Every decade or so, the Jets spend a whole bunch of green to remake their team, sort of the anti-Parcells method. Last time it was Neil O'Donnel who had just thrown two interceptions in the fourth quarter of the Superbowl to blow his teams chances. Brett only threw one monumental interception to blow his teams chances in the NFC championship game.
Of course, O'Donnell had just led Pittsburgh to a Superbowl appearance, and Brett ended up throwing an interception that cost the Packers their Superbowl chance last year. The Jets record fell from 3-13 in 95 under Boomer Esiason to 1-15 under their alleged quarterback of the future.
The Mangenius also went out and paid big cash for Calvin Pace to change him from a situational pass rusher to a full time play maker. I remember when Parcells did the same thing with Chris Slade. Slade's Stats jumped from 9 sacks in the '93 season as a situational player to 9.5 sacks as a full time defensive starter. Just a half sack difference. Calvin Pace recorded 6.5 sacks last season, which projects him to maybe 7 sacks next season using Slade as a precedent.
The Gang Green also went out and signed Ex-Patriot Damien Woody from the Lions. I believe Woody became the first Lion Offensive Lineman to get a big free agent contract since Zefross Moss was signed away by the Pats (drawing the ire of Barry Sanders). Moss lasted two nondescript seasons in the NFL before retiring. Woody has become a solid pro after struggling at center early in his career, but the people charged with keeping Vince Wilfork from eating an aging qb learning a new system are also trying to learn to work together.
Favre's stronger arm may get defenses to back off the line of scrimmage a bit, but that's because the defensive backs are going to waiting on the inevitable back breaking interception that Brett traditionally throws.
Will the Jets be more exciting this year? Of course, they are trading short dump-off passes for ninety yard interception returns. They are teaching their system to the players they expect to lean on as the season is in progress, kind of like trying to win the Indy 500 with a driver who has never seen the course and a pit crew seeing the car for the first time. Maybe exciting isn't the word for it, more like terrifying.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_New_York_Jets_season
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/news?playerId=4476
http://www.nfl.com/players/careerstats?id=SLA168710
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/cover/featured/9525/index.htm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment