2014 New York Jets - ESPN's Dumb Game-By-Game Predictions

Using Advanced Football Analytics (formerly NFL Stats), ESPN's projection for the Jets upcoming season is a 7-9 record.  As a Jets fan this is not something that is particularly enjoyable to read, yet at the same time, if someone asked me if I would be surprised if the Jets finished 7-9 I'd say no.

It's not so much the record that bothers me.  It's when I looked at it game by game that the ridiculousness started to stand out.  Look at some of these scores:

-The Jets are going to be outscored 63-17 in their 10th and 11th games at home against Pittsburgh and then in Buffalo?  They are more than capable of losing those games but that doesn't sound right to me.

-Did Advanced Football Analytics predict and some devastating injuries before the Nov. 9 game vs. Pittsburgh?  I thought that was a pretty favorable part of their schedule.  In their last 4 games they have Minnesota, Tennessee and Miami who are not good football teams and it's their game against New England at home.  Not only were they predicted to lose those games; they are predicted to allow over 30 points to both Tennessee and Miami.  3 out of 4 of those games are on the road.  I'm not saying they will win any of them but all of a sudden they are going to go from giving up 17 points a game in their first 9 games to giving up almost 30 in their last 7?  And in those 9 games they average giving up 17 points a game they are play Green Bay, Chicago Detroit, Denver and New England in there and in their last 7 they play Buffalo, Miami (twice) and Tennessee.  These don't make any sense.

I hate game by game projections before a season starts.  I get that the guys who write the season previews have to provide content but it's probably the most useless information you can provide.

*the image to the left will link you to ESPN's NFL Preview

My Two Cents on the Jets Draft

My ideal first three rounds would be:
1st Round: Darqueze Dennard, CB, Michigan State
2nd Round: Austin Seferian-Jenkins, TE, Washington
3rd Round: Allen Robinson, WR, Penn State

I know as a Jets fan I'm supposed to want to upgrade our offense in the first round of the draft.  The Jets leading receiver only had 43 catches for 523 yards.  The guys tied for 2nd wasn't even on the team until Week 5.  So obviously, my dream is for Darqueze Dennard to fall to the Jets at the 18th pick.

That's right.  I want a cornerback again in the first round.  I just don't want any CB, I was Dennard.  If he's gone then fine, go ahead and grab a receiver (except Marqise Lee).  From all the college football I watched this past season, Dennard is ready to play in Rex Ryan's defense from Day 1.  So much more so than Dee Milliner was last year.  I don't really think he'll be around at 18 but you never know.

And for everyone who wants the Jets to draft a WR in the first round, here's some food for thought:  Out of the 24 NFL receivers who caught for over 1000 yards last year, only 7 of them were first round picks in the draft.  Three of them (Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson and A.J. Green) went in the Top 5 overall.

A Week 14 Jets Rant - With a Chart!

Remember last month when the Jets beat New Orleans and were 5-4 with a bye week and the lowly 3-7 Buffalo Bills coming up next?  That was a good time.

Even though Jets fans were riding high after the New Orleans win, signs the wheels were about to come off the season actually started that week.  It was the week they put the training wheels on Geno Smith.  The Jets had some brutal games against New England, Tennessee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati but something about them was oddly watchable.  They were throwing the ball down the field.  Since the Cincinnati game in Week 8, Geno Smith hasn't completed double digit passes in a game.  The Jets defense is pretty good but not good enough to overcome three and outs over and over again. 

I'm on record as a Mark Sanchez apologist but I was slowly getting on board with Geno Smith a little bit.  It was probably more on board with Marty Mornhinweg but either way, the Jets offense was moving the ball a little.  It was encouraging.  But when they overachieved to the point where the playoffs were a possibility they then decided that they weren't going to let Geno blow it for them.  But that's exactly what they did.  Geno can say all the right things in the media but the Jets shattered his confidence and he's now a historically bad quarterback.  He's broken and I don't want to watch him any more.  The sweet line graph below shows the decrease in first downs the Jets are getting per game.  The line indicates when Geno's training wheels were put on.

