NY Jets On Flight To Nowhere

So everything fell in to place for the NY Jets on Sunday; the Dolphins, Broncos, Ravens, and Jaguars all lost their respective games and Indianapolis Colts' Head Coach Jim Caldwell decided to hand the game to the Jets by pulling Peyton Manning and the rest of his starters halfway through the third quarter, and reducing the game to an exhibition game for his second string. Surprisingly the Jets stepped up to the opportunity, something they have failed to do repeatedly throughout the season, and manhandled the Colts backups, handing Indianapolis their first loss of the season and first loss in the last 24 regular season games (an amazing run by a powerhouse of an organization). It's obvious that had the Colts stayed with their starters they would have won that game and continued their streak. But Caldwell chose to rest his guys and get the second stringers some reps. Result - Rex Ryan's New York Jets' Playoff hopes are still alive. And if Cincinatti Bengals' Head Coach Sherman Lewis decides to do the same thing by resting Quarterback Carson Palmer and friends before the Playoffs the NY Jets will be the lucky recipients of another gift victory for the second week in a row.


But where do you think the New York Jets are gonna go? The Playoffs? The AFC Championship Game? Dare I say the Super Bowl? Wake up Rex Ryan! Wake up Jets fans! The NY Jets are on a flight to Nowhere, USA. If, by some miracle charity donation from Sherman Lewis, the Jets do win their last game at Giants Stadium, they have no chance in the post season. Believe me. I've been a Jets fan my whole life. I know. They're setting us up for heartbreak. But I won't let them break my heart this time; because I don't believe they can beat a real NFL Playoff team - with their starters - anyway. They may very well play the Bengals again in Cincinnati in the Wildcard Game if they do beat them this week at Giants Stadium, and that would be a good Bengals team including all their well rested starters. Let's face it; the Jets lost to some bad and mediocre teams this season including Buffalo, Jacksonville, Atlanta, and Miami twice. If rookie Mark Sanchez didn't throw the game away the Jets seemed to always find a way to lose it on defense offense or special teams gaffs. Always giving up the big play at crucial moments in the game. So if the New York Jets get a late Christmas present from the Bengals enjoy it this week because next week their just gonna find a way to break their fans green hearts. The legend of Joe Namath will live on.


Photo Getty/Andy Lyons

Mark Sanchez Throws Jets' Season Away

I should have known it before Mark Sanchez and the NY Jets' loss to the New England Patriots in Foxboro on Sunday; I just didn't want to admit it yet. But it's pretty much official now at 4-6 the New York Jets are out of the NFL Playoff hunt. I should have known it after last weeks loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. The New England Patriots are not the same team the Jets faced in the second game of the season when Tom Brady was still working off the rust and Wes Welker was not back yet. And the New York Jets are not the team we once thought they were at 3-0 or even 3-3. They clearly played over their heads at the beginning of the season, particularly Mark Sanchez who has looked every bit like the Rookie he is the last two months.

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Rex Ryan talked a good game. It was fun while it lasted (three weeks). It was really fun beating the Patriots in week two. I guess that was like Jets fans' Super Bowl for 2009. There's always next year. Bill Belichick's New England Patriots are the class of the AFC East and the Miami Dolphins are still in the Wildcard hunt. Rex Ryan says that Mark Sanchez is the Jets Quarterback of the present and the future, so for now we'll just have to sit back and watch him throw interceptions and fumble the ball and hopefully learn from his mistakes.


Rex Ryan 11/22/09 AP Photo
Rex Ryan's defense has also been a disappointment this year. Expected to be a strong point of this years Jets team, the defense continues to fail. This past Sunday they couldn't figure out what to do about Wes Welker in the slot, giving up 15 receptions for 192 yards to him. Rex Ryan is gonna have to figure out a way to get his defense to play more inspired football in the future, or else he won't have much of a future in New York. The Jets just need to go back to the drawing board and put the pieces together. The rest of this 2009 season will just be to develop Sanchez and the Defense and evaluate the depth on the whole team. Hopefully the NY Jets can save some face the remainder of the season and learn as much as they can and go in to next season with some more talent from the draft and free agent market and put a winning program together in the near future. If not we'll be looking at another change in coaching and philosophy in 2011. Right now it seems like the rest of the season it will be the (excuse the cliche') Same Old Jets again. Oh well. I guess I can route for that other team in New York for now.

