Mike Tannenbaum was having a nice offseason. He had a draft that should yield him some good youg players to plug some holes and add depth. He made a solid play in free agency by adding a pass rushing OLB in Calvin Pace, and bolstered the offensive line by adding in Damien Woody and Alen Faneca. He locked up budding superstar Strong Safety Kerry Rhodes, and unloaded players who couldn't play in the 3-4 such as the undersized DT Dewayne Robertson and MLB Jonathan Vilma and brought in a true 3-4 nose tackle the Jets desperately needed in Kris Jenkins. Things were looking up in the meadowlands, and not because cross-league rivals just won the Super Bowl.
But that was the problem, wasn't it? In New York, if you're not loud, you're not important. At 11pm, August 7, 2008. The Jets got loud, and Mike Tannenbaum officially became a New York General Manager. What is the difference between a NY GM and a GM from another city?
In the fastest paced city with the shortest attention span, New York General Managers are forced to choose headlines before doing what is best for their team.
Its about:
- trading Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano, Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi, Tom Seaver for scrubs, Jason Isringhausen for Billy Taylor or Lenny Dykstra for Juan Samuel, Jeff Kent for Alvaro Espinoza, Rusty Staub for Mickey Lolich, Amos Otis for Joe Foy,
- Trading Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps, Bob Tweksbury for Steve Trout, Willie McGee for Bob sykes, Fred McGriff for Dale Murray, Jose Contreras for Esteban Loaiza, adding to the pitching staff Javier Vazquez, Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano, Jaret Wright, Shawn Chacon, Aaron Small, Cory Lidle, Andy Pettite (part II) & Roger Clemens (part II), and getting a whole bunch of nothing out of it. Also bringing in guys like Ivan Rodriguez and Richie Sexson this season.
- trading Brad Park and Jean Ratelle for Phil Esposito, trading Rick Middleton for Ken Hodge, trading Ville Niemenen for Sandis Ozolinsh, trading Mike Ridley and Kelly Miller for Bob Carpenter, or thinking Joe Sakic could replace Mark Messier
- trading four expiring contracts for Jamal Crawford, the rights to Leandro Barbosa for a future pick (David Lee), Camby & Nene for McDyess, flipping Penny for Marbury, bringing in Stevie Franchise, Glen Rice, Tim Thomas, Eddy Curry, Zach Randolph, Jerome James, Vin Baker, Jalen Rose, Allan Houston, Jared Jeffries, Larry Brown,
- Trading for Ryan Smyth then seeing him walk two months later, Chara and a #1 pick (Spezza) for Yashin, Bryan McCabe and Todd Bertuzzi for Trevor Linden, Olli Jokinen and Roberto Luongo for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha
Does Chad Pennington have the arm of a high school QB? Maybe. But the Brett Favre trade isn't about Pennington.
Its about the splash. Fans were bored. Its the dog days of summer, baseball season is heating up, the Yankees can't be stealing all the thunder.
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3 months ago
If you watched Pennington play last year, you would have seen that even in his best games, he simply couldn't make plays when he needed to. Against bad teams, he can take advantage of defensive lapses, but good teams who don't give you anything stifle him.
If you want to say Favre will lead the Jets to the same record as Pennington, point to Pennington two seasons ago being mediocre (instead of terrible, which he was last year), and point to Favre's poor seasons before last year. Don't say it's because Pennington is some great QB because he hasn't been in a few years. He was great in 2002 and pretty good in 2004 when he was healthy, but since then he's either been hurt or average or worse.
from 3 months ago
this wasn't really about Pennington-Favre, I think the Jets are going to be terrible either way and its laughable to think Favre will help them. Its been festering in my head about the Rodriguez trade and the Favre trade put it over the top, I (re)wrote it at 1:30 in the morning. It was much more coherent the first time I wrote it, but when I went to post it, BR deleted it, so I didn't feel like putting all the time I spent on the first article again. I just wanted to get my article up because I was sick of having it in my head.
3 months ago
I need to get this more reads, I think its really good.
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