The question now becomes what do the Jets owe to their fans going forward?  We're coming up to Week 14 now and Geno Smith has started every game.  If the Jets haven't seen all they need to see from this guy, then I am very concerned.  I'm not going to say I want to see Matt Simms start or I want to see David Garrard start since none of them are the long term answer either, so I'll just say I want to see Not Geno Smith as the Jets QB.  They've thrown up three consecutive "no competes" and it's very hard to watch.  I just need to see something different.  From a franchise standpoint I get why they have to start Geno Smith but if they have to do it, can they please open up the playbook again?  If we have to keep watching this guy, then can we at least see the ball travel more than 6 yards in the air?  I can take the turnovers to an extent if we're trying to push the ball down field.  If the Jets are still evaluating Geno Smith can they at least evaluate him by letting him do something?

I know John Idzik is trying build something here but at the same time don't the fans deserve a somewhat watchable product?

The Mark Sanchez Apologist

One rule I have about sports betting is that I can't bet for or against my favorite teams.  Winning money on my team losing doesn't lessen the blow of the loss and I'm just superstitious enough to believe that maybe if I didn't bet on my favorite team to win that they wouldn't have lost.  I'm aware it's irrational, yet I still don't want to feel those feelings.

So yesterday was "big" news from Jets camp.  Although it's been unofficial for over a week, Geno Smith was officially named the starter for Week 1.  The reason I brought up the sports betting is that the Jets Win Total in Vegas right now is 6.  If I was capable of betting on this, I think the under is a pretty solid bet with Geno Smith playing.  He's not ready.  If Sanchez was starting the season I would have been more inclined to take the over.  Don't get me wrong, the Jets are not a playoff caliber team but if I'm putting a number to it, I believe Sanchez is worth at least 2-3 wins more than Geno Smith right now.

So after everything I've seen during the Mark Sanchez era, how can I justify a statement like that?  Easier than you think:

2009-2010 - These years are easy.  Two AFC Championships games and beat Tom Brady and Peyton Manning on the road in the playoffs.  Also overlooked is his 9:3 TD to INT ratio in the postseason. 

2011 - Sure he turned the ball over 22 times but it wasn't all negative.  He also accounted for 32 touchdowns (26 passing, 6 rushing).  He was only one of seven QBs to reach that amount that year.  Also take in to account that they chose Santonio Holmes over Braylon Edwards(whom Sanchez obviously had a better re pore with) after the 2010 season and replaced him with a fresh from prison Plaxico Burress.  They also let one of his favorite security blankets get away in Jerricho Cotchery and replaced him with a finished Derrick Mason.  If you watched that year you saw Plaxico and Mason weren't able to get any separation.  He was routinely throwing to covered receivers.  The Jets missed the playoffs and took a step back as a team, but Mark Sanchez actually showed me the ability to put TDs on the board.

2012 - Of course Sanchez takes a lot of blame for last year.  It was a terrible year.  But I also put a lot of it on Tony Sparano.  Brian Schottenheimer wasn't a great offensive coordinator, but at least he was an offensive coordinator.  Rex Ryan has made a lot of decisions that people question over the years, but for me the worst decision he made was bringing in Sparano to run the offense.  Week to week it looked like the team didn't even have a game plan.  I don't know if any quarterback could have succeeded in that "system" last year.

I'm not saying that Mark Sanchez's leash should have been infinite; I just really wanted to give him one more year under an actual offensive coordinator.  I'm not saying Marty Mornhinweg is some offensive wizard who could have saved Sanchez's career or anything but like Brian Schottenheimer, he's a guy who at least has a plan week to week.  If Sanchez fell on his head this year then I was fine going with Geno Smith at some point.  But as an organization it was always going to be harder to go from Geno Smith back to Mark Sanchez then it was going to be going from Mark Sanchez to Geno Smith.  So now that it is Geno Smith from Week 1, I imagine we'll never see Mark Sanchez throw another pass in a Jets uniform. 

My Thoughts on the Revis Trade and The Upcoming Draft

I'll start with the Darrelle Revis trade.  It's tough to lose (who I thought was) the best defensive player in the NFL but I'm in support of it.  Ideally I would have liked to get another mid-round pick in this year's or next year's draft but still, I think it's a move that had to be made.

I'm in agreement with the Jets philosophy that no matter how good a player he might be, you don't pay a corner back $16,000,000 a year.  I'm shocked that Revis took no guaranteed money in his deal.  There is no way he plays out that contract.  Right now Tampa Bay can afford that luxury because most of their contributing pieces are still on their first contract.  When Doug Martin, Lavonte David, Mike Williams, Mark Barron and Mason Foster (etc.) start needing new contracts, on top of deciding whether or not to give Josh Freeman big money, freeing up Revis' money as he gets to 30 years old is going to start looking more and more like a good solution to those problems.

