N.Y. Jets

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The Jets should be “flying high” this season!!

Posted by fantasyfurnace on April 18, 2014
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . 8 Comments

Give the Jets’ General Manager John Idzik Jr. his props. He has had a fairly productive off-season thus far with many key acquisitions already in tow that promise to take the beleagured team out of their mediocrity…finally!

With a trio of new players already added to the team and the draft yet to come, it appears the Jets are ready, at long last, to fly high into the 2014/2015 season.

With a trio of new players already added to the team and the draft yet to come, it appears as though the Jets are flying high into the 2014-2015 season.

  Given the free agents available to the Jets management this offseason, the moves that were made might not have been the greatest of all time but they were the smartest ones possible. Was there really a much better wide receiver available out there besides Eric Decker? What that pickup does is afford Geno Smith, assuming that he will be the starting QB, another passing option with a seasoned veteran (Decker was a third round pick of the Denver Broncos in the 2010 draft).

If you’re thinking that the only reason Decker caught 24 touchdown passes over the past two seasons was because he had Peyton Manning as the QB then you are partially correct. Decker is also a talented receiver.  Geno Smith, on the other hand, is no Peyton Manning, but remember that Decker did catch 8 TD passes in 2011 and they were all from Tim Tebow!

And speaking of a seasoned veteran, could the Jets have picked up anyone better at running back than ex-Titan Chris Johnson? Two years-$8 million and they lost no one! Six years of 1,000 rushing yards or more and a back who can catch a pass out of the backfield. He had four passing touchdowns as recent as last season to go along with six of the rushing kind. Has C.J. lost a step? Yep! Absolutely! But a Chris Johnson at 75% is better than any other RB that was out there at 100%.

#28 Ex-Titan RB Chris Johnson who can bust one for major yardage at any time, will bring his talents to the N.Y. Jets this season. Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

#28 Ex-Titans RB Chris Johnson,who can bust one for major yardage at any time, will bring his talents to the N.Y. Jets this season. Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Chris Johnson, (AKA) CJ2K, will compliment a backfield that includes Chris Ivory and Bilal Powell. The group will help Geno Smith because, as we have seen, he tends to panic when all of his options have disappeared. However now he now has a back who can run a 4.24 and catch a screen or handle a dump off when called upon. If the Jets don’t overwork him, CJ will pay dividends as he will be out to prove all the doubting Thomases out there that he still can bring it.

The Jets also went out and grabbed themselves a backup or potential starting quarterback; Michael Vick. What we like about this acquisition is that Vick, as most know, is similar in the way he plays to Smith and as such, will be able to better mentor the youngster. The one blaring negative however, is that Geno Smith is prone to turning the ball over and that’s Michael Vick’s biggest liability…

What takes place for Idzik next could be his biggest challenge to date in readying his team for the upcoming season. There are two holes left to fill on the club; the first is at the cornerback position and the second, talented players who can put pressure on the quarterback. Idzik is fortunate in that this could be one of the deepest drafts in recent memory and the Jets will have an added edge with their 12 picks to better themselves- at those two positions in particular.

Disgruntled Jets fans are growing weary with all of the promises made too often that are never kept. Don’t look for headcoach Rex Ryan to predict that the team will win the Super Bowl this year but you better believe that unless the Jets make some noise and get to the post season, Ryan will  spend the 2015-2016 season watching his former team on TV along with the rest of us…

G.M. John Idzik will give Rex Ryan all the tools he needs to be successful this season. If Rex can't get the job done it will be his last. Photo: AP

G.M. John Idzik will give headcoah Rex Ryan all the tools he needs to be successful this season. If Rex can’t get the job done it will be his last. Photo: AP

 

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Five reasons why Geno Smith should remain the Jets starting QB

Posted by fantasyfurnace on January 3, 2014
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . 15 Comments

Now that the NFL regular season has come to an end, the almost annual debate about who the Jets starting quarterback should be begins anew. However this time around, we think there really isn’t any need for the Jets organization to do anything except to insure that Geno Smith is under center when the 2014-15 season begins.

#7 Geno Smith should be the starting quarterbackPhoto: Charles Wenzelberg

#7 Geno Smith should be the starting quarterback in 2014. Photo: Charles Wenzelberg

1. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. In the most inconsistent of seasons in memory, the Jets, if you will recall, would win a game, lose the next, win a  game, lose, win, lose, and so it went… However there was one positive. It began with Geno Smith’s benching during the blowout to the Miami Dolphins on December 1st.

What followed in the team’s remaining four games, was a transformation of the rookie quarterback. He passed for just under 800 yards, threw 4 touchdowns ( 2 INTs), and posted a respectable 83.6 passer rating while guiding the team to a 3-1 record. A nice way to end a season; an even better way to begin a new one.

2. There are no other quality starting QBs out there. Who could the Jets bring in either to start or compete with Smith for the starting role? The only one available, now that Jay Cutler has been resigned, is Matt Schaub and he will be signed as a starter by another team leaving just Mark Sanchez to provide any pre-season competition for Smith. Frankly, we can’t see the fans clamoring for the return of outcast Mark Sanchez in 2014.