NY Jets' Statistics Lie

Wow! Look at the NY Jets Stats against the Miami Dolphins yesterday. They must have kicked the Dolphin's butt huh? The Jets dominated in all offensive and defensive Stats including 23 First Downs to the Dolphin's 10, 378 Total Net Yards to Miami's measly 104, and 6 Sacks for a loss of 60 Yards to Miami's 2 Sacks for a loss of 14 Yards. Mark Sanchez also played a solid game, going 20-35 for 265 Yards, 2 TD's and one Rushing TD. You'd expect that the Jets won; but not so fast! The one Stat that proves to be the difference in this game, the second loss to the Dolphins this season, is Kickoff Return Yardage. The Dolphins' Ted Ginn Jr. returned 6 Kickoffs for 299 Yards and 2 Touchdowns. Ironically Ginn Jr. was in the doghouse this week after a series of drops against the Saints last week, which actually cost the Dolphins the game. Benched as the starting WR, Ginn Jr. made up for his sins by coming up big on Special Teams. In the process he made the Jets Special Teams, ordinarily a strong unit, look downright terrible. I mean TWO TD's on Kickoff Returns! ONE is bad enough! But TWO! Ted Ginn Jr. became only the eighth player in NFL History to return two in the same game for touchdowns. Rex Ryan "takes his hat off" to Ginn Jr. It's hard to believe that that happened to a Mike Westhoff coached Special Teams. A complete anomally in Westhoff's career as well as in the history of NFL Football. Ironic that it should happen against the Jets in a divisional game which had huge implications in the AFC East. The Jets had a chance to be 5-3, which would have put them only a half game behind New England, and would have put the nail in the coffin of Miami, which would have been 2-5. But No. They had to lose and now they're going in to the Bye Week at 4-4 instead of two games above .500. Now Miami is 3-4, only a half game behind them. And the Jets already lost to Buffalo, so they have to win that second Buffalo game in order to have a chance of going .500 in their division. That also means they'd have to sweep the Patriots, by beating them again, and New England is looking better as the season goes on.


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Rex Ryan has told his players to go and enjoy themselves for the week off. So the Jets can enjoy the Bye week and come back in two weeks against Jacksonville (3-4) and try to turn a new leaf over and start winning. They need to go 6-2 in their second half of the season in order to be a 10-6 team. That means winning the games against the 3-4 teams like the Jaguars, and Buffalo Bills, and Tampa Bay Bucaneers(0-7), because they have some tough teams (Cincinatti Bengals, Indianapolis Colts, and the Patriots) that they'll have to beat a few of in order to go 10-6. So after Rex and the boys rest up we get to see whether they can muster up enough character and be the team Jets fans thought they were at the start of the season when they went 3-0 and the ball seemed to bounce their way. All I know is that the NY Jets can't lose this week. We'll see what the following week brings.

What do you think the New York Jets are gonna do the rest of the 2009 season? Leave a comment and let us know.

Newsday Fantasy NFL Football League Pigskin Pick'em

I used to play a NFL Football pool at work but stopped a few years ago. I'm a huge NFL football fan and New York Jets fan but I'm not the biggest gambler and it kind of bothered me sometimes to pick against the Jets while using the spread some weeks. Sometimes I'd be rooting against my own team just because I wanted to win the pool (which I never did). It also bothered me that I'd be rooting more for a particular score rather than a win or loss in any given game. It also bothered me that some people would win the pool even though they knew nothing about football; the nerve of 'em. So I stopped playing. I never really caught on to the Fantasy Football thing either because it just took too much time to manage for me. But I just discovered a Fantasy Football League that's different from the others. It's more like a giant weekly and season long football pool on newsday.com's website. It's called Pigskin Pick'em. You can register for free at any point in the NFL season (I just registered week 6). You pick winners for each game each week without a spread. I love that there's no spread; makes it purer. Then you can choose up to five "Best Bets" out of the weeks games.

