hmhertz

Corley lacks change of direction, quickness, speed, route running ability, inside or outside versatility. Roman Wilson should have been the pick

There are 21 Jets in the Ring of Honor, only four have had their number retired. Namath, Maynard, Martin and Klecko. If room is an issue, I'd throw Revis out. Loyalty to the team is a requisite requirement, Revis's loyalty was to the buck. Jersey Joe and Matt Snell belong in

NY Jets #65 - Joe Fields The reason why we only have three entries for #65 is because of Joe Fields. Growing up in New Jersey, drafted out of Widener University in the 14th round, Joe Fields is often described as the best deal the New York Jets ever got out of the draft. He ended up playing 13 seasons for us at center, and then one more for the New York Giants. The JetsBlog has a great profile of him which quotes from their regular commenters about Fields' ranking among the great centers of his time - men like Mike Webster, Jim Langer, and Dwight Stephenson. SackDance99 says that "Fields was great at every part of being a center and did it without snapping to a Hall of Fame quarterback or blocking for a Hall of Fame running back." In spirit, this kind of thing also has to be said about Wesley Walker and Winston Hill. Players are routinely kept out of the Hall for their teams' lack of presence in the postseason, and yet it's the consistency and high performance under adversity, and in the shadow of being lesser known, that makes a player particularly admirable. Maybe I've just been a Jets fan for too long, but that's how I've come to feel. The JetsBlog's piece says everything that I need say about Fields. He went to the Pro Bowl, he was Jets' co-captain for many years. Charley Winner recruited him directly to the team, talking to him by phone while Fields was finishing up at Widener. Wayne Mulligan had been at center for two seasons up until Fields started in 1976. Before then, John Schmitt had been the starter at the position since 1966. If football teams could be said to have periods could be more broadly understood, then why not know them by centers? The 60's and early 70's are then the Schmitt era, while the mid-70's and most of the 80's are the Fields era. When Fields began starting regularly at center, I was seven. When he had finished with the team, I was a freshman in college. Those formative years for a young person are filled with such change that all of time seems to take forever just because everything in life is so new. Time was slow in the Fields Era, so it just didn't seem possible that anyone but Joe Fields would ever play center for my football team. *** I remember in the 1980's seeing a New York Times article on the friendship between Fields and Joe Klecko. "The two Joes," I remember it mentioning. They were somewhat unlikely as friends apparently, at least by size. More than one player has pointed out that Fields did not resemble a behemoth in or out of uniform and that Klecko was a monster by comparison. But friends they were, and after their careers were done, they co-wrote a book published in the 90's called Nose to Nose: Survival in the Trenches of the NFL. I never did read it, but I recall when it came out. Much of the discussion surrounding the book initially centered around its criticism of Joe Walton, who coached the bulk of the 80's years. The authors said that Walton was paranoid, insecure and coached with a corrosive negativity that affected the team. According to a discussion forum at the Landing Strip, the book's also surprisingly critical of Dr. James Nicholas, who is normally cast as team physician who lengthened rather than shortened players' careers. But again, I never read the book, so I don't know anything more about it. Several commenters on the Landing Strip forum link above mentioned that Klecko and Fields both admit to steroid use in the book, though apparently Fields asserted that a very brief period of steroid use helped him bounce back from an injury. It would be very difficult to imagine that the great linemen of the 80's were not all taking steroids at some level. It's impossible to imagine that its use is not continuing today in a league that is so thirsty for greater corporate profit that it's likely putting off dealing with steroids in any real way, other than punishing isolated cases. Someone on the forum also suggests that after the book was published, Fields and Klecko had a falling out. I can't imagine how two authors of a book could do otherwise. Now that the era of good feeling for the present-day Jets is over, more and more fans are beginning to remember the 80's fondly. I wouldn't be surprised if, at some point, the organization brought back the uniforms as a throwback gesture every once in a while (though, please God, make it the '78-'89 uniforms, not the '90-'97 ones). Greg Prato's 2011 book Sack Exchange: The Definitive Oral History of the 1980's New York Jets is enjoyable for allowing many of the players to speak about that time themselves, and there are several great comments about Joe Fields there. What stays with me is how Fields is not just represented as the consistent center but as a fundamentally smart strategist who saw the game unfolding better than anyone else. In Prato's book, Bruce Harper is quoted as saying that "Joe Fields was like the quarterback on the field." If you read it literally this just takes a moment to digest as funny because an offense by definition has a quarterback, but you get the idea. How would Richard Todd have taken that? But the idea is that he had to think like one. Fields' nickname was "The General," which is also a common term for the quarterback. "He was the director of the line," Harper says, " -- he was the one who called the plays." Wesley Walker says that Fields was "one of the those blue collar workers - can play, knows the game, smart, very impressive. I love guys like that." Marion Barber adds that indeed "the center is almost the quarterback," and that "Joe was well respected by his peers." He "played hurt - as so many players do," Barber says. "He was good to his peers and he kept everybody in check...without being a prick about it." I like that last one. It's difficult to lead and not be a prick. The simple truth is that leadership is easy for people willing to lead, but very few people can balance the elements of charisma, discipline and respect and not look like a prick, a person who might lead competently but is roundly disliked for being haughty, narcissistic and sometimes cruel for the fun of it. While American slang allows that the two mean the same thing, a dick is someone who won't let something go to the point of getting in everyone's way, while a prick is someone who just seems to enjoy making your life difficult because he can. Football has lots of each. Joe Fields is a good example of a beloved teammate who earned his respect from the many players who came in and out of the organization during the Fields Era. He played consistently - longer than Dermontti Dawson or Jim Langer or Dwight Stephenson for a franchise with considerably greater ups and downs, which perhaps should be just as much a measure as high for a Hall of Famer as are multiple playoff appearances, but we know that won't change. The Hall is for guys who play for winners, and in the world of the Jets, our greatest players have little advantage in the running. Winston Hill, Marvin Powell, and Wesley Walker can take little consolation in this. That's why JetsBlog put Fields in their Hall of Fame, and it's why we give him his own entry as an Infinite Jet. Assign what worth to the player you feel you should. Even if the fan has little say in the world of American sports, we will remember our favorites long after a league that treats its veterans like strangers will