I'm also tired of hearing that the Jets could have offered the same deal with no guaranteed money.  What would have been the point?  The Jets aren't Darrelle Revis away from a Super Bowl.  Why pay him 16 million a year if the they are trying to rebuild?  Having two picks in the top half of the first round is a great opportunity to accelerate the rebuilding process a little.

One thing I'm not going to miss about Darrelle Revis is the constant threat of holding out and accusing everyone of lying to him.  Every off-season (including this one) has been exhausting as fan.  And he's going around saying the Jets never even tried to offer him a contract.  If his agents made it clear that they weren't budging on 16 million a year and the Jets are philosophically opposed to paying a CB that type of money, why should he have expected them to?  And as far as the Jets telling Revis that they planned on him being a Jet this year is all part of the business.  The Jets had little to no leverage to begin with, if Idzek tells Revis that they have every intention of trading him the they lose even what little they had.  He needs to stop taking the business side of football so personally.  Especially since somewhere someone always is willing to pay him.  It's not like he's ever been getting ripped off.  Out of college, after his holdout, the Jets paid him above slot.

After all the bad press the Jets get, it is very important they don't mess up this draft.  Especially the first round.  That's why, although it's not the sexy thing to do, I play it super safe.  I'm worried that most mocks have the Jets taking Barkevious Mingo at 9.  He's undersized and only managed 4.5 sacks his last year in college.  That sounds like too much bust potential for me.  I'm not interested in Jarvis Jones at 13 either.  Normally I'm all about the guy who produces over the guy with measurables but if I'm the Jets I can't risk taking a guy with Spinal Stenosis.  It has already cut short a few careers already and Jones is already going to be a 24 year old rookie.  Too risky.  I think with one of the two picks they need to take one of the guards, Jonathan Cooper or Chance Warmack.  Putting one of those on a line with Nick Mangold and D'Brickashaw Ferguson in their prime would be a can't miss pick.  I also would like for the Jets to immediately replace Revis.  Granted, Dee Milliner can't replace Revis but I've been very disappointed in Kyle Wilson's development and the thought of him lining up as the other starting CB does scare me a little.  Chances are he's not around by the 9th pick but if he is, I think they have to grab him. 

I know everyone says the Jets need a pass rusher in this draft.  I don't disagree but their situation cries out for just taking the best player available.  It'd be nice if it Dion Jordan or Ezekiel Ansah fell down to them but other than those guys I'd stay away from a pass rusher in the first round.

Some other guys I wouldn't mind seeing the Jets take later:

-Miguel Maysonet, RB, Stony Brook
Being a Long Islander, having a local guy on the Jets would be fun.  And they do need another RB.

-Marcus Lattimore, RB, South Carolina
I love Lattimore.  I don't think I'd take him before the 4th round but based on who he is, and how hard he works, someone will take a chance on him somewhere in the 3rd.

-Denard Robinson, ATH, Michigan
Granted, he has little experience as a WR but instead of taking Tavon Austin at 9 overall, why not take a chance on a play maker in the 4th or 5th round.  **Added bonus, if Rex still believes in the Wildcat, this guy is ideal.

**I'm only partially kidding

-Phillip Thomas, S, Fresno State
The Jets are in dire need of safeties.  They signed Dawan Landry who is more of an in the box safety and while I really can't speak to Thomas' coverage skills on tape, I value production and he had 8 picks last year

A Few Hundred Words on the 2012 New York Jets

I'm prepared to talk about the Jets 2012 season now.

I've mentioned in the past that in all my years of being a Jets fan, this might have been my least favorite.  At least during the 1-15 debacle I was a freshmen in college with my whole life ahead of me.  My distaste for this season doesn't come from Mark Sanchez regressing terribly, a 6-10 record, putting up less than 20 points a game, having the best defensive player in the league injured for the year or still not having a legitimate pass rusher.  It was because of the media.  Record wise, the Jets had done the same or worse than 2012 on three other occasions already.  It's fine.  It happens.  The one thing that got under my skin all year was that the Jets were a "circus."  Granted, they did sign up for extra media attention when Woody wanted to bring in Tim Tebow but I think the public and media perception of how much Tim Tebow SHOULD have been used overshadowed how much the Jets planned on using him.  Prior to the season people were predicting that Tebow was here to eventually unseat Sanchez but the Jets never said that.  They emphasized that Sanchez was the starter and Tebow was the back up and there would be a package of plays for Tebow that would be sprinkled in.  Rex also said that Tebow can be used lightly or up to 20 plays a game depending on the situation.  Everyone seemed to run with that "20" number.  I'm sure you can point to Rex starting Greg McElroy over Tebow in Week 16 as mishandling the Tim Tebow situation but if you look at it objectively, you could not start Tebow in Week 16.  It was abundantly clear by that point that Tebow was not coming back next year.  Personally I don't think you could have risked Tebow having any chance for success in a meaningless game.  That would have caused an even bigger uproar.  But at no point in the season did I think the Jets lied about Tebow's role.  I think it was blown out of proportion because he was Tim Tebow.  If they never made that trade and Drew Stanton was sitting as the #2 then Sanchez would have been benched weeks before he was.  The Jets had a package for Tim Tebow and they know he can't run a pro style offense.

