New York Jets: Mike Tannenbaum Pushes All-In with 2010 Season

Originally published on: http://mtrmedia.com/jetsjive 

Are the Jets putting too much on the line for one year of football? Are they risking all of the building they have done over the past few years for one single season?

Mike Tannenbaum has made headlines over the last two years by utilizing an “any-means-necessary” approach to free agency as well as the draft. He has acquired just about every player he set his mind on acquiring.

When MT wanted Bart Scott, Darrelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie, LaDainian Tomlinson, Mark Sanchez, and a whole other slew of football players, he did whatever he had to in order to achieve that goal.

With the assistance of Rex Ryan, the defensive genius the Jets brought in as a head coach just a year ago, MT has set this team up to make a miraculous Super Bowl run in 2010. But players such as Shaun Ellis, Nick Mangold, Brodney Pool, Tony Richardson, and Braylon Edwards are unrestricted free agents in 2011.

And the restricted free agents? David Harris, Antonio Cromartie, David Clowney, Santonio Holmes, Eric Smith, Brad Smith, James Ihedigbo, and Kellen Clemens. That’s a very solid group of players that are considered to be extremely pertinent to the very core of this New York Jets team…and they can’t re-sign them all.

So, the question is, has Tannenbaum put too much on the line for this coming season? If the Jets don’t go all the way this year, are they not going to have that chance again for multiple years?

You can decide for yourself. In my opinion, the Jets are good enough that they could pick and choose which of those players to resign and still have a very good football team in the future.

At the same time, I am not sure that they will have a shot as good as they do in 2010 at winning the Super Bowl. I’ve learned to trust Mike Tannenbaum during his tenure as general manager. I am already extremely trusting of Rex Ryan.

I do believe that they know what they’re doing and that they have been able to build a championship team. I’ve actually gone as far as to refer to the Jets as the next NFL dynasty, the new Patriots. Maybe I’m way too optimistic.

Maybe I’ve set my expectations for the franchise way higher than they should be.

Maybe a combination of logic, reason, and history are working against the Jets.

But if I were you, I would take the phrase “same old Jets” out of my vocabulary, because Mike Tannenbaum and Rex Ryan are doing their best to completely eliminate it forever.