Kent Lee Platte wasn't born when Joey was fighting his epic battles with Klecko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Fields

Jersey Joe Fields was the best center the Jets ever had, he had the tenacity, agility and quickness that Mangold lacked

https://www.si.com/nfl/jets/news/nfl-analyst-says-new-york-jets-signed-one-of-the-best-udfa-classes-dylanb9 Doesn't even mention that the Jets signed a second DE with first round RAS #s Tyreek Johnson nearly 6'4" 285 lbs- 33 reps @ 225 lbs, 35'' vert, 10 foot LJ and 1.56 ten yards. He also won every academic award he could as an underclassmen

Trainer says Allen has parts of Jonathan Taylor, parts of Eddie George https://247sports.com/college/wisconsin/article/wisconsin-badgers-football-braelon-allen-improved-speed-agility-this-offseason-jerry-seymour-running-back-academy-jonathan-taylor-leonard-fournette-191298169/

Good athlete, solid size

Good to see the DL released was Jones of last year. DL Jones signed this year as great RAS score and an excellent academic background

Tyler Owens Signed by Commanders as an UDFA Owens received media attention for an interview at the 2024 NFL Combine where he expressed support for the Flat Earth theory and said that he does not believe in outer space or other planets. Pre-draft measurables Height Weight Arm length Hand span Vertical jump Broad jump 6 ft 2+3⁄8 in (1.89 m) 216 lb (98 kg) 33+3⁄8 in (0.85 m) 9+1⁄8 in (0.23 m) 41.0 in (1.04 m) 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m) That's 12'2'' long jump

