Rex Expects Big Things From Kyle Wilson

…that few seem to be answering while they are getting so excited about the secondary is whether Poole is going to be able to replace Rhodes. Say what you want about Rhodes, his “failure” was a failure of incredibly high expectations: become a Ravens’ safety, THE dominant playmaking player on the field. Okay he was Hollywood, okay he didn’t communicate well with Leonard, but having a potential hole at safety – and the issue isn’t raw skills, its awareness and ability to read – still isn’t thrilling. It’s not something that is going to be fixed this season, its just something that will keep the defense from firing on all 11 cylinders. Match that with potential issues up the middle on the line – yes Jenkins is back, but – correct me if I’m wrong – the Jets were run-on a bit in the first few games with Jenkins if I recall. The D-line looks good, but not REAL good. Defenses always have to be strong up the middle. Its true in baseball, its true in basketbal, and in football as well. The Jets ARE strong up the middle, but in kinda a spotty way, a way in which if problems developed you would have to say, it doesn’t shock me. The backers are A grade but there are some question marks and when safeties fail, points are scored. Does this mean the Jets don’t have a better defense than last year, not at all. It is MUCH better, but will it be statistically better, that will be interesting to see. Last year’s team had dramatic late game defensive failures that pretty much would have condemned their season if there hadn’t been some serious gifts from the football gods. The way it performed in 4th quarters was horrendous at times, sometimes being plain gutted by the run (Miami), sometimes being passed on at will. The sign of a dominant defense (and let’s admit it, that is what the Jets defense was claiming to be last year), is when the 4th Q comes, its over. In a sense, the margin for error was just too thin last year, and teams throughout the game could save up strategies to exploit in the end. Last year’s defense was not great in the way we would like to remember it. Or, it was inconsistently great. This year Rex and team worked to widen the margin for error, the moved the central focus of the defense over to the corners more, and got corners they hope can pick the ball. It has to be a scoring defense to make up for the built-in possibility that they can be gashed. Let’s see what happens.

Do the Jets take Devin McCourty 29?

when he was coming out of college (several years ago) says very little about how he (or Mr. T) assess him NOW. (It amazed me how much this little tidbit kept being repeated over and over.) Who wouldn’t be high on Cromartie coming out of college, the guy is a freak and probably a better athelete than Revis. I agree with everything you say about the top-end of what is possible with Cromartie, the thing is, he’s a bit of a boom or bust guy (and I think he is going to be a bit of both). The defense definitely plays up his strengths, but there are other factors. For instance we don’t know how he is going to handle NY emotionally, not the press, the clubs. When he starts being a star and starts partying in NYC, the lady list will increase, no doubt. It doesn’t both me, but if he doesn’t do the film work he could be wildly inconsistent. There is a bottom on this guy, otherwise SD would have gotten more for him (don’t you think?).

I’m not down on the pick up at all, I too think he is going to kick ass picking balls out of air and returning them with amazing skill, its just that mr. T has already shown that he can get rid of players unexpectedly all in the name of a few millions, and frankly there are much more important players coming up for contract next year. its just a guess, but unless Cromartie has something more than 3 spectacular TD returns (which will drive his price up like crazy), Tanny will say, let’s save the money and get a good nickel back and slide Wilson over. It is exactly the kind of thing he would do. He just let go of a 9 time pro-bowl guard on the best O-line in football for less than 3 mill on an uncapped year (!?). He is ALWAYS thinking ahead.

Cromartie is in an odd position. If he does incredible he will likely price himself out of the Jets plans next year (Revis vs. Cro), and if he is inconsistent he becomes expendable because of Wilson. He has to be baby-bear, just right, and be willing to take a little less than the open market would pay him. Maybe he will.

“Im all for a lil guessing but that seems like too much speculating with WAY too much football yet to be played.”

This is the thing though, decisions have been made by Mr. T which are extremely speculative because they had be made before all that football has been played. The fun is to think along with Tan, at least for me. What I find interesting about how Tannenbaum is handling things is that he constantly has had an eye on the following season, despite the illusion that the Jets are going for broke. The selection of Wilson was a multi-year strategy, as obviously the Fanica and Jones decision was as well. Tannenbaum has to ask himself: What if Cromartie goes blows up? What if Cromartie crashes? Its kinda cool how calculated he is. One gets the feeling that he is something like Theo Epstein, giving values to everything and running simulations left and right.

Trying to guess what Mike T is thinking makes my head hurt. I couldn’t possibly go there. Wilson is a good fall back plan if Cro crumbles. And it’s a great observation. Weather they made the decision to draft him on that premise? No clue. I personally think they picked him up on a best available talent perspective and it just looks like they did it with a mind for Wilson to be Cro’s back-up plan. Again, It has already been said that Rex was practicaly praying for Kyle to keep dropping to them.
   As WRs go… Again, it all depends on performance. If Edwards keeps dropping balls and Holmes starts catching balls with his fingernails, I wouldn’t be suprised to see Edwards go at all. Holmes is going to miss alot of time with his QB. That could hurt him alot in terms of job security. With the WR’s the playoffs will tell the tale. One of them is bound to have that career game or amazing game winning catch the decides weather they get the bigger offer.