Jets ahead of curve in FA signings from last year

[Larz]

Dolphins and Patriots and bucs big losers

of the 34 FA's who became starters for their new team, the JETS have 4 !!!! (faneca, pace, richardson woody)

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=clayton_john&id=3579306

Quick free-agent fixes becoming harder to find

By John Clayton

ESPN.com

Now that the season has started, we can begin to get a read on the 2008 free-agent class. So far, the news isn't encouraging for teams that use free agency to acquire impact starters.

Only 34 of the 132 unrestricted free agents who moved to new teams became starters. Think about that, that's roughly only one per team.

Remember how the Dolphins came out in the first days of free agency and signed six players? From that group, only guard Justin Smiley started on opening day. Charlie Anderson was supposed to be the answer at strongside linebacker, but a hamstring problem and a good camp by converted defensive end Matt Roth put Anderson behind Roth last week.

Wide receiver Ernest Wilford received a four-year, $13 million contract to be inactive in Week 1. Defensive tackle Randy Starks, linebacker Reggie Torbor and tight end Sean Ryan are backups. Quarterback Josh McCown was traded to Carolina for a seventh-round choice.

The Patriots signed five, but wide receiver Sam Aiken, who's currently injured, is the only survivor.

The Bucs signed eight, but only center Jeff Faine emerged as a starter. Defensive end Marques Douglas, linebackers Teddy Lehman and Leon Joe, and cornerback Eugene Wilson didn't make the team.

[slats]

of the 34 FA's who became starters for their new team, the JETS have 4 !!!! (faneca, pace, richardson woody)

Shouldn't this get more attention? Great job by the Jets front office when you consider that the league average is one starter per team out of the FA class and the Jets have four - all performing at high levels. Throw in the trades for Favre and Jenkins, and the Jets "quick fixed" a quarter of their starting line-up with an impressive group of veterans.

And they managed to find a starting CB in the fourth round!

[Boozer76]

Shouldn't this get more attention? Great job by the Jets front office when you consider that the league average is one starter per team out of the FA class and the Jets have four - all performing at high levels. Throw in the trades for Favre and Jenkins, and the Jets "quick fixed" a quarter of their starting line-up with an impressive group of veterans.

And they managed to find a starting CB in the fourth round!

What's truly impressive is the fact that not only are they starters, they dramatically improved our team. When you look at a team like WAS in the pas, they'd sign high profile FA after FA and still end up just about unimproved on both D and O, and it generally reflected in their overall record. While I obviously can't state how imrpoved we will be in our overall record, it's pretty damn obvious we are much improved on both D and O almost single handedly by the guys we signed in FA. While Favre has obviously improved our O significantly, the signing of Faneca and Woody, along with Chatman and Richardson would still have made a huge impact on our offense ebven in Chad was the QB.

Dumb dumbs like Ecurb can criticize our FO all they want, but there is no denying these goes know how to spot talent in the draft and FA and get them signed.

[will]

Shouldn't this get more attention? Great job by the Jets front office when you consider that the league average is one starter per team out of the FA class and the Jets have four - all performing at high levels. Throw in the trades for Favre and Jenkins, and the Jets "quick fixed" a quarter of their starting line-up with an impressive group of veterans.

And they managed to find a starting CB in the fourth round!

Dunno. To me, this can be viewed as bad news, too (if not bad then at least neutral). What if, say, Bender or Garner, etc, turned into a real find at RT and beat out Woody, who to me is nothing special? Same with Faneca -- what if Turner or Montgomery turned out to be the real deal? Faneca too has been nothing special in the preseason and against the Dolphins. The Jets have so much money wrapped up in these guys that they have to start. But also no one stepped up to challenge either guy. Richardson, too, had to only compete with a single FA FB, Caulrick. Richardson, however, has played really well as a lead blocker and could not have been easily beat for a roster spot.

Pace is totally killer. He will be a star for the Jets.

[will]

What's truly impressive is the fact that not only are they starters, they dramatically improved our team. When you look at a team like WAS in the pas, they'd sign high profile FA after FA and still end up just about unimproved on both D and O, and it generally reflected in their overall record. While I obviously can't state how imrpoved we will be in our overall record, it's pretty damn obvious we are much improved on both D and O almost single handedly by the guys we signed in FA. While Favre has obviously improved our O significantly, the signing of Faneca and Woody, along with Chatman and Richardson would still have made a huge impact on our offense ebven in Chad was the QB.

