1^st quarter

13:14: Chapman breaks into the backfield.

9:57: Jones opens a hole for Richardson.

0:04: Jones asked to block for a long time as the quarterback pump fakes one too many times, Jones allows the strip sack deep in their own territory, returned for a touchdown.

2^nd quarter

14:24: Jones stands up a spin move well. Other than that sack fumble, which was somewhat on the quarterback, Jones has been winning his matchup with Auburn’s Corey Lemonier, a speedy sophomore defensive end who now has 9.5 sacks on the season.

11:07: Jones gets beat by Lemonier this time, no sack, but a borderline quarterback pressure.

10:21: Jones helps clear out a hole for a powerful highlight reel run for Trent Richardson, where he literally drags like 9 or 10 guys before he goes down.

8:21: Courtney Upshaw gets a sack.

0:59: Upshaw in on a tackle for loss here.

3^rd quarter

4^th quarter

0:00: I left during halftime of this game thinking I could watch the rest on ESPN3, but it wasn’t on there. I’ll respotlight Jones and Chapman in their bowl game, hopefully against LSU.

Rush Linebacker/Outside Linebacker

UCLA

6-3 254

Draft Board Overall Prospect Rank: #17

Draft Board Overall Rush Linebacker Rank: #5

Rating: 87 (mid 1st)

40 time: 4.68

3/30/11: Ayers cleaned up that nasty 4.80 40 at The Combine with a 4.68 at his Pro Day. Pop in the tape and there’s no doubt this is an athletic guy. He can do everything you want an outside backer in any scheme to do, stuff the run, drop into coverage, and pass rush. He has a little bit more value in a 3-4, but 4-3 teams like the Giants and the Eagles will look at him 19 and 24 respectively, as well as the Patriots at 17 and 28, the Chiefs at 21, and the Ravens at 26.

3/21/11: Ayers is still a versatile player and a first round lock, but a 4.80 40 does hurt. 

2/19/11: When I think Akeem Ayers, I think versatility. He played 4-3 outside linebacker at UCLA, but he blitzes well enough and is big enough to play 3-4 rush linebacker. I could also see him sliding inside in either scheme. As a rush linebacker, he’s not going to be a big sacks guy, a Clay Matthews, James Harrison, DeMarcus Ware type who gets you 10+ sacks every year. He’s not that good as a pass rusher. What he is is an adaquate pass rusher who stuffs the run well and drops into coverage with the best of them. Unlike a lot of defensive ends who turn into rush linebackers at the next level, Ayers has a ton of experience playing standing up, which will make the transition that much smoother for him.

As a 4-3 outside linebacker, he will again do everything. He has good speed to the outside. He wraps up his tackles well. He drops into coverage well. He’s a leader on the field and of course he can blitz better than your average 4-3 outside linebacker. He’s naturally very athletic and should post a 4.5 40 in the 250s, with good height and muscle tone. I see him as a jack of all trades and a master of none type player. He’s really just a versatile do everything linebacker and, in my opinion, one of the more NFL ready defenders in this draft class.

NFL Comparison: Mike Vrabel

AJ Hawk is nothing but an average starter in this league and with the Packers’ depth at inside linebacker, I don’t think they had to overpay him, 5 years 30 million, to keep him around. A decent amount of that, 10 million, is guaranteed.

Grade: C

Wide Receiver

Georgia

6-4 211

Draft Board Overall Prospect Rank: #2

Draft Board Overall Wide Receiver Rank: #1

Rating: 96 (elite prospect)

40 time: 4.48

2/18/11: AJ Green is my top rated prospect. He’s the type of receiver prospect that only comes around every 5 or so years (Calvin Johnson, Randy Moss, Keyshawn Johnson) that type of receiver who just has EVERYTHING. Green is tall, he’s fast, he runs good routes, he gets vertical, he can block well, he catches the ball properly, can catch in traffic, and wins jump balls.

He single handedly carried Georgia’s offense once he was back from his bullshit 4 game suspension. In the four games he missed, they went 1-3 and has 12 or fewer points twice. In the 8 games he played, they went 5-3, putting up 27 or more 7 times and 31 or more 6 times. He caught 57 passes for 848 yards and 9 touchdowns, despite only playing 8 games, and despite his team’s struggles at quarterback. He led the team in yards by 189 yards and in touchdowns by 6 touchdowns.

