The Jets Are Clearing Cap Room, But Evidently Forget They Need 11 Starters on Offense and Defense
By Jason McIntyre
Need a good laugh? These are two screen grabs of starters for the Jets on offense and defense late last season. Take a few minutes and count up all the missing starters. Don’t feel like doing that? Fine, I’ll do it:
Offense:
Guard – Matt Slauson, Brandon Moore, both likely to sign elsewhere
RB – Shonn Greene signed with Tennessee
TE – Dustin Keller is about to sign elsewhere
Defense:
Lineman – Po’uha, DeVito released
Linebackers – Thomas, Scott, Pace released
Secondary – Landry and Bell are free agents, both about to sign elsewhere.
So the Jets are looking at replacing seven defensive starters and four offensive starters. Yes, they’ve cleared a bunch of cap room, but remember, they still need 11 starters through free agency and the draft. And please don’t tell me
Why is anyone wasting time talking about the QB situation? Forget David Garrard. Forget about this potential Kevin Kolb band-aid. Yes, QB is the most important position on the team, but guess what – unless Rex Ryan can magically turn this depressing situation into a playoff team (unofficial Vegas odds, courtesy of me: 4.1 percent), then he’s almost certainly gone, and so is the new offensive coordinator .
So does the GM really want to make a play for Kolb – going from the Cardinals offensive line to the Jets offensive line is like an upgrade from dating a five to dating a 6.5 – or draft any QB in the first round and then get turned down by potential coaches next year because nobody wants to enter a QB situation that dire? (If Kolb is willing to take some rinky dink 1-year deal, that’s another story, but he’ll probably have better options than that.)
If I’m a potential coach, I’d much prefer to walk into a situation where you can at least have input on picking the QB – especially with a draft that likely will include talented guys like Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater and Tajh Boyd.
My focus would be on building the defense, which has gotten increasingly worse over the last three seasons. Right now, here are three of the starting linebackers on the depth chart: Garrett McIntyre, Demario Davis and Ricky Sapp. It won’t remain that way, but if it does, unequivocally, that’ll be the worst quartet in the NFL.