Game Scoring

You earn 5 points for every winning team you pick
You do not lose any points for a pick which your team lost
You earn 5 points for every correct Best Bet (a game you chose as a Best Bet where you also chose the winning team)
You lose 5 points for every incorrect Best Bet (a game you chose as a Best Bet where you picked the losing team)
In the event of a tie between two NFL teams, the game is voided for the current scoring period. The game and your pick will still display on the My Picks page but not be included in the scoring update for the week. If you chose a best bet on a tied NFL game, it also is voided, neither gaining or losing any points.


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Each week there are prizes of $25.00 for whoever scores the most points and at the end of the season there are big prizes for the top three cumulative winners. 1st Prize is $1000 Cash, 2nd Prize is a Playstation 3, and 3rd Prize is a Blu-Ray Player. It's fun and I can make my picks any time before the weekend and I don't have to put up ten bucks each week to play. The one thing it's missing is social networking. It would be nice to be able to interface with the other players. You can view their names and scores but you can't communicate with them. I earned 35 points my first week picking seven winners and seven losers. I wish I joined the first week of the season because some people have over 300 points already, but now I know and I can play next season from the beginning. And I don't have to pick the New York Jets every week, but this week I did pick them. They better spank the Oakland Raiders in Oakland.

So go to Newsday's Pigskin Pick'em and check it out. If you register and play you can look for me progressing up the chart to beat you. My name is Sportstuffblog (surprise, surprise). Drop me a comment to let me know you joined and tell me what you think. Have fun. Play Ball!


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New York Media Starts Same Old Jets Talk

The honeymoon is over Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez! It only took the New York media till week seven to start the "Same Old Jets" talk. If nothing else they are the same old Jets just because the media has decided to anoint them as such. After week three the NY Jets were 3-0 and the NY media was putting them up on a pedistal and calling Mark "The Kid" Sanchez the second coming of Broadway Joe, and Ryan was Weeb Ewbank. Now three weeks later at 3-3, after an ugly loss to the lowly Buffalo Bills in which Broadway Mark threw six INT's, they're looking more like Joe Walton and Glenn Foley. Such is life in the New York spotlight. In this town when you're playing well you're darlings, and when you're not you're in the doghouse. Welcome to the city that never sleeps Rex and Mark, have a nice stay!


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I think Rex Ryan knew that this season with a rookie QB at the helm, no matter who that QB is, there were gonna be some ups and downs. He also knew exactly what it would be like in the Big Apple under the microscope in the biggest media market in the world. All he had to do was ask his father Buddy. But Rex is a realist and he knows where his team stands. He knows he still has good players (one less if you count Kris Jenkins) who will respond to these losses and try to make the improvements needed to win again. He'll also have to make improvements in his game management. In the first three games things just seemed to fall in to place for the Jets. And the last three games it was just the opposite, especially the Bill's game, when they committed penalty after penalty after turnover after turnover after questionable call. Now they're talking about simplifying the playbook for Sanchez and going back to a more basic plan. After giving Sanchez the car keys and letting him take take out his date he should go back to riding his bicycle now. There's got to be a happy medium. Maybe they just let him bite off a little bit too much than he can chew. I give Rex Ryan credit for sticking with Sanchez. It's the right decision at this time. Don't panic just yet. Make a change now and you lose the team's confidence in your decision making. Sanchez made mistakes in his first three games. The difference was he didn't make too many mistakes, and the rest of the team, especially the defense, played much better and got the job done. We got a glimpse of what this team can do and we started to jump the gun like so many other seasons in New York. We liked what we saw and started dreaming of yesteryear. But wake up now. Back to reality.