Dumb dumbs like Ecurb can criticize our FO all they want, but there is no denying these goes know how to spot talent in the draft and FA and get them signed.

I agree that the FO can spot talent and has seriously upgraded the roster from top to bottom. But its hard to say how much impact all of these guys would have had with Chad at QB. The league (rightly) does not respect his arm and crowds the box, daring him to throw longer passes. As a result its really hard to run. In this regard, Favre changes everything.

Also, its not a huge compliment to say that the Jets were easily able to spend a ton of money and to upgrade from the likes of Clement and Clarke. Those guys were not NFL calibre lineman. I assume neither one is in the NFL.

I love this FO and the direction in which the team is heading. But I'm not sure the additions of Faneca and Woody are among the most praiseworthy of the many moves made by this FO to ressurect the Jets. I still hope Ferguson pans out and that the Jets can consistently add O-line talent and depth because thats critical to being perenially competitve in the NFL.

[slats]

Dunno. To me, this can be viewed as bad news, too (if not bad then at least neutral). What if, say, Bender or Garner, etc, turned into a real find at RT and beat out Woody, who to me is nothing special? Same with Faneca -- what if Turner or Montgomery turned out to be the real deal? Faneca too has been nothing special in the preseason and against the Dolphins. The Jets have so much money wrapped up in these guys that they have to start.

You can't make this many improvements unless you were pretty sucky to begin with, but there were teams as bad or worse than the Jets who failed to improve nearly as well thru FA.

With Faneca, it's not just what he does as a blocker, but what he does to help Mangold and D'Brick to be better linemen. Seems as these OL get bigger and bigger that there's fewer quality guys out there. The Jets have next to nothing in OL reserves because they felt they had better players at other positions. Teams that lost OL early are picking off an ugly scrap heap. This is why guards are now getting premium pay, too. Never used to be that way.

And the Jenkins trade was huge. Everyone's all over Favre's jock, but the Jenkins move was the biggest and best they made, IMHO. One that'll pay dividends for a longer period of time, too.

These guys used every avenue at their disposal to make dramatic improvements to the team. I'm no homer, and I'm not quick to compliment. But I'm impressed with these guys this year.

[will]

You can't make this many improvements unless you were pretty sucky to begin with, but there were teams as bad or worse than the Jets who failed to improve nearly as well thru FA.

With Faneca, it's not just what he does as a blocker, but what he does to help Mangold and D'Brick to be better linemen. Seems as these OL get bigger and bigger that there's fewer quality guys out there. The Jets have next to nothing in OL reserves because they felt they had better players at other positions. Teams that lost OL early are picking off an ugly scrap heap. This is why guards are now getting premium pay, too. Never used to be that way.

And the Jenkins trade was huge. Everyone's all over Favre's jock, but the Jenkins move was the biggest and best they made, IMHO. One that'll pay dividends for a longer period of time, too.

These guys used every avenue at their disposal to make dramatic improvements to the team. I'm no homer, and I'm not quick to compliment. But I'm impressed with these guys this year.

I'm impressed, too. I believe the Jets will compete for a playoff spot this year and continue to improve under Mangini and Tannenbaum. I agree the Jenkins addition is phenomenal (though the knocks on Jenkins might bear out over the course of a long season).

Re Faneca. To me so far he looks ordinary. And Mangold had his worst game ever as a pro against Ferguson and the Dolphins. So I'm not sure how Faneca is gonna make him a better player. Same with Ferguson; if he can keep on this new weight then he will be a better LT but if not then there is nothing Faneca can say to him or do for him that will make him strong enough to be a good LT in the NFL.

[will]

With Faneca, it's not just what he does as a blocker, but what he does to help Mangold and D'Brick to be better linemen. Seems as these OL get bigger and bigger that there's fewer quality guys out there. The Jets have next to nothing in OL reserves because they felt they had better players at other positions. Teams that lost OL early are picking off an ugly scrap heap. This is why guards are now getting premium pay, too. Never used to be that way.

Faneca was awful yesterday. They dont run left behind Faneca and he has become too slow (old?) to effectively pull. And, ironically, he let Seymour have a free shot at Favre, which didnt look too different from the one let up last year by Clarke that caused the Clemens injury. Right now Moore is the best guard on the Jets. Easily.

This was a very bad signing. Had they wanted him around to mentor Ferguson and Mangold they should have just waited a year and signed him as assistant offensive line coach.