He also played in a Pro Style offense and had the benefit of learning more Pro Style routes. He’s a do everything deep threat and very refined for a 22 year old. He reminds me of Sidney Rice, but unlike Rice, won’t take 2 years to develop.

NFL Comparison: Sidney Rice

By Kevin Harrison 

It was Thanksgiving Night and the Jets decided they wanted to eat Bengal instead of Turkey as their meal in route to a hard fought 26 to 10 victory setting up a Monday Night Football battle against the Patriots for first place with both teams at 9-2. 

There wasn’t a ton to get excited about during the Bengals game.  It was another example of this Jets team not being able to put away and beat up on an inferior team.  However, they did enough to get the victory.

The offense looked a bit lost at times with the same typical poor play calling.  If you need 8 yards for a first down, I’m not sure why Schottenheimer calls plays that are not even close to the first down marker.  This has happened way too much during his reign as offensive coordinator.   This team has way too many offense weapons for us to not be putting up 30 points a game with ease.

But, this has been a magical season so far and with the offense having some difficulties, Brad Smith stepped up his game with a 53 yard touchdown run as well as a game sealing 89 yard kickoff return.

The sad part of this game was that we went into halftime losing after giving up a touchdown to basically end the first half.  However, things changed quickly as the long Smith run to start the 3^rd quarter gave this team the lead for good even though the score still remained close for a while.

Special teams then played a major role when a punt grazed a Cincinnati player’s helmet and James Ihedigbo hussled down the field to scoop up the ball.  This made up for a prior Ihedigbo mistake when he roughed the kicker on 4^th down extending a Cincinnati drive.  Mr. Touchdown, Santonio Holmes, reeled in another touchdown pass, to extend the lead but a Bengals field goal kept them close only down 7.

Then, the defense really buckled down in the 4^th quarter and notched two points with a safety near the end of the game.  Jim Leonard had a huge interception in the 2^nd quarter which seemed like ages since the last Jets interception.

But one of the huge stories of the game was the play of Darelle Revis on T.O.  T.O. had called Revis an average cornerback.  Hmmmm.  Three Catches for a pathetic 17 yards Mr. Owens had.  I guess if Revis is just average, T.O. sucks !

Anyway, I don’t want to harp too much on this game.  Now, comes the meat of the schedule and it’s time to see what these Jets are really made of. Bring on the Pats!

http://khbirdmantalkingjets.blogspot.com/

Go back to Jets Fan Spot 

Outside Linebacker

Iowa

6-3 247

40 time: 4.67

Draft board overall prospect rank: #101

Draft board outside linebacker rank: #9

                4/17/10: AJ Edds is one of the best pure strong side linebackers in this draft class, because of his size, but he is also very fluid in coverage and very athletic and quick for his size. He’s not a flashy player or a big name guy, but he should be a very solid outside linebacker in the NFL. He is going to struggle a bit against more athletic tight ends and running backs one on one, but he does a great job in zone coverage and has good anticipation skills. He has solid hands and makes a lot of plays on a lot of balls in the air. He’s also a solid fundamental tackler and has the size to fill holes. He could probably move inside for a 3-4 team, but he’s best off as a 4-3 strong side guy, preferably in a zone defense where his superior zone skills will be shown, rather than his fairly mediocre man skills. He is not a true sideline to sideline patroller, but he has good timed speed and a solid burst so he’s not someone that can be run outside on fairly easily. He needs work with shedding blocks and using his hands to bust through blockers for tackles. Despite his size, he’s not a huge hitter as a tackler, but rather a more fundamental solid tackler. His low relatively low tackle totals are because he played alongside Pat Angerer, who was a tackling machine. Edds is probably going to go off the board in the 3^rd round range as a strong side linebacker in a zone defense. Despite his size, his best attribute is not his big hitting, it’s his zone fliudity, solid hands, and good pursuit, but he also is solid against the run.

NFL Comparison: Zac Diles

*=For a breakdown of what this means, click here

Ahmad Brooks is a solid pass rusher, but he’s not elite. Last season, he had 7 sacks and 40 pressures, solid stats, but he’s really just a good #2 pass rusher and not a #1 type guy. That’s what he is for the 49ers because they have Aldon Smith opposite him. Given that, I think they overpaid a little giving him 6 years, 37 million, but they didn’t give him a lot guaranteed (8.25 million). I don’t love this move, but I don’t hate it.

