Cimini: Mr. T Discusses Jets West, Free Agency, Draft

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Mr. T discusses Jets West, free agency, draft

May, 9, 2011

May 9

2:51

PM ET

By Rich Cimini

Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum took time out from his locked-out schedule to discuss a few topics Monday afternoon on 1050 ESPN Radio. Here you go:

On Mark Sanchez conducting his "Jets West" camp last week in Southern California: "That's something Mark has been doing on his own for a number of years. We really don't know more than what we've read ourselves. I think what we can talk about is Mark's maturation, his leadership. When Woody (Johnson), Rex (Ryan) and I decided to make that trade up for Mark, we really thought football was important to him, that leadership was something that came naturally to him. So the fact that he'd do something like this is no surprise to us."

On his plans for the Jets' number of high-profile free agents -- i.e. Braylon Edwards, Santonio Holmes and Antonio Cromartie: "We have a couple of different plans, depending on what the rules are. There are a lot of variables we can't control. When we know what the rules are -- who's free, who's restricted -- we'll go from there."

On drafting players such as Kenrick Ellis and Scotty McKnight, both of whom have character questions in their background: "That's a really fair point. All I ask is, judge them when they're Jets. If you look at some of the people we brought in -- Antonio Cromartie, Santonio Holmes, Braylon -- some of them have had more bumps in the road in the past than others. With that said, by and large, they're not only good players, but good members of the community. Obviously, Braylon had his little issue with his DUI, which we've tried to rectify.

"I'm betting on our organization, and I'm betting on the players we drafted that there will be a good result. We put in a lot, a lot of research in terms of whether the risk is worth the reward, and we feel good about it. Only time will tell. Some of these guys have made mistakes, but we think they've learned from them."

[Drums]

You know, I don't know if we'll win the super bowl this year, if there's even a season, but one thing I know is I like the way things are going for us. We're going to be competitive for a while and we've been really good in the playoffs with Rex. With that said, I think we will get a ring with this coaching staff.. hopefully soon.