Five NFL Story Lines for Week Three

Week Three of the NFL season is upon us. As fans, we have been given many good games, some upsets, some high scoring affairs, and plenty of trash talk (Thanks, Rex!)

We can’t ask for much more, but as always, we expect the best week in and week out. These are five storylines I look forward to seeing during Week three of the NFL season.

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The Top Ten Performances from Week One

Every week, we have the studs and duds of Week One. These could be the unsung heroes, the stat producing machines, or anything in between.

While it is easy to mock the duds in their pathetic performance, let’s take a look at the studs from this week, and award them.

In this list, I have some of the leagues unsung heroes, along with the names everyone knows. I have ranked them from ten to one, so without further ado, here is number ten.

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Taking Flight: Previewing The New York Jets For 2009

The NFL season is upon is. With only one day standing in the way between us fans and the pigskin, the anticipation is there. All our questions will soon be answered, and the hopes we have for our team will be filled or shattered.

We all have our dreams. We want to see our team captain, holding up the Lombardi Trophy in Febuary, with tears in his eyes. We want to feel the joy of watching our passion win, feeling what it is like to be on top.

Unfortunately, for Jet fans like me, winning a Superbowl hasn’t happened in a long time.

We’ve gone through a lot of pain. Ken O’Brian over Dan Marino. Passing over Warren Sapp in the 1999 draft, watching Doug Brian miss multiple field goals in the playoffs against the Steelers.

Watching Al Groh, Pete Carroll, and Rich Kotite lead (or lack of) this team for years also killed us inside. That list is only the start.

For once in a long time though, this off season has brought a lot of hope for Jet fans. They brought over Rex Ryan from the Baltimore Ravens, who has instilled a hard-nose defense, with a running game that should run over people.

Along with Ryan, the Jets acquired Bart Scott, Marques Douglas, and Jim Leonhard from free agency, all former Ravens. They traded for former pro-bowl cornerback Lito Sheppard, who although hasn’t shown much promise in the pre season, if on track can be a dominate number two cornerback.

During the draft, the Jets once again made headlines by trading with the Cleveland Browns in the number five slot, to take USC quarterback Mark Sanchez, who should be the leader of this team for years to come. They traded up once more in the third round, and selected running back Shonne Greene out of Iowa, who is a bruiser.

All in all, many Jet fans are excited. No one believes they will make the Superbowl, but playoffs aren’t a stretch. To further know the strengths and weaknesses of the Jets, I will break down their team position by position.

Offense

Quarterback- Rookie Mark Sanchez received the starting nod in the pre season. He has shown promise since, whether it be his first ever professional pass in week one, keeping his poise against the Ravens in week two, or out dueling Eli Manning in week three. Many Jet fans hope that a Matt Ryan or Joe Flacco season is in store for Sanchez.

Sanchez is backed up by fourth-year veteran Kellen Clemens. Once again, Clemens was not able to win the starting role in New York. He has not shown leadership qualities, a smart mind while under pressure, or anything you want from a quarterback. Many think that third string Eric Ainge will be named the number two in mid year. Rookie Kevin O’Connell was recently acquired in a trade with the Detroit Lions.

Grade: C

Runningback- After a great year, Thomas Jones is back as the starter. He had a career year last year, leading the AFC in yards and scoring 15 touchdowns. No one expects the same output this time, but he should have a good year.

Leon Washington is back and electric as always. He can score from any place on the field, is a threat carrying or receiving. He puts a great touchdown ability for the offense. Rookie Shonne Greene will be given most of the red zone carries, as his big bruising build is perfect for that situation.

Grade: A-

Tight End- Second year Dustin Keller looks to come back and deliver a great receiving year from the tight end. Statistically, Keller had one of the best rookie years at the tight end position in recent history. That is a great future sign for Keller, who is labeled as a wide receiver in a tight end’s body.

The Jets also recently signed Ben Hartsock, who is known for his stellar blocking ability. It was a great depth signing and will provide a great blocker for the passing and running game.

Grade: B

Wide Receiver- This is the weak spot of the Jets’ offense. Jerricho Cotchery takes over as the number one receiver for the first time in his career, and many wonder if he can be a number one. No one denies his ability as a number two though.