Leonard Taylor III, Miami 6’3”, 305 pounds; JR A top-15 national recruit in 2021, Taylor saw action in the final nine games of his true freshman season, which he finished with 21 total tackles and tied for team lead with 7.5 tackles for loss, along with two sacks. Starting nine of 12 contests played in year two, putting up 24 total tackles, 10.5 of those for loss and three sacks, earning honorable mention All-ACC. This past season, his negative plays created were cut down to exactly a third of those, as part of his 19 stops. Run defense: + Packs an alien-like combination of size, quicks and power + Regularly is a half step ahead of the rest of the D-line and creates penetration to the offensive backfield + Flashes the insane upfield burst to shoot the gap between the guard and tackle on the backside of outside zone concepts cleanly, before the blocker can even come close to scooping him up + Has some freakish natural force in his hands to flat-back blockers trying to seal him on the backside of run concepts + Off that, he packs the grip-strength to pull guards and centers off himself as the ball-carrier approaches + You see moments of Taylor sticking his foot in the ground after taking a couple of steps up the field and making a hard 90-degree cut in order to become a factor chasing down the line on plays away from him + Has some reps where he just shoves a pulling guard out of the way and creates traffic in the backfield + The effortlessness with which this guy tosses running backs to the turf when he gets his hands on them is almost comical Pass-rush: + Offers an impressive first step to put the guy across from him at a disadvantage in passing situations, especially if they’re in slide protections and have some room to cover + Capable of driving interior linemen who have 20+ pounds on him into the quarterback’s lap + Then throws out some devastating push-pull moves against guards off that + Dynamic lateral movement on loops to the outside from 0- or 1-technique alignments, along with taking the inside lane at times when tackles try too hard to cut off his angle on those + Taylor’s natural athletic talents and length allow him to free himself of blockers and chase after the quarterback more often than he should, even if he doesn’t win the rep + The sophomore’s 19.5% pressure rate in 2022 trailed only Pittsburgh’s Calijah Kancey among Power Five interior defensive linemen – 85.5 pass-rushing grade + That’s despite routinely feeling four hands on him with opposing teams sliding their protection in his direction, regularly lining up at the nose + Constantly gets his long arms up to dissuade quarterbacks from throwing the ball over his head Weaknesses: – Pops up out of his stance and doesn’t yet read and counter the first step(s) of offensive linemen at all really, getting too enamored with locking horns at the line of scrimmage with guys – Clearly has the short-area agility to scrape over the top of down-blocks and affect plays where he’s basically being pinned down away from the action, but doesn’t click quickly enough to actually make it happen – Will be moved of his landmarks and get undisciplined with his run fits in general, just trying to dip underneath or spin off contact – had a PFF run defense grade of just 64.4 last season – Certainly raw with no real legit sign of putting together a comprehensive pass-rush plan and getting to secondary moves if he gets hung up initially – only logged multiple pressures in four of ten games last season – For a supposedly freaky athlete, Taylor finished in the 40th percentile or worse in all the combine drills he participated in (excluding short-shuttle and bench press) I simply couldn’t put Taylor inside the top-ten, which seems crazy considering he was looked at a potential top-20 pick last summer. However, in 2022 you at least saw the flashes of physical dominance, before those decreased this past season along with not showing any improvement in terms of his understanding or reactions for what offenses are doing. Based on the tape from last year alone, he’s a day-three flyer because he just doesn’t really know what he’s doing out there, and then the athletic testing didn’t nearly live up to the hype. Now we have to question if that’s representative to what he is or if he didn’t prepare as well as he could’ve for the combine – which would also be concerning, when we already question the way he gets himself ready for gamedays. So this is a very challenging projection because the film will tell you that this guy has pretty freaky explosion off the ball and natural strength, but the testing doesn’t back it up and if you’re taking this guy with a top-100 pick, you’re betting on those traits. I think you’re looking at a guy with starter potential as a three-technique in an even front or a base D-end in a 3-4, but he’s far from it at this point.

Poor job at receiver, should have traded up for Michigan's Wilson who won with speed, quickness and ability to run patterns than the YAC king, then add a prospect or two with size, speed and toughness. No receiver picked for the outside big mistake