3^rd down.   The officials are protecting players way too much.  How is Eric Smith supposed to know that the ball wasn’t caught.  He was trying to hit a receiver to jolt the ball loose and not looking whether the ball was caught or not. That was a bad call.

I also hate the NFL rule of not being able to touch the punter.  We came so close to blocking a punt and grazed their punter’s foot.  Come on.  That shouldn’t be a penalty.  That’s like the same as a turnover.  Maybe, if anything, it could be a five yard penalty, but to call a personal foul for a play like that?  That needs to be addressed by the league.  This is tackle football; not two-hand touch.

Brian Schottenheimer needs to take a lot of credit for this loss.  We started the first drive with Santonio Holmes on the bench.  Wasn’t this the old Steelers’ Super Bowl MVP who was probably the hungriest person on the Jets and to have him on the sideline is not where you want him.

While staging our comeback at the end of the third quarter and into the fourth, the Jets staged a nice long drive and got to the 1 yard line.  First of all, there was no sense of urgency when you need to get the ball back.  Second, the play calling from the 1 yard line was terrible.  Yeah, I heard that there was microphone issues in the headset of Sanchez but that still doesn’t affect how bad some of the calls were.  A rushed bad throw to Keller.  A throw that went into the opposition’s chest that should have been intercepted.  A run by LT up the middle into a pile.  It was a nice long drive that resulted in zero points.   I know we got a safety on the next set of downs when they fumbled in the end-zone but we lost the field position and lost out on 5 points (the difference between a touchdown and a safety.) But, too many running plays and way too long of a drive knowing we need to get the ball back again.  Didn’t we know that we needed to speed things up and score fast!

The Defense woke up for the second half until the Steelers final drive.  We needed to stop them and gave up two first downs.  Game over.  With the game on the line and a stop needed to get the ball back for a chance for the miracle comeback, the defense let us down. 

Dumb penalties, dropped balls, bad play calling, poor clock management, dropped interceptions, cost us dearly.  The only thing that wasn’t dropped on Sunday was the booger that Mark Sanchez smeared on Mark Brunell’s jacket.  Besides that, we dropped an opportunity at greatness.  We lost another opportunity to make it the Super Bowl.  Rex told us we were going to win the Super Bowl. After all of these magical comebacks during the year and the way we won our first two playoff games, I believed him.  When Big Ben put his knee down one final time, it was over.  The dreams had vanished.  Depression, disgust, and disappointment set in.

It’s not easy to win in Pittsburgh.  It’s not easy to get to two AFC Championship games in a row.  It’s probably even harder to get there three in a row.    It all shouldn’t have mattered if the Jets played a full 60 minutes.

Next year, Sanchez enters year three.  The team could be quite different.  I do feel good that I think we have a quarterback that should help us compete for the next several years.   But, I don’t want to just compete.  I want to finally see this team win it all.  It’s been 42 long years.  Maybe after this long, the route to the Super Bowl is not meant to be done via the road.  Maybe this team can have another magical regular season; a season that gets us the home game for the AFC Championship because playing this game four times on the road has brought nothing but frustration and second guessing.

Now there will be changes if there is even an NFL season with the looming lockout.  We have four players to resign and not enough money to sign all four – Cromartie, Harris, Edwards, and Holmes.  LT and Jason Taylor are a year older.   You know Vernon Gholston will be gone.  Will Kris Jenkins and Jim Leonhard make it back from injury?  Will Kyle Wilson make it into the starting lineup?  Who knows.  It just takes one mistake.  It just takes one injury.  It just takes one bad play to make a promising season go right down the toilet.   Maybe one day this dream will be a reality; however, right now, it’s a nightmare.

http://khbirdmantalkingjets.blogspot.com/

Go back to Jets Fan Spot

OT Jeff Adams (Columbia)

CB Omar Bolden (Arizona State)

3-4 DE Michael Brockers (LSU)

G Brandon Brooks (Miami-OH)

MLB Zach Brown (North Carolina)

S Josh Bush (Wake Forest)

MLB Cameron Collins (Oregon State)

DE Quinton Coples (North Carolina)

WR Michael Floyd (Notre Dame)

WR Chris Givens (Wake Forest)

G Robert T. Griffin (Baylor)

WR Stephen Hill (Georgia Tech)

CB Jayron Hosley (Virginia Tech)

RLB Melvin Ingram (South Carolina)

RLB Bruce Irvin (West Virginia)

G Ronald Leary (Wake Forest)

WR Alshon Jeffery (South Carolina)

S Trumaine Johnson (Montana)

C Ben Jones (Georgia)

RLB Chandler Jones (Syracuse)

RLB Ronnell Lewis (Oklahoma)

OT Joe Long (Wayne State)

OT Bobby Massie (Mississippi)

S Jerron McMillian (Maine)

3-4 DE Josue Ortiz (Harvard)

WR Rueben Randle (LSU)

WR Mohamed Sanu (Rutgers)

S Harrison Smith (Notre Dame)

P Brian Stahovich (San Diego State)

S Brandon Taylor (LSU)

RB Robert Turbin (Utah State)

MLB Tahir Whitehead (Temple)

WR Kendall Wright (Baylor)