Grade: B 

Normally I don’t like giving big money to running backs, especially ones with injury problems in the past, but Bradshaw is only 25 and this deal only pays him 4.5 million a year for 4 years, with half of that guaranteed. Considering Reggie Bush got 5 million per year from Miami, Joseph Addai got just under 5 million from Indianapolis, and DeAngelo Williams got 8.6 million per year, this deal looks like a bargain. Bradshaw is a legitimate lead back (not going to carry a 300 carry load, but he can lead your team in carries and be effective) and extremely talented as both a runner and a pass catcher.

Grade: A

By Kevin Harrison 

The Jets playing in the Mile-High city of Denver still brings back bad memories.  All of you Jet fans know exactly what I’m talking about.  The 1998 Jets and Vinny Testervede held a 10 point half-time lead in the AFC Championship game and fumbled away a chance at the Super Bowl in the 2nd half.  Thinking about the game still makes me nauseas. 

Now, the Jets were going back to this dreaded city riding a four game winning streak and desperately needed a victory heading into their bye week.

For most of the game, I kept on reverting back to that slogan which I’m trying to get out of my brain in “Same Ole Jets” but mistake after mistake starting making things look quite glum.  I know it was a close game and we were never at any point of the game down more than one score but it was the kind of game that even though we were in striking distance, I never felt like we were going to finally get it together.  The offense never felt in sync.  The defense kept on getting some horrific penalties called against them to the point that I didn’t even know if the referee was watching the game and just had a fetish for throwing the yellow flag.

The game came down to this.  The Jets had the ball on their 20 yard line or so.  We needed three points to tie it up.   Sanchez finally had some poise making a few clutch throws on third down.  And then we got one of our biggest gifts ever since Vinny Testervede’s “Phantom Touchdown” back at the Meadowlands in the late 90’s.  Sanchez heaves the ball to Santionio Holmes on 4th down.  The defender grabs Holmes’ facemask while he attempted to catch the ball which he almost did.  The yellow flag is thrown, all wrapped up in wrapping paper with a bow setting up a 2 yard L.T. run to take the lead.

Unfortunately, these are the Jets and we had to still sweat out the final minute against the Broncos. They drove past mid-field and almost connected for a deep pass to the 2 yard line which was luckily broken up.  The game’s fate was finally sealed when the Broncos had a bad snap causing a loose ball that Dwight Lowery picked up.  JETS WIN to improve to 5-1, winning five straight after an opening day defeat.

The game started out really ugly.  On the first two drives, Sanchez threw two horrible drives that were almost picked off and should have been.  Then, the CBS crew decides to show a stat of when he last threw an interception.  Then next play, Sanchez throws it to the other team.  And soon later, he threw his second interception of the game.  I’m not sure what Mark’s problem was.  I think it had to do with the thin air as many of his passes were just sailing in the wrong direction. 

The running game was non-existent until the second half and it seemed like they never got into a groove.  It was nice seeing LT run 20+ yards for a touchdown but besides that, the lack of a running game was hard to believe against a team that has difficulty stopping the run. 

As for the Defense, they played average.  They gave up 145 yards on the ground against a team that can’t ever run the ball.  Darrelle Revis got beat a few times but is still working is body into game shape.  David Harris was all over the place making some nice tackles behind the line of scrimmage.  But, in the 4th quarter when we needed the defense the most; that is when they stepped up their game and got the stops when they needed to.

Nick Folk knocked down a 56 yarder which was huge.

So, we can take a week off and relax.  Gotta love a 5-1 record heading into the bye week.  Ahhhhh, it’s it great being the best team in the AFC now with Baltimore losing.  For once, it’s good to be a Jets fan!

http://khbirdmantalkingjets.blogspot.com/

San Diego Chargers

The Chargers struggled in the start of the 2010 season, nothing new to them. They started 2-5, but like they had in recent years, everyone expected them to be able to bounce back. They looked well on their way, winning 4 in a row, before losing to the Raiders and falling to 6-6. They won their next two games, but a loss to the… (read more)