Jets Flight Connections 05-06-10

Dumervil and Merriman have yet to sign their tenders. Hmmm.

Aside from over estimating Pool who is still a question mark, people who analyze the saftey position for the Jets seem to routinely ignore one possible problem that could pose some serious difficulties. Jim Leonhard is taken as a given, and why not, he has been pretty much the tough quiet glue of this complicated scheme.

The big problem is, just as the Colts invaluable Bob Sanders has had trouble staying on the field often attributed to his small size (listed at 5’ 8" 206), although Leonhard has been solid and durable, he actually is listed at 20 lbs. lighter than Sanders, at 5’ 8" 186. He’s not nearly as important as a tackler as Sanders, but we have to question just how long Leonhard can continue at that size without missing games?

Ask yourself: Just what would the defense of the Jets look like if Leonhard missed let’s say 6 late season games (and Pool has a concusion renewal)? Suddenly one of the most promising defenses in years has a huge whole in the middle.

The point isn’t to think negatively, but to see that there are a quite a few assumptions floating behind the enthusiasm for this defense, and one of them is that Leonhard is indestructable. Without Leonhard this defense might have some serious problems. Any player can have injuries (which is why depth is so important), but at his size the potential looms large.

What would that mean? Anyone can SLIDE to another position, but even if you have the required physical skills you have to LEARN the position with precision, timing and force. And Wilson as a rookie who has just stuffed him mind trying to learn to play the slot? This is really dubious. I agree that there is more flexibility in the backfield, but Wilson is a rookie…suddenly for some he’s a shutdown corner AND a reasonable backup safety. He’ll do fine as the nickel, but even if he has to move to corner for some reason there will be a steep learning curve, never mind safety. Leonhard’s position is probably one in which his knowledge of the system is paramount and likely unreplaceable in any short term fix.

In any case, the adjustments necessary to the defense if JL goes down (not even counting a possible problem with Pool), would be large scale and systemic, stressing all the familiar roles that the defense was designed to better play through. All I am saying is that no one is considering this, making the general assumption that a keystone player in this defense is going to be there (how different that would be if this was Bob Sanders – and for those who want to talk about injury history remember Troy Polamalu went down last year…he’s only 5’ 10" 207). I’m not say that the defense wouldn’t recover at all (who thought it could have recovered from the Jenkins injury?), I’m saying that this one small thing would seriously stress the defense and force players into roles they likely are not ready for. And where you have very little depth behind keystone players the balance is precarious.

Or, is it your feeling that Leonhard is not a vital player in this defense, not contributing all kinds of knowledge and experience to a system he likely knows better than anyone else on the team?

the likelihood of an injury. Harris or Revis is not a 5’8" 185 lb strong safety. If you think that there would be no big drop off with Smith (or Wilson) you have a different sense of how important Leonhard is to Rex. He is their coach on the field, its a mental thing. The problem with Rhodes, among many, was that he could not communicate well with JL which was really imporant to the defense. Why did Rex bring Leonhard over, one has to ask.

I agree that Leonhard in the broad view is not AS important this year because most of the defense has had some experience, but in terms of the secondary 3/5th of it is NEW, with zero experience in the defense. A backfield orchestrated by someone other than Leonhard will be a very different thing.

To compare. If Harris or Revis had some strong statistical reason why they might not finish the season, and no one (and I do mean no one) was talking about the problems of depth behind them, I would be saying the same thing.

Who knows, Leonhard will probably play every game and the safeties won’t skip a beat…but then again, in the third game he could separate his shoulder on a 220 lb RB and in the fifth game Pool has a concussion. Its not Doomsday, its about thinking in contingency and projecting the future.

Maybe it comes down to whether you think JL is replaceable. I just know that if Leonhard had left instead of Rhodes I would have concerns about the safety position.

is the same for every team. What if Tom Brady goes down? What if Brandon Marshall goes down? We could have asked the same thing last year when our secondary was even thinner.

The real point is you can’t predict injuries. It’s not like every other team has every position secured. The Jets have actually addressed their depth issues this off season, and while I agree we’re a little thin at safety, I don’t see why we’re complaining about someone that doesn’t even have a serious history of injury.

There still seems to be a lot of talk of Pool’s condition. I think the Jets checked him out before they picked him up and Pool even said he had only 1 concussion and has migraines since he was young. I think we’ll be fine with Pool and he’ll be a good surprise for the jets.
I agree with powerbar, all this what ifs, yea we could lose our whole starting secondary by game six if we lose one every game. We might not field a team of starters by week 14.
Jets have gotten better, let’s hope it’s proven on the field, and they stay healthy.