The Jets go in to this weeks game against another lowly team, the Oakland Raiders. They should win this one. Sanchez just needs to develop his short term memory and forget about last week in particular. Protect the ball and don't turn it over. That, combined with better defense (without Jenkins), and good running will win games for the Jets. Once again, a good running game will take the pressure off The Kid and open up his Play-Action passing game. Get the win here where you should and prove the media wrong. Don't be the Same Old Jets!

Jets Need To Take Off After MNF Loss

In my last post I said that the NY Jets needed to do three things in order to win their Monday Night Football game in Miami against the Dolphins. I said rookie Mark Sanchez needed to protect the ball - he did. I said the Jets running game needed to get something going - they really didn't, but the passing game and offense overall was very good. And I said that the Jets defense had to find a way to contain the Miami Dolphins' Wildcat offense - they couldn't. Out of those three things you would have thought that the defense would handle their part of the deal. You would have thought that Sanchez would blow it somehow and or the running game would be anemic. Leon Washington and Thomas Jones only rushed for 44 and 42 yards respectively, but the running game was boosted by a pair of fake punts engineered by Special Teams Coach Mike Westhoff - one a beautiful 26 yard run by punter Steve Weatherford and the other a 12 yard scamper by Brad Smith. No, the Jets lost this one in surprising fashion. The previously tough Jets defense was totally unprepared to stop Miami and their ball control, clock eating, run happy Wildcat offense. Which, by the way, is what the Jets offense could look like if they could just excel at running the ball.



With the addition of Braylon Edwards, Mark Sanchez has another big threat at his disposal and the Sanchez-Edwards combo picked up any slack from the injured Jericho Cotchery and the weak rushing game, connecting five times for 64 yards and a TD. Edwards also made some key catches to set up two more scores. I get the feeling that Edwards is gonna be a key player on the New York Jets and I hope he keeps himself out of trouble so he doesn't wind up like the receiver from that Blue New York football team! Kudos to the Jets brass for going and rescuing him from Cleveland.



The Jets defense, though, is not the first defense to be embarassed by the Dolphins' unpredictable Wildcat scheme. They've been giving defenses fits since last season when they did it with Chad Pennington, and now they're doing it with Henne at the helm. Rex Ryan might be right that the Jets defense made Henne look like Dan Marino, but Mark Sanchez stepped up this game and looked like Ken O'Brien. The difference in this game was when the Dolphins went to the Wildcat the Jets D continued to come with the pressure and over pursued, and got burned for it. Repeatedly! But it wasn't like there was a lack of effort on the Jets' defenses part. Maybe they should have played more of a read and react type of game against this type of offense than a pure attack defense. But Rex Ryan's Defenses don't play that way. So they got burned. I think they'll be okay. They played great defense the first four games and the offense (Sanchez) made their mistakes. Now Sanchez stopped making mistakes and the offense played well but the defense had a lapse. When they finally put it all together with all three phases the New York Jets are gonna be some team. They should keep their heads up high. The Jets have to go in to next weeks game at home against the 1-4 Buffalo Bills and do just that. Put a complete game together and win a game that they should win. The Bills have their backs up against the wall and should not be considered a gimme. But the Jets should win this game and go in to the Raiders game at 4-2. And we all know what they should do against the Raiders. That would make them 5-2 when they meet up with Miami again. Maybe by then Rex Ryan can come up with some kind of plan to stop the Dolphins' dangerous Wildcat.

NY Jets' Sanchez Crash Back To Earth

After an incredible, unprecedented 3-0 start to his NFL career, Mark Sanchez - and the NY Jets - finally played a game in which they were unable to overcome his rookie mistakes against a strong New Orleans Saints team in The Big Easy. It looked like The Kid Sanchez had one too many Frozen Hurricanes on Bourbon Street Saturday night (hey, is he old enough to drink?). Throwing multiple interceptions(3), one for a TD, and fumbling in his own end zone, while handling the ball like a hot enchilada, for another TD, Sanchez finally played a rookie clunker of a game! It was bound to happen, especially against a solid playoff caliber team like the Saints at home. The sad thing is that the Jets defense played so incredible that it's amazing how bad the offense had to perform to lose this game. I mean two series which they held the Saints back on 4th down tries and a couple of times they made goal line stands and forced them to kick field goals instead of going for a touchdown. But without a consistent running game the Jets offense becomes one dimensional and predictable, and that's not a good thing when you have a rookie QB in there. This, coupled with the poor protection from the Jets offensive line, spelled disaster for Sanchez and company, despite the strong play from the defense.