I understand Rex has kind of made his bed with all the negative press the Jets get but other than his off base statement about how this could be the best team he's ever coached, Rex was very tame this year.  He was still media friendly but without any bold predictions and rarely talking playoffs or looking ahead.  I do believe that Rex Ryan will be a head coach again and he will have learned from his mistakes here and be successful (Spoiler Alert! I don't think he's back next year.)

Touching on what actually happened on the field this year, I want to blurb about a few players:

-Shonn Greene: Another yawn of a 1000 yard season.  I'm ready to move on from him.  I like Bilal Powell better (although I don't think he's a workhorse either) and I'm a believer in not spending a lot of money on RBs.  The Jets don't have a lot of flexibility with the cap so I'd task my new GM with finding a cheap alternative to pair with Powell.

-Braylon Edwards: Despite having zero success since he left the Jets, I always said that the Jets picked wrong when they kept Santonio Holmes over Edwards.  I view Santonio Holmes as a glorified slot receiver masquerading as a #1.  When healthy I like what Edwards brings to the table.  Sure he drops a few too many but he also makes some tough catches as well.  I'd take this opportunity to bring him back on the cheap.  They still need help at WR but going in to next season with Holmes, Edwards and Jeremy Kerley as their Top 3, for some reason I wouldn't hate that based on their cap restraints.

-Mike DeVito: He's an unrestricted free agent now and I'm going to miss him if he goes.  I was surprised to learn he made 2.5 million this year and he earned every penny.  He is the blue collar guy that the Jets defense needs.  Not flashy but he is really solid against the run.

-Quinton Coples: It was tough to see Chandler Jones have 6 sacks halfway through the season and going from confused by Seattle's pick to wishing Bruce Irvin lasted just one more spot.  But although the Jets still desperately need a guy who can get to the QB on his own, I'm currently okay with Coples.  He showed me flashes this year and surprisingly led the team in sacks this year (only 5.5 but still).  I'm not getting too excited because apparently he has a history of lacking motivation but so far so good.

-Kyle Wilson:  It confuses me why he is getting such a pass.  I know the Jets some how ended up the year with solid numbers against the pass but I can't honestly say I think Wilson played well.  He's not developing at all and I don't care what defensive back metrics you can throw at me, just watching him week in and week out, he seems to get toasted once or twice a game.  I'm holding him to a higher regard than I should because of his draft status and maybe that's not fair anymore but if Antonio Cromartie or Darelle Revis leave one day, I don't think he's the answer as a starter.

So far in to the new year, the Jets let go of Mike Tannenbaum which was definitely the right now and they gave Rex a reprieve right now.  I am on record as saying that I would like their to be a way for Rex to coach the team next year but if the GM goes, the coach has to go too.  It's not fair to the new GM to not allow him to bring in his own coach.  What I believe is happening is that Woody will hire a GM and Rex will be interviewing with him to keep his job.  And personally I don't think Rex Ryan will be back.  And if he is back, I won't be able to shake the notion that we hired the wrong guy as GM and he was only hired because of his willingness to let this situation happen.  It's a tricky situation as a Jets fan.

The beauty of the NFL is that it's not impossible to change a team from a 6-10 record to 10-6 record in one year.  So hopefully the Jets hire a good ringmaster to bring the big top down on all this circus garbage.

See?  Circus analogies are annoying.

I'm There. It's Time to Blow Up The Jets

It's that time for another Jets rant.  I was going to do this earlier but I needed some time to collect my thoughts or else this would have been more of a ramble.