3. The past track record of rookie QBs who are now elite. Just culling through the past performances of some of the best modern day quarterbacks, one can see why it is usually best to give top draft picks some time to iron out the kinks while their professional maturation takes hold.

Some examples include Peyton Manning 3-13 in his rookie season. Aaron Rodgers went 6-10. Eli Manning 1-6. Drew Brees 8-8 in his first season followed by a 1-6 record in year two. And Cam Newton, 12-4 this season, went 6-10 and 7-9 in his first two campaigns with the Panthers. That’s not to say that Geno will turn out to be another Peyton or Drew, but after an 8-8 start, why not wait and see?

4. Durability. After multiple games with countless hurries, hits, and sacks, Geno Smith managed to start every one of the team’s 16 games in his rookie season. Not a feat worthy of a Pro Bowl appearance, but a noteworthy one just the same.

5. Lack of a talented supporting cast. Seriously, are there any wide receivers or tight ends on the Jets that had opposing teams’ cornerbacks shaking in their cleats? Nelson and Kerley didn’t. And, in case you’re wondering, an injury riddled Santonio Holmes finished the season with just 23 catches for 456 yards and only one touchdown.

#10 Santonio Holmes drops a pass vs the Miami Dolphins. He hasn't lived up to all Photo: Charles Wenzelberg hype in N.Y. Photo:

#10 Santonio Holmes drops a pass vs the Miami Dolphins. He hasn’t lived up to all the hype since coming to N.Y. Photo: Charles Wenzelberg

To their advantage,  before next season, the Jets will be $40 million under the salary cap and own around 10 draft picks which should make them more than able to bolster their anemic offense and thus help Geno Smith improve greatly in his sophomore season. Providing him with talent, in addition to having one full season under his belt, there is no reason why Smith should not garner the starting role next year.

“The team believes in Geno and the way he has played over the last four weeks speaks for itself.” -WR David Nelson

The Jets’ Jekyll & Hyde season continues…

Posted by fantasyfurnace on November 4, 2013
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 6 Comments

What are the odds of a team winning on every odd week and losing on every even one? Well, whatever they are, the Jets have beaten those odds by accomplishing that very feat through the first nine weeks of the season.

One thing is for certain-the Jets will neither win nor lose on Sunday, November 10, 2013 as they will be on a bye week. However if this bizarre pattern is to continue, they should lose in Week No. 10  vs Buffalo as that would be their next game on an ‘even’ week.

Let’s go back to the pre-season when all the pundits in the press, and on talk shows forecasted that Gang Green would not win more than 3-4 games this year. Make no mistake; this is a good team but not an elite one by a long shot. Their losses were more convincing than their wins in that their five wins were by 1-7-2-3 and 6 points respectively while their losses were by 3-25-13- and 40.

Leading this team to their ‘improbable’ 5-4 start is the much scrutinized and at times, much maligned quarterback, Geno Smith. If history has taught us anything about rookie quarterbacks, it’s that even current and future Hall of Famers had a horrendous debut in the NFL.

#7 Geno Smith has added 36 rushes for 172 yds, a 4.8 YPC and 3 TDs to his resume this season. Photo: Getty Images

#7 Geno Smith has added 36 rushes for 172 yds, a 4.8 YPC and 3 TDs to his resume this season. Photo: Getty Images

Two examples:  John Elway played in 11 games winning just 4 of them in his 1983 rookie season and finished with one less touchdown than Geno Smith has in 9 games! Elway ended that season with a quarterback rating of 54.9; 16.1 less than Geno’s current rating of 71.

Peyton Manning in his 1998 rookie season led his Colts team to just three victories. He threw 28 interceptions and finished with a QB rating of 71.2, about the same as Smiths…

While we’re not annointing Geno Smith as the second coming of Joe Montana just yet, he has only played in nine NFL games and is performing no worse than Elway or Manning did and has more wins than both of them in just over half a season. The question we have for the Jets as a team is can they string multiple wins together in the second half?

And let us not forget Gang Green’s ‘secret weapon’…kicker and “Folk” hero, Nick Folk who is on track to become only the fifth kicker in NFL history with a minimum of 27 attempts to convert 100% in a single season.

Following their bye week, the Jets face the Bills, who they have already beaten in Week No. 3, Baltimore, and then two ‘warm-weather’ teams- Miami and Oakland will come in to Met Life Stadium and face the Jets as well as the cold on December 1st and 8th. Concievably, they could and should win three of these four games.

With a healthy Chris Ivory, a better-than-average defense (most of the time..) and a quarterback who must continue to not turn the ball over, this team can shed it’s Jekyll and Hyde facade and plan on making it to the postseason.

"We're going into the month of Nov. and Dec. where good teams 'take off' and if we want to be contenders we've got to 'take off'." -Guard Willie Colon 11/3/13

“We’re going into the month of Nov. and Dec. where good teams ‘take off’ and if we want to be contenders we’ve got to ‘take off’.” -Guard Willie Colon 11/3/13