32 Teams in 32 Days, Team #3: The New York Jets

J-E-T-S! JETS! JETS! JETS! Yes the New York Jets are coming into another year of football with hopes of winning it all!... or at least of making it back to the playoffs in a division where they are forced to play Tom Brady and the Patriots twice in the regular season and by all intents and purposes would most likely have to beat them in the playoffs to get to the big game. But lets be real for a minute, the Jets aren’t making it to the Superbowl and if they by some miracle make the playoffs it will be by the skin of their teeth. The AFC is too hard of a conference and there are so few spots in the post-season.

So what should we expect from the Jets this season? Their defense is undersized. It’s a small defense that is going to have trouble rushing the passer. They can’t get around the bigger offensive linemen in the league and that is going to hurt the Jets in the long run. If they can’t get sacks, they can’t win games. Defense wins championships. Perhaps rookie Linebacker Vernon Gholston can make an impact for the defense, but the thought of Gholston leading the Jets to the playoffs is just wishful thinking... at least for now.

Thomas Jones is going to be leading the charge in the backfield, but he is coming off a disappointing year. He did have a 1,000 yard season, but with only 1 touchdown all year, the Jets rushing attack wasn’t exactly overpowering. Last season, he only averaged 3.6 yards per carry which isn’t exactly an elite performance. He is spelled by the dynamic Leon Washington, but honestly Washington is nothing more then a complementary back and Jones will see most of the carries. Perhaps the addition of probably the best offensive linemen in the game today, Alan Faneca, will aid the rushing woes for the Jets, but even that can be called wishful thinking. There’s a lot of that when you talk about the Jets.

Everything eventually leads back to the Quarterback. It is a Quarterback driven league and without a Quarterback that can make the plays that need to be made, a team will not get very far. For the Jets, we have a QB controversy going on. Its an intense battle between the veteran Chad Pennington and the youngster Kellen Clemens. Pennington lost his starting job last year to Clemens for a few weeks, but the change did nothing to improve the Jets performance. They both have traits that every team looks for in a star Quarterback, unfortunatly, neither of them have all the traits they need. Pennington is a smart veteran who can accurately distribute the ball. Clemens is young, athletic, and strong armed. Together they make the best Quarterback you can have, but this is not a science fiction movie. We can’t splice them together. I don’t think either of them is the QB of the future for this franchise, but perhaps Clemens can win the starting job and improve enough to make an impact. Or perhaps the Jets are a draft away from getting that Quarterback. For this year however, it will be either Pennington or Clemens. The battle will last as long as it takes Clemens to eventually win it, but I don’t think its beyond the realm of possibility for Chad Pennington to start week 1.

To sum it all up, The Jets aren’t gonna have an easy year. It’s going to be a year as hard as the past few years have been. I don’t think their schedule is that tough, but the talent needs to be there and the players need to make the plays to win the games I consider swing games. They will have to play New England twice and will most likely lose both games and they have the San Diego Chargers on their schedule. I think those are 3 guaranteed losses, but there are teams on their schedule that are worse then they are and they should beat them. Its going to be tough, but the Jets can come out above .500, but then again.. It might just be wishful thinking.