I know everyone on here has heard it ad nauseam 'Idzik is from Seattle, we're going to be Seattle East and just dominate!' and so on. However, if you look closely at some of the stats from Seattle in 2010 (when Pete Carroll was hired as head coach and when John Schneider was hired as GM) you'll realize that there can be some interesting similarities and some hope for the Jets in the future.

Everyone always points to turnover differential, offensive and defensive rankings, penalties, etc...as an indicator of success. However, big thing to look at is point differential. By and large, point differential (next to wins, obviously) will tell you how good or bad a team is. In 2010, Seahawks were 28th in the league in point differential with a -97 mark. They were a very inconsistent team, beating mediocre to decent teams at home and getting blown out on the road. They also had a couple of upsets here and there (beating the Bears at Soldier field, for example). Like the Jets, they had a relatively shaky QB situation with Matt Hasselback taking the majority of the snaps. They didn't really have any star players, but they had a smattering of talent here and there. As we all know, they went 7-9 and won the division thanks to a very weak division. They beat the Saints and have gotten better since. Last year, Jets were in a very similar situation. Shaky QB situation, talent sprinkled but not extremely cohesive, up and down year, some very bad road losses and upsets, etc...And to make things more interesting, in 2013 the Jets finished 26th with a -97 point differential as well. For some context with that, nobody below us finished the season with more than 4 wins. The optimistic will say that the 40 point loss to Cincy skews us while the pessimistic will say that we should have lost an extra two games. Either way, we are what we are.

Now, in 2011 the Seahawks had 8 draft picks and used it primarily on defense and to fortify the line. I may be wrong here, but I believe they went with Tavaris Jackson as their QB. I don't recall them being particularly active in FA, though I can be mistaken. However, the important thing was that they began to add core leaders on their defense. Mainly Richard Sherman, Bryon Maxwell, KJ Wright, and Malcom Smith. Those 4 played a huge role in their last two years run to the playoffs and eventual Super bowl. Though they finished 7-9 that year, they finished much higher in the point differential at 18 with a +6 margin. They also played a lot better overall in their games, too. They had far less blowout losses and more close games. Looking at the Jets, we seem to be in year two of the likely 4 year complete rebuild. We can only hope for improvement from Geno, but we are fortifying offensive skill positions and both of our lines. On defense, we are adding what Idzik is probably hoping will be key leaders in Pryor and McDougle. We have a defensive coach who has been to the playoffs and saw success there. We should be running a more efficient if not slightly run heavy offense, and we shouldn't see that as an indictment on anyone. If the season goes as planned, we should finish with a far better point differential and around 9 wins. That will be enough to keep Rex's job and we should be in excellent shape to go forth into next year. And, if Geno for some reason is not who we hope for him to be, in the next draft, we pick another QB and start the competition over. Very similar to what Seattle did with Wilson, they knew Jackson and Flynn would most likely not be the face of the franchise.

So, while we may not be an exact replica of the Seattle Seahawks, we look to be going in a very similar direction. It should be an exciting season and couple of years. Thanks for reading! Feel free to give me feedback.