At the number two spot, it looks to be Chansi Stuckey. Stuckey doesn’t have impressive speed,or size, but he makes up for it by running crisp, clean routes and having sure hands. He has became a favorite for Sanchez during camp and pre season.

The depth is there. In the slot, you have speedy David Clowney. He has always lit it up in the pre season, and looks to show off his speed this year. Brad Smith, a Mangini favorite, looks to be in the fourth slot, and will provide some catches and trick play possibilities.

Grade: C-

Offensive Line- Being one of the best last year, all five starters come back this year. The problem is, they have little to no depth on the line. If one of the starters goes down, they will have problems keeping the line strong.

The line is anchored by center Nick Mangold, who has been labeled by some as the best center in football, and rightfully so. D’Brickashaw Ferguson has become a decent left tackle, having his best year last year, and Jet fans are hoping his progress improves. Alan Faneca, Damien Woody, and Brandon Moore are all run blocking beasts, who open holes amazingly.

Grade: B+

Overall Offense Grade: C

Defense

Defensive Line– This is one of the more interesting spots of the defensive side of the ball. Kris Jenkins anchors the defensive line, and he is one of the best tackles in the game. The end position is interesting though. Sean Ellis is a good player, but has been having problems on and off the field as of late, the most recent being suspended the first game. Marques Douglas is a very underrated run stopper, and has had the third most tackles for loss in the league since 2003 (with 41.5 tackles). If the defensive ends can stay healthy, expect a good season from the line.

Grade: B-

Linebackers- This is a very solid spot for the defense. Recently acquired Bart Scott will anchor the middle, along with tackle machine David Harris. OLB Calvin Pace, although suspended for the first four games, is a jack of all trades linebacker. He can rush the quarterback, cover tight ends, and tackle. The weakest spot is the other side, where Bryan Thomas is starting. Although he has shown signs of brilliance, overall he has been lackluster since he has received his big contract.

Overall, this could be the bright spot for the defense. The pressure on the quarterback should be high, and the tackle total should be astronomical. I expect big things from this core of linebackers.

Grade: A

Secondary- The Jets have the best cornerback in the league in Darelle Revis. Period. I don’t want to hear about Asomugha, Mathis, or Bailey. Revis has been an absolute stud since being in the league. The ball is simply not thrown to his side of the field. He shut down Randy Moss twice last year, and the year before that. You can look it up, whenever Revis was on him, he barely made any noise. His only touchdowns came when Revis was not covering him. He can guard any receiver one on one, and does it well.

Kerry Rhodes is a top three safety in the league. After having a down year last year (mostly due to Mangini’s scheme), he looks to rebound this year with a dominating year. He wants to be a ballhawk, and he can do exactly that.

Jim Leonhard came over from the Ravens, where he filled in for an injured Dawan Landry. He should be a good starter, who does his role well playing next to Rhodes and letting him play freely. Lito Sheppard has had a bad offseason so far, but hopefully can pull it together for the regular season.

Grade: A

Overall Defense Grade: A-

Special Teams and Coaches

Kicking and Punting– Jay Feeley is back, and will provide a solid, stable leg for the Jets. He will be able to hit the deep 40-yard field goals, and be consistent from inside 30.

Can anyone name the Jets’ punter? It seems like it has changed daily. It has been a terrible position for the Jets so far.

Grade: C

Kick/Punt return- Leon Washington is back taking the kickoffs, which will provide great position for the offense to start. Jim Leonhard will be taking the punts this year, and should be able to field the balls fine, and not make mistakes.

Grade: A-

Coaches- Rex Ryan is a rookie head coach, who has done a lot of work creating a hard hitting team, and done more work talking about his team. He has made a lot of Jet fans happy, hoping for a great future.

Even though Mike Pettine was signed to be the Jets’ defensive coordinator, Rex Ryan has said he will make the play calls. That is great news for Jets fan, after what he established in Baltimore.

The Jets kept Brian Schottenheimer as their offensive coordinator. Without Mangini there to limit the play calling like he has done in the past years, Jet fans should experience some great play calling that should help the offense.

Grade: B-

Overall Grade: B

Overall, the Jets should be interesting to watch. The defense should keep them in every game this season, and a lot hinges on the offense. Will the running game be able to keep them in the action? Will Mark Sanchez be able to stay focused, and not make rookie mistakes? Can he make the big throws when the Jets need them?