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Hopefully The Kid learns from these mistakes. My guess is he will. He made mistakes in the first three games but not as many as in New Orleans. Brian Schottenheimer and Rex Ryan have undoubtedly been telling Sanchez to protect the ball the first few weeks. I'm sure this week they must've been screaming it at him. But the key for Rex Ryan's players is to be lose and have a good time. We'll see this Monday night in Miami if Mark Sanchez can do that. It's not as easy to have fun when you lose, and I'm sure Sanchez is feeling that right now. He doesn't want that losing feeling again; so the key for him is to protect the football and minimize his mistakes. If the Jets' running game can get something going (don't they have two Pro-Bowl running backs?) and if the defense can limit the Miami Dolphins' Wildcat Offense, which has been averaging 183 yards per game (tops in the NFL), and if Sanchez wipes the butter off his fingers, they can win this game and be 4-1 atop the AFC East after the New England Patriots lost to Denver Sunday to go 3-2. Those are three big ifs.

It's a huge test for these New York Jets, and it will reveal what kind of character they have in '09. If they can bounce back on the road after a big loss away from home it'll show what kind of a team Rex Ryan is building. We'll see what the New York Jets are made of on Monday Night Football in Miami. Mark Sanchez; are you ready for some football? Hold on to it this time and IF the rest of the team can keep their part of the bargain you should come out ahead.

New York Jets Becoming Darlings of NFL

After win number three against the Tennessee Titans, Rex Ryan's New York Jets are becoming unlikely darlings of the NFL. With another solid performance by rookie QB Mark Sanchez, and the Rex Ryan pressure cooker defense, the Jets go 3-0 and are starting to really look like a sure NFL Playoff team. Okay I said it! Why not? Sanchez The Kid became the first rookie QB since the NFL/AFL merger to win his first three games and looks more like a seasoned veteran than a first year kid, showing a resiliency to bounce back after committing mistakes, and an ability to put the nails in the coffin when the opportunity arises.

AP Photo Ed The Fireman

After playing a stellar first quarter in which he threw for one TD and rushed for another after the Titans rookie Ryan Mouton fumbled the ball on the ensuing kickoff return, Sanchez slipped back to rookie mode in the second quarter - fumbling the ball deep in Jets territory - and allowing the Titans back in the game. The defense also had a setback in allowing the first TD to be scored on them this season (wow! it took three games to give one up) when LenDale White brought it in from 5 yards out. Sanchez and the defense both showed they could bounce back from adversity later in the game, with a little help from the Special Teams. Brad Smith forced Mouton to fumble on another kick return and Larry Izzo recovered for the Jets on the Titans' 23 yard line. Four plays later Sanchez hit Jericho Cotchery for the go ahead points which the NY Jets never relinquished.

But the details are not the important thing here for the Jets. The important thing, and the thing which will make the New York Jets winners this season is that they're playing football and they're having fun playing football the Rex Ryan way; tough defense and special teams, strategic offense which sets the opposing defense up for big plays, and a loose, fun, confident, winners attitude. And the players and fans and media respond to this attitude by making the NY Jets the new up and coming Darlings of the NFL. There's no denying it any more. These guys are fun to watch and will be fun to watch as long as Rex Ryan is the Head Coach. It's a nice change after the last few years under the other guy (what's his name in Cleveland?). So let's sit back and enjoy Jets fans. Spark up those barbecues and bring on the beer! The New York Jets are fun to watch again. Play ball!



