State of the Jets Offense: For Better or Worse?

then a lot of peoples criticism of him is invalid. And by the way, Holmes had five less passes thrown his way last season than Edwards, and still managed four more drops is four less games. Mitigate that all you like. The simple fact of the matter is that they were targeted and completed passes at nearly identical rates last year.

The point was to emphasize their similarities more than assert one over the other. Braylon Edwards is clearly in the same ballpark as Holmes, even if a little inferior to him. Holmes clearly wins in a battle for the depth chart. But I’m alluding to the fact that Edwards for Plax is NOT status quo.

It’s not that Burress wasn’t a more successful in his career, I expect anyone with two additional seasons under their belt who played for the Steelers and Giants to have better stats than the Browns only receiver – besides the oft-injured Cribbs. But let’s look at your claim that Burress has performed better in his career, completely ignoring the fact that he shot himself and has been out of football for two years and is 5 years older;

In 7 season, Edwards has played 90 games attaining 326 receptions for 5,142 yards with 15.8 receiving average with a long of 80 yards, 39 TD’s, 236 first downs 5 fumbles, 11 rushing yards for a first down, 23 tackles and one pass defended.

In 9 seasons, Plaxico has played 128 games with 505 receptions for 7,845 yards with a 15.5 avg and long of 78 yards 55 TD’s 363 first downs and 9 fumbles, 1 rushing attempt that lost 7 yards, and 13 tackles.

As expected Edwards already exceeds Plaxico in all averages, has a higher long, receiving average, and less fumbles (of course). Without counting the two missed seasons, if you take all of the averages, even playing for an inferior team with no QB most of his career, Edwards will have well surpassed Plaxico at 9 seasons in receptions, yards, touchdowns, first downs, receiving averages and will still have less fumbles. Drawing off of stats, you can even conclude that Edwards is a better blocker, defender, and has more ST potential.

Plaxico has missed 16 games since being drafted, 10 if you don’t consider the six games he missed while still under contract from having shot himself fair. Braylon Edwards missed 6 games his rookie season because he had a staph infection when they drafted him, but he has not missed a single game since. note: Since coming to a real team, Edwards past two seasons have been among the most productive of his career.

Plaxico Burress has had serious legal problems multiple times, as well as being in trouble with his team to the point where they suspended him. Not even considering the accidental shooting, compare Braylon Edwards behavioral record to Plaxico Burress. Before he even went to prison Plax was a bigger risk than Edwards. At least Edwards is a philanthropist as well. Plaxico was bordering on locker room cancer before he shot himself.

We’ve done NFL and possible future, what about history? Scouts rated Edwards first in his draft class of 202 possible receivers to Burress’ rank of 2nd against 66 possible receivers. Edwards went to Michigan and Plax Michigan state. Edwards was drafted 3rd overall and Burress 8th. Edwards ran a superior 40 dash but I can’t compare any others because Plaxico refused to do any other workouts.

Now, consider all of that AND the prison and missed football thing. Now, imagine we had waited and played the market. Edwards is signed with nobody and we have 3 million in cash we haven’t spent on a receiver 5 years older whose been out of the game yet. Holmes is making less than 4 million this year. You mean to tell me after practically nobody inquires about him, Edwards wouldn’t take a contract that payed less when he already said he would consider a discount? Perhaps not, but I think we could have played this to our advantage where we re-signed both receivers at a great deal for us. Look at the market for Edwards right now, and tell me that jumping the gun on Plaxico wasn’t a mistake.

In conclusion, you are wrong. Plaxico Burress is a significant downgrade at the position all things considered, sight unseen. I would be thrilled to see otherwise.

If there’s someone pro-Edwards out there that wants to Rec this comment, I wouldn’t hold it against you. I put an enormous amount of effort into my argument for his importance to us and our developing, 3rd year quarterback.