This year is a great way into seeing indicator of how the Jets will be in the future.

They have a tough schedule, labeled as the 24th hardest schedule in the league. They are also in the AFC East, and will have to battle the dangerous Patriots twice. Along with being in the AFC, will have to beat out teams such as the Steelers, Ravens, Colts, Titans, and Chargers to make it far in the playoffs and the Superbowl.

It should be a fun year for us Jet fans, filled with joyous moments and heart aches.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Six Things I Look Forward To: Week One

The NFL regular season is approaching, and I’m sure I am one of the many jittery with anticipation. Six days away, until the Tennessee Titans take on the returning champions.

Seems like a lifetime away, doesn’t it?

With every week, questions always surface. We, as sports fans, wonder about everything. From Tuesday morning until Sunday morning, headlines consume our lives.

We can’t wait until that Sunday morning (Saturday if you are a college football fan, but we all know college doesn’t hold a candle to the NFL. That’s a different discussion though.) Sunday morning will be here soon, and we have to keep our selves busy.

Every week during the NFL season, I will make a slide show talking about the things I look forward to seeing the most. As the season goes on, I’m sure the list will get longer, but for now it will stay as six things.

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Four Things That I Learned: Jets vs Ravens

With the anticipation rising as week 2 of the NFL Preseason came to a close, I couldn’t help but watch my beloved Jets take on the Ravens. Even though it was only preseason, you could see that both teams wanted to win this game.

I watched the game, rewound it to re watch plays (Thanks, DVR!) and broke it down. While originally I was going to do a recap, four things stuck out to me during the game, so I decided to make a list.

These four things became so clear to me while watching the game, I have no doubt that they are true.

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Watch Out, NFL: The Jets Aren’t a Rebuilding Team

Many football fans and experts believe the New York Jets are a team that is rebuilding.

This could be due to a multitude of things: Brett Favre retiring and having two young quarterbacks, the firing of Eric Mangini and placement of new head coach Rex Ryan, and missing the playoffs two years in a row.

With the thought of rebuilding in mind, the Jets are predicted to draft Josh Freeman at pick 17, but that is a draft pick that should not happen under any circumstances.

The Jets are not a rebuilding team. They are a team that should be building now to win a championship.

Concept One: Losing Brett Favre leaves a hole at QB.  The Jets have no one so they must be rebuilding.
VALIDITY: Not true at all

Almost everyone says the Jets don’t have the quarterback of the team’s future on their roster and that they should have either traded for Jay Cutler, trade for Brady Quinn, or draft a quarterback.

I do not think that is the truth at all and believe the future is on the roster. His name is Kellen Clemens.

Entering his fourth year, Clemens knows the playbook completely. He has built a chemistry with Jerricho Cotchery, Chansi Stuckey, David Clowney, and Brad Smith, which can not be looked down upon.

Many say he failed when given the shot in 2007, but he should not be judged from that. He was given eight games behind a god-awful offensive line. So, because of that, he should never be a starter again?

Do people forget his fourth-quarter heroics against a Rex Ryan-lead Baltimore defense (which he should have won if Justin McCareins could hold onto a ball)?

Do people forget the ball-controlled offense he ran against Pittsburgh and Washington (which the Jets beat the Steelers and should have beat the Redskins)?

Kellen Clemens has terrific arm strength, great poise in the pocket, good mobility, and has shown great leadership through offseason workouts this year.

When Brett Favre came to New York last year, it signaled the end of the Chad Pennington era. But Brett Favre had to learn the entire playbook for the Jets in under a month. He was basically a rookie with the team, except with a ton of experience elsewhere.

It showed in the field, with the playbook getting smaller and easier for Brett to learn.

Clemens already has learned the entire playbook and is ready to call signals from under center. There was a reason he was the fourth-rated quarterback in the 2006 draft behind Matt Leinart, Vince Young, and Jay Cutler.


Concept Two: Rex Ryan, as a new coach, will install his own system which will put the franchise back a couple of years.
VALIDITY: True, but to the smallest degree

There are two similarities between Eric Mangini and Rex Ryan that make this concept false: They both run a 3-4 defense and commit to a run-first offense.

The differences work in Ryans favor: he plays to win, not to avoid the loss. He also installs a feared defense and offense, which Mangini does not.