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Jets Get Patriots Monkey Off Their Back

After all the big talk the past week by Rex Ryan and his New York Jets leading up to the home opener against the New England Patriots, the Jets finally backed it up. They outplayed Tom Brady and the Pats in a 16-9 Jets victory, the first home win against New England in 9 years and a huge statement to the AFC East, and the rest of the NFL, that this NY Jets team is gonna be a force to reckon with. The aggressive Rex Ryan defense continued to play exciting rush-the-passer schemes; blitzing much of the time and not allowing Tom Brady to get comfortable in the pocket to complete passes. And Darrelle Reevis and company were brilliant in the secondary, virtually shutting down perennial Pro Bowl Receiver Randy Moss (having Patriots TE Wess Welker out didn't hurt the Jets either).

AP Photo/Bill Kostroun

Once again Mark Sanchez "The Kid" played solid football for a rookie (or a veteran for that matter)! After a slow first half in which Sanchez only atempted five passes, completing two for a net minus two yards, The Kid played a good, mistake free second half; going 12-of-17 in the second half for 165 yards and the only TD of the game. Sanchez didn't throw an interception (he did fumble the ball early in the game but it was recovered by the Jets).

What I said after last weeks win in Houston still holds true. If the Jets defense continues to bring the pressure on ala Rex Ryan (they're starting to resemble the Baltimore Ravens D), and Mark Sanchez continues to play smart mistake free football, and they can get a good running game going, they're gonna be good. That's alot of If's! But so far they've done all those things. It's only two games so far, but all indications are that the 2009 NY Jets can back up their talk and beat some good teams. Hey, they beat Bill Belichick's Patriots. So look out Tennessee Titans. Here come the NY Jets!

NY Jets New Era Gets Off To Good Start

The NY Jets Rex Ryan/Mark Sanchez Era got off to a nice start with the first game of the 2009 NFL Season. Sanchez The Kid looked like a seasoned veteran at times, making some mistakes at others, including one interception and an illegal hit on the ensuing return, and almost threw two more int's. But overall The Kid played at Pro speed and was surprisingly good, going 15-24 for 207 Yards with a 104.0 Rating! He was almost refreshing to watch.

AP Photo David J. Phillip

I know, I know! Don't get carried away now. I mean...these are the New York Jets after all. I'm sure it's not gonna be peaches n' cream the whole season, but if Bart Scott and the Jets defense continues to pressure opposing quarterbacks and take away the run the way they did today to the Houston Texans and Matt Schaub, and the offense gets the ball into Leon Washington's hands, they should be pretty good this season. Especially considering they did it today without Shaun Ellis and Calvin Pace. I can't wait to see the defense once they're both back.

Kudos to Rex Ryan who breathed fresh life in to the Jets Defense as well as the whole team with his straight forward cockiness inherited from his dad. His team clearly outplayed the opposition. Rex's dad Buddy Ryan is probably pretty proud right now! But one game does not make a season; and there are 15 more games coming up, with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots coming up next week. So don't count your green eggs just yet Jet's Fans. Lets see what happens. Hopefully the misery is behind us. It seems like it'll at least be interesting to watch this year; unlike the last few years under the boring Mangini regime. Now that the NY Jets have a coach with a personality the team will have a personality too. So sit back and enjoy. Enjoy and be entertained. Isn't that why we're watching anyway? This season certainly promises to be entertaining at the least...and if we win? It's a new era so let's dream.