So I've finally come to the point where I'm ready to blow it up.  It's a hard conclusion for me to come to because I do believe Rex Ryan will be a pretty successful head coach in the NFL.  Unfortunately if he does, his stop with the Jets will be the place he made the mistakes he will learn from.  If I'm making a pie chart...screw it I'm making a pie chart:

As you can see, I place most of the blame on Mike Tennenbaum.  I understand Rex Ryan has input on players but when it comes to putting a bad roster together, the GM is the one who needs to take the fall.  Tennenbaum loves trading up in the draft to get guys he wants (Revis, Harris, Greene, Sanchez) and it's kind of worked out (and I'm counting Sanchez as kind of working out if you go back and look at that trade*).  That's on Tennenbaum.  Rex can coach defense.  The history is there as a coordinator and in his first couple of years as a head coach.  Ideally I would still like to give him a couple of more years but someone needs to be the scapegoat for this year.  Brian Schottenheimer was the guy for last year so they can't go back to the Offensive Coordinator well again and fire Tony Sparano.  So the guy has to be Tennenbaum.  Unfortunately for Rex they need to be a package deal.  It's unfair to bring in a new GM and not let him hire a new Head Coach.  And if they made the new GM keep Rex it would only be delaying the inevitable that situation never works out.  Just cut ties and blow the thing up.

Where I fault Rex Ryan the most is actually in the hiring of Tony Sparano.  That was a miserable hire and you could see it coming from a mile away.  Just because Rex wants to run a certain type of offense doesn't mean they had the pieces to run it.

Notice on the pie chart that Mark Sanchez isn't represented.  I actually feel really bad for this guy.  He has the talent to succeed in this league.  I'm sure of it.  But the Jets broke him and they did it at every turn.  The receiving core they marched out there in 2011 was so old and incapable of getting open.  They had Santonio Holmes as a #1 when in reality he is a glorified slot receiver, Plaxico Burress who was helpful in the red zone but completely unable to get any separation between the 20s and an on his last legs Derrick Mason.  Gone was Jericho Cotchery who was his most reliable receiver and gone was Braylon Edwards who was the only guy on the team who could actually stretch the field.  Somehow he managed to throw for 26 TDs and run for 6 more.  Then forget about the Tim Tebow disaster.  I tried to talk myself in to is possibly working but every Jets fan knew that it was going to be a disaster.  Not only didn't it work from an on field aspect, the media writing about Tebow week in and week out has made this season unbearable.  I would trade this season in for the 1-15 season in a heartbeat.  

If the Jets had lost a normal game to the Patriots on Thanksgiving then I actually think this regime would be safe for next year.  There are a few legitimate excuses for a down year.  Their best defensive player (if not the best defensive player in the league) and their "best" offensive player are out for the year.  But to lose the way they lost on a football holiday on national television means heads have to roll.

As a lifelong Jets fan I would like to close out with a prediction:

At the urging of Woody Johnson Tim Tebow gets his shot.  The Jets finishing up the last five games facing teams with a combined record of 18-37 they run the table with Tebow at the helm.  The 9-7 record doesn't get them in the playoffs but it saves every one's job.  The Jets brass are convinced that Tim Tebow is their guy for 2013 completely ignoring the fact that they were playing lousy teams.  Tim Tebow being a disgusting NFL quarterback leads the Jets to a 4-12 2013 season wasting yet another year.

*Jets move from 17 to 5, give up a 2nd rounder in the same draft and send Kenyon Coleman, Abram Elam and Brett Ratliff to Cleveland.  Look at what Washington gave up for RGIII this year (two future 1st round picks and a 2nd rounder in this past draft. And that was only to move up 4 spots).  The Jets gave up essentially nothing to get Sanchez.  The worst thing a Jets fan can do is wonder how the draft would have shaken out if that trade never happened.  The Browns traded the 17th pick that was the Jets pick to Tampa to select Josh Freeman.  Cleveland flubbed the 2nd round pick they got from the Jets (David Veikune) but the player who went with the pick right after was LeSean McCoy.  I'm not super high on Freeman but the offense does seem like it would be in better hands with Freeman and a do-it-all back like Shady McCoy doesn't it?

Thank God This Jets Offseason Is Over

I get very excited about Jets season.  I love it.  I ingest every column or blog I can.  But this year, it is by far my least favorite offseason ever.  It's not that I don't have high hopes for them this year, I do.  I think they can be a 10 win team but it's gotten to the point where I have to stop every Jets article half way through because I can't read about Tim Tebow anymore.  I just can't.  I know he's a popular guy but I don't get it.  The Jets have been running the Wildcat for years.  Adding Tebow the player to run it is not a big deal.