Mangini is a disciple of the great Bill Belichick, who is intelligent at the 3-4 and the presence of a strong run game. Due to this, Mangini has built up both sides of the trenches in his three-year tenure in New York.

D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Nick Mangold, Alan Fanaca, Damien Woody, Kris Jenkins are the names that Mangini has drafted/brought over to the Jets these past three years. All of them start. Ryan will be coming to a team that has the offensive line already in place with a great defensive line to boot.

D’Brickashaw Ferguson has really transformed into a great LT, who will protect the blindside of Kellen Clemens this upcoming year. Alan Fanaca has lost a step in his pass protection, but his run game is still one of the best in the league, giving Thomas Jones a career year.

Nick Mangold is one of the best centers in the league today. At such a young age, he will continue to get even better. Brandon Moore was the staple to the running game this year and is by far the best run-blocker on this team.

Damien Woody is the weakest link to this line, but is average at both run-blocking and pass-blocking. His is the only lineman position I can see getting upgraded in the draft.

Ryan has Thomas Jones and Leon Washington, both of whom are great  running backs who can carry the load. He might even draft Chris “Beanie” Wells or Knowshon Moreno in the upcoming draft. He will be able to play his style of offense and keep the pressure of Kellen Clemens.

He will also have one of the best defensive tackles in the game today. Ryan loves mixing up schemes and Jenkins has said he can’t wait to play under Ryan—he has put on 20 pounds and will line up as a DE on some plays (How about as a fullback on some plays?  Who would be able to tackle him?).

Along with being the hardest position to fill for a 3-4, nose tackle is also the most important position. With the position being filled, Ryan can continue to run the 3-4 to become a fierce defense that plays through the whistle.

He has great role players in his new defense too. He has Darrelle Revis, a top-three quarterback in the league today; Kerry Rhodes, a great safety who had an off year last year, but will shine in Ryan’s defense; David Harris, a fearful beast at the ILB position; Calvin Pace, an overall great LB who can cover TEs and blitz.

He also has young Vernon Ghoulston, who Ryan praised. We all know what Ryan did with Terrell Suggs. Along with the members of the defense that were already here, he brought over Bart Scott to make the Jets’ ILB core the of the best in the league.  Jim Leonhard also showed last season he is a good asset to have. He will make this defense one of the hardest defenses to play against in the league.

Concept Three: Not making the playoffs these past two seasons show the Jets are not in a position to win.
VALIDITY: None

The Jets record two years ago was 4-12. The Jets’ record last season was 9-7.

The Jets didn’t make the playoffs this past season, but people forget the high that this team had. Once considered the best team in the AFC after beating the Patriots at Foxboro to then knock off the undefeated Titans, the Jets looked destined to win the AFC East.

They suffered loss after loss to Denver, San Francisco, and Seattle until Miami put the final dagger in us in week 17. The Jets controlled their own destiny for multiple weeks. If Brett Favre either didn’t injure his shoulder or would have told the Jets so the situation could have been fixed, they most likely would have made the playoffs.

It isn’t like the Jets have came off two consecutive 6-10 or worse seasons. In fact, they were very competitive last year.

So what has changed?

First, I will mention the losses. The Jets lost Laveraneus Coles to the Bengals, Brett Favre retired, and Eric Barton went to the Browns.

The additions were as follows: Bart Scott, Jim Leonhard, Lito Sheppard, Eric Barton leaving (ok, I kid. But not really).

They have increased our strength on the defensive side of the ball considerably and, truthfully, I think the team will be better off with Clemens as the quarterback instead of Brett Favre due to the reasons stated above.

Rex Ryan will also play to win the game, meaning he won’t go into the prevent defense late in the game like Mangini did. This past offseason actually made the New York Jets a stronger team.

With the reasons I’ve talked about above, the Jets are moving in the right direction to contend for a championship.

Will they be in the Super Bowl this season? Most likely no. But they have been putting the pieces together to make a run and I would not be shocked at all to see them contend for a playoff berth.

Rex Ryan will make this defense the best in the league—a team that protects each other. He said it best when he said, “You take a swipe at one of our guys, and we’ll take a swipe at two of yours.”

Watch out, NFL. The Jets are coming and they are charging full speed.

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