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New York Jets Trade Up For Future In Sanchez and Greene

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In the first round of the NFL Draft Mike Tannenbaum and the New York Jets traded up from the 17th spot to number five to pick what surely will be the future of their franchise (we've heard it before around here!) in USC QB Mark Sanchez. Then the next day they did it again in the third round by moving up to the first pick, via a deal with the Detroit Lions, to get RB Shonn Greene from Iowa, the highest listed RB on the Jets board. For Greene they gave the Lions their third-round (76th overall), fourth-round (No. 115), and seventh-round (No. 228) picks. For Mark Sanchez they gave Eric Mangini's Cleveland Browns their first-round (No. 17), and second-round (No. 52) picks as well as defensive end Kenyon Coleman, quarterback Brett Ratliff, and safety Abram Elham. These two maneuvers left the NY Jets with only three picks in the 2009 NFL Draft. The other player taken was Nebraska guard Matt Slauson in the sixth-round. In minimizing the number of picks this year by trading away all the other picks, Tannenbaum has put more pressure on himself, his fun rookie coach Rex Ryan, and young Mark Sanchez. If these guys don't pan out, along with all the offseason free agent aquisitions, it most surely will be Tannenbaum's demise. If Tannenbaum were a cat he most certainly would be on his 9th life. But now on paper these decisions all look good. They always look good in April!

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Remember Richard Todd, Ken O'Brien, Browning Nagle, Chad Pennington, Boomer Esiason, Vinny Testaverde, and I'm sure I missed a few... oh yeah, remember that guy from last year? The one who was supposed to be the savior? The second coming of Joe Willie Namath! I guess we'll see if Mark Sanchez has the stuff to lead us to another Championship after forty-plus years of futility. He does seem to have the qualities you want in a New York quarterback; confidence, a good arm, and the personality to deal with the media. The one thing he does not have is experience. Although he played in a pro type offense at USC, in college football's biggest market, he only started 16 games. He might not win the starting position right away from Kellen Clemens.

Sanchez already is a New York media darling. After throwing out the first pitch on Monday at the Mets game at Citi Field he talked in the booth with Ron Darling and Gary Cohen. Before the Mets game he was seen with fans in Citi Field signing autographs and talking. The kid definitely has personality. We'll see how that personality holds up after he loses a few games in New York. That's when you want to judge the kid. When he meets with some adversity in the Big Apple (New Jersey). If he can handle that and bounce back and win. That's when you'll see a good New York QB. Maybe not the second coming of Namath but someone who can lead you to a Championship nevertheless. Only time will tell Jets fans, only time will tell. Until then....It's always good in April. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Baltimore Ravens Loss Will Be NY Jets Gain

The loss by the Baltimore Ravens yesterday in the AFC Championship Game by a score of 23-14 to the Pittsburgh Steelers will add up to a big gain for the New York Jets. This will be apparent soon when the NY Jets announce the hiring of Rex Ryan, the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator for the past four seasons after six seasons as an assistant there. It isn't official as of now but Wikipedia already has him listed as the Head Coach of the New York Jets. According to sources close to the Jets they have already notified the other coaching candidates that Ryan, the son of Buddy Ryan, former Head Coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals and Defensive Coordinator of the Super Bowl Champion '85 Chicago Bears, will be the successor to Eric Mangini, who now is the Cleveland Browns leader.



This will mark the beginning of yet another new era for the perpetually cursed franchise whose soul was traded to the devil by Broadway Joe Namath when he promised a Super Bowl victory against the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, and delivered, in Super Bowl III 40 years ago. Since then (believe me I know) Jets fans have suffered through thick and thin (mostly thin). Hopefully Ryan can come in and change things around enough to bring the NY Jets to the next level while leaving most of the personnel intact (minus Favre). He won't have anything resembling the defensive personnel he had in Baltimore, but he does have a good nucleus and his coaching style seems to be extremely motivating to his players, who describe him as a players coach. It would be nice to see him do something similar to what his Ravens boss, Head Coach John Harbaugh, did in going with one of the young arms on the team as QB. Harbaugh went with Joe Flacco and rode the wave all the way to the AFC Championship with good offense and great defense, and maybe Rex Ryan can do the same with the Jets by going with Kellen Clemens or Brett Ratliff (who the Jets seem to be higher on than Clemens). I think with the right influence on the defense and some mistake free ground it out offense the New York Jets could be on their way to some good things. Only time will tell. Next year Jets fans, next year. Sound familiar. If it doesn't your not a NY Jets fan for too long. Good Luck Rex Ryan!