Tanne on needs

[visajets]

Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum on draft needs, Nnamdi Asomugha, Jason Taylor and more

Published: Thursday, February 24, 2011, 6:30 PM Updated: Thursday, February 24, 2011, 6:45 PM

By Jenny Vrentas/The Star-Ledger

Chris Faytok/The Star-LedgerJets GM Mike Tannenbaum said the team will make some roster decisions, on players like Vernon Gholston and Jason Taylor, before the end of the league year.

INDIANAPOLIS — Rex Ryan promised to win the Super Bowl. So what else is new?

Well, here's some quick hits — on other matters — from general manager Mike Tannenbaum, who met with the media today at the annual scouting combine.

On if they would draft a safety or pass rusher with their first pick:

We will certainly take the best player. It is interesting, when we made the decision to hire Rex, one of the questions that Woody Johnson and I asked Rex was 'How come Baltimore has had the success that they have had as long as they have had?' He said Ozzie (Newsome) always believed in taking the best player available. If you go to the ’09 draft for us, we traded up a lot to get Mark Sanchez, not only in players but draft choices. And two rounds later, Shonn Greene was there and we had Thomas Jones and Leon Washington at the time. I was the last one on the board on the decision. We gave up a lot to get Shonn but in hindsight, it looks like a pretty good decision. We are going to stick to that philosophy. We will take the best player. Could be a pass rusher, could be a safety, could be an offensive player, but we will try to stick to that philosophy as best as we can.

On if they have evaluated this year's nose tackle class:

Yeah, we have started with that and for our defense, the depth is really important and we have tried to load up there with a few guys. Unfortunately, Kris (Jenkins) for us the last couple of years has been a little bit more banged up than we had hoped. But fortunately, Sione Pouha, Mike DeVito and even late in the year, Martin Tevaseu, gave us some time. Depth at that position is always important for us. There are some interesting guys (in the draft). We are going to sit down with some of them over the next few days and it certainly could be a possibility for us.

On the importance of tagging David Harris:

We said for a while we looked at D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Nick Mangold, Darrelle Revis and David as four guys that would be the foundation to our team. That was another step in the process to franchise David.

On the transition tag:

At this point, we are not going to use any other tag, and we are going to move forward without the transition tag.

On if there is any room to get a big-ticket free agent like Oakland CB Nnamdi Asomugha:

We’ll see. We would like to keep as many of our own guys as possible. That has really been our goal. How many of those we will be able to keep is really going to be hard to say right now. We have a plan, that plan is in pencil, and we will see how things play out. We would like to keep as many of our guys as possible. Being as close as we were, we have liked what they have done for us, they bought in, Coach Ryan likes a lot of them, that certainly is a factor in the decision.

On Jason Taylor's future with the Jets:

I had one quick conversation with Jason, and hopefully I'll speak with him over the next few days as well. But we don’t have any resolution ... Jason is one of those guys who did so much for us off the field. If you ask any of our players, they’ll say what a great teammate he is as well.

On Vernon Gholston's future with the Jets:

All these guys, we’re looking at a lot of them. Nothing's been finalized yet. We still have a few more days, and we’ll see where we go. ... I think there's some lose ends we want to take care of before the year ends.

On the report that the team has decided to move on from CB Antonio Cromartie, and where the Jets are in assessing their impending free agents:

Our plan is in pencil. We want to keep as many of our guys as possible. It is really hard to make these decisions within a context because we are not really sure what that context is right now. We have a lot of different scenarios. We look at the offseason as one big continuum to improve our team and we are not going throw out any way or any avenue to improve it. This year more than others, there is a big priority to try to keep as many of our guys as possible.

On QB Mark Sanchez's progress after escaping surgery on his throwing shoulder:

He's doing well. The feedback from our medical staff is he’s doing well. Mark’s very, very driven. Every day, I feel better about the decision about Mark, and I'm not talking about just what he’s done in the playoff games. ... He's more competitive than I thought, and I thought he was really competitive. ... I see how he deals with losses; it really bothers him. And that’s not just a soundbite. It deeply bothers him to lose a game. All the homework we did on him, I thought we were getting a really driven guy but he’s more driven than I even thought. It’s important to him to be called a champion one day, and I think he’s going to do what it takes to get there.

On using Vlad Ducasse at right tackle:

Certainly that’s something we’ve talked about. The flexibility that Vlad has, he's played tackle before. Coach Callahan does a great job cross training those guys.

On Kris Jenkins' recent critical comments to Newsday about the team's strength and conditioning and rehab program:

I can just go by what we have seen. I am really proud of the fact that since Woody Johnson has owned the team in 2000, the Jets have had the fewest players in the NFL on IR. I am really proud of that, and that statistic speaks for itself. Is the program going to be perfect for every player after every injury? Probably not. But a lot of people contribute to that statistic, and I am really proud of that.

Jenny Vrentas: jvrentas@starledger.com