But Tebow the person ruined training camp for me.  I do not believe the Jets camp was a circus.  Every beat writer I heard said it was overblown when the national media was all over the Jets camp atmosphere.  So there was more people at Cornell this year.  I didn't see any of them on stilts.  And because Tebow is here the media made a big deal out of mundane camp happenings like fighting.  Every team has fights in camp.  Heck Rex Ryan told Rob Turner to go start a fight with Vernon Gholston with HBO cameras around a few years ago.  Little was made about that and the coach essentially ordered a Code Red!

I'm just tired of it.  Right now I have not seen one person predict the Jets to make the playoffs.  But other than not fully addressing their RT situation, they did get faster on offense and defense.  And despite their turnstile at RT last year they were still 8-8 so they weren't bad to begin with.  So Tim Tebow is here now as a backup QB and Wildcat QB and that's made them worse?  I don't see it.

I finally can't wait to get this season going.  Hopefully by next week the Jets will be 1-0 heading to Pittsburgh, Tebow will have seen 6 or 7 Wildcat snaps for about five yards a play and everyone will finally see how not a big deal this whole Tebow thing really is.

My Tim Tebow Rant

Throughout this post I'm going to make a lot of justifications for the Tebow trade, I'm going to talk about grand upsides and great hypotheticals but I want to go on record that I would have preferred the Jets didn't get Tim Tebow. But as I fan, I have to accept that it happened and start the process of convincing myself it will be okay.

The Jets are getting a lot of crap from making what was deemed to be a financial decision over a football decision. While I don't fully agree with that statement necessarily (although it obviously played some part), why is that so wrong? When a player is cut or player leaves a team to sign somewhere else, both the player and the front offices will say how they get it, it's a business. Why doesn't that work both ways? Why can't a team get a player and have it be partially a business decision?

Another reason they are taking a lot of heat for this is because everyone thinks Mark Sanchez's psyche is so fragile that bringing in a guy to play behind him that a lot of people will want to see get on the field will break him. I'm a Mark Sanchez backer. And I don't see the correlation between turning the ball over during a game to being a head case off the field. Please don't think this is a head to head comparison but Brett Favre threw more that 15 picks a year for more than half his career. So maybe Sanchez's ceiling is a 30-16 (TD-INT) type QB. You can win with that. I'll admit he regressed last year but I vividly remember his first two years in the league and that I was oddly comfortable with him in the 4th quarter. I also vividly remember his 9-3 (TD-INT) ratio in playoff games. And it's not like the Jets backslid from 9-7 to 11-5 to 3-13. They backslid to 8-8. they were a right tackle away from probably making the playoffs again. And even though he turned the ball over something like 22 times last year, he also accounted for 32 TD (26 passing and 6 rushing). So he is capable of making plays. And who knows, maybe finally having a guy threaten his playing time will actually be good for him and not have him crumble like everyone already thinks he will.

I've been subjecting myself to sports talk radio the last few days and there seems to be this overwhelming feeling that the Jets are going to now revamp the entire offense for Tebow. I don't see how that's true. You can keep the same offensive you have but add in a Tim Tebow package of plays? I understand Tebow is a huge name and a former first round pick but he's not making a ton of money. There are other back-up QBs in the league that actually make more money than him. From a financial standpoint there should be no obligation to play him. The bonus is that he'll be a back-up QB who actually contributes on the field for a few plays a game. And it's not like the Wildcat offense and the Jets is new. They aren't doing it because they got Tebow. They've been doing it anyway. They dialed it back last year without Brad Smith but they still ran it a few times throughout the season and now they have a pass option behind it.

Like I said above, I would have preferred Tebow went elsewhere. I didn't want to hear calls for Tebow every time Sanchez had a bad game. But in listening to the Jets front office, Sparano likes the Wildcat and Rex hated defending so if I take them at their word that this is Sanchez's team and Tebow will see the field a few times a game in gimmick packages then I'm willing to give it a shot and see where it goes. I keep hearing "Tebow didn't come here to be a backup!" But the fact is, he didn't come here, he was brought here and now has to accept his role which is hopefully that of a back-up QB who gets a few gimmick reps. But if the Jets start making changes to accommodate Tebow's style on a scale unfitting to a back-up, that's where I start calling for heads.