Mo's Take on the season and beyond

[Flaming Mo]

Hey guys, missed a lot of time on these boards but I thought I chime in with my thoughts on the Jets and their terrific play so far. I will also try to give a little look into the future of the franchise...

The first two games have been nothing short of impressive for the Jets. Rex Ryan has not only lit a fire under the players but also under the entire franchise as the stadium was rocking on Sunday and the team finally has a true idendity. We are a cold weather, running football team with a tenacious defense and we all know that this can carry you a long way, especially in December/January.

Now to our offense. Mark Sanchez has looked great for a rookie QB in his first couple of games. He makes good decisions, can make a lot of throws and he seems to have "it" when it comes to leading a team in the NFL. He has poise and he doesn't lose his composure under pressure, which is huge for any quarterback. He is a true face of the franchise and he should only get better with more times and more weapons on the outside.
The current wide receiver group looks weak on paper but they have performed great in the first two weeks. Cotchery while not a burner is a very good receiver and Keller is an outstanding talent. He is a matchup problem for any defense and what makes both these guys really tough is that they can truly exploit the middle of the field. Same goes for Stuckey who is a nice slot guy. You can worry about these guys going forward, especially when we face tougher defenses, but so far they have done exactly what they needed to do.
Our OLine is proving that the money we have invested in them is spent properly. Sanchez has barely been touched in the first two weeks. Ferguson, Mangold and Faneca are all pro bowl caliber players and our right side with Woody and Moore is nasty in run blocking. The individuals like Faneca in pass blocking or Ferguson in run blocking all have their problems but as a unit this group performs very well.
Leon Washington is getting more carries this year and he seems to really have almost the same amount of touches like Thomas Jones who is the exact same type of runner he always was. Solid, dependable but that's it. I really look forward to Shonn Greene getting in the mix and adding a more punishing force to the running attack. I like that we can truly attack teams on the inside and that we always atleast get some positive yardage.

Our defense is just spectacular, plain and simple. No offensive touchdowns in two weeks, two QBs who got completely rattled by our pressure and our schemes and a physicality and an inner fire I have never seen from a Jets D. This is truly comparable to the elite defensive teams in this league like Pittsburgh or Baltimore. We have size, speed, talent and smarts - anything you look for in a great D.
Of course it starts with our defensive line. Kris Jenkins is a monster and he's doing exactly what he has to do as a 3-4 nose tackle as he occupies two blockers on every play. What happens when you try to block him with one guy, ask the Houston Texans center. Marques Douglas and Shaun Ellis are very solid against the run and Ellis also brings us a force as a pass rusher. He is very versatile and one of the leaders of this team.
The good play of our DLine allows our linebackers to make plays. Harris and Scott are propably the best inside LB duo in the entire NFL as they do everything - stop the run, rush the passer, throw some big hits, coverage and so on. Scott was split out into coverage numerous times against NE and did great. Ryan really lets his players play from a variety of positions as he continues to use big guys like Bryan Thomas further back and comes with a lot of pressure from the secondary. I think we've seen more corner blitzes and safety pressure in two games than we've seen in the last two years. Leonhard and Rhodes really do well together and we don't allow anything big down the field.
The star of this D is without a doubt Darrelle Revis. He has emerged as one of the two best cornerbacks in the league and it is not even close. Now he starts to get the media attention (NYTimes, Yahoo, NFL Network and so on) but he was almost on the same level last year. The difference is that Ryan lets him play true man to man coverage and doesn't start him 10 yards away from his opponent. Revis has the instincts, the speed and most importantly the quickness out of his breaks to stay with any WR in the NFL. On top of that he is as humble and nice a guy you can meet, a nice changeup from the usual loudmouths on the outside. Lito Sheppard was terrible in preseason but he looks a lot better now and with his aggressive, ballhawking mentality should be a solid weapon opposite of Revis. Two guys who also have emerged are Eric Smith, who was buried under Mangini, and Donald Strickland. Strickland gives us a great nickelback who can cover the inside and Smith brings hard hitting and is a good blitzer.

Now you see, overall looking at our team we barely have any weaknesses, or atleast they didn't show in the first two weeks. Of course there are some negatives as this team could very quickly run into some major bumps down the road. As Kris Jenkins was resting a bit on the ground on Sunday I said to myself that there lies our season. If he goes down, we will get killed through the middle. He is the lonely key to our run defense as Pouha is a mess as his backup and can only shoot gaps here and there. DeVito, Green and Pitoitua are solid backups and have shown that they can impact the line but they are nowhere near Jenkins level of play as of course are maybe a handful of Dlinemen in the entire league. Rex will have to keep the big fella fresh (which we already see in practice and throughout the games) in order for him to last the entire season. Just as it is with Jenkins, depth is a major issue I see with this team. We have almost no backup OLine players, our WR corps is deadly thin and I also don't see anybody who could replace Revis/Sheppard constantly on the outside. We got a deep secondary in general but Lowery and others have struggled outside.
Another problem is Vernon Gholston. Now he shows some signs of improvement and Ryan lets him loose a little bit but it just looks that he doesn't have the speed and mobility to really become the dominant pass rusher we all projected him to be. I will give him time but when you look at other 3-4 OLB, Harrison, Ware, now Dumervil in Denver or a guy like Phillips in San Diego, they all have one thing that I just haven't seen from Gholston yet and this is explosiveness in space. If he doesn't come around this year, look for the Jets to really target a top notch pass rusher in the draft. While we apply a lot of pressure as a unit, we don't have a true dominant individual pass rusher. Pace might be our best one but his career high is 7 sacks in a season I guess and that says a lot. In the draft there will be a ton of guys available like Sergio Kindle (Texas) or a Greg Hardy (Ole Miss) who could be absolute monsters in our system.

Overall, I can see why Rex is not only optimistic about this year but also about the future of this franchise. We got a lot of talented good players who seem to have come together under a head coach they would die for on the gridirion. This psyche can't be replaced and is a huge advantage over some other teams. A lot of our star players are young - Revis, Mangold, Ferguson, Sanchez, Leon, Harris and so on - and we really have a great base for the future. I don't know how far we will go this year but we surely looked like the best team in the AFC East in the first two weeks. The season is long and we still have a rookie at QB but we should have a good year nonetheless.

[zilby]

0___0

long post.......

but nonetheless, a good post.