The 2009 New York Jets: What To Expect

The New York Jets enter the 2009 season in a state of flux. The Jets will be lead by a rookie head coach, Rex Ryan, who despite an excellent résumé and football heritage, has never been a head coach at any level. The Jets may also be starting a rookie quarterback, Mark Sanchez, who started only 16 games for USC during his college football career.

Most of the team that stormed to an 8-3 start before fading to 9-7 returns for 2009, coaching staff included, with a few new veterans brought in to solidify the defense. After two teams, the Atlanta Falcons and the Baltimore Ravens (where Ryan was the defensive coordinator) with rookie head coaches and rookie quarterbacks, each went 11-5 and made the postseason, there is reason for Jets fans to hope.

Ryan’s first coaching move will be to determine whether Sanchez is the starting quarterback. Kellen Clemens is still an unknown quantity at the position. He showed some promise during his eight starts in 2007, but only managed to win two games. If Sanchez has a bad training camp or preseason, Clemens will start until Sanchez is ready.

But Ryan could face tremendous pressure from the owner who likes flashy marquee quarterbacks, and the fans who want to see the fifth overall pick in the games and not holding a clipboard if Clemens struggles early on. Clemens is in a very similar position to Derek Anderson with the 2007 Cleveland Browns or Jon Kitna with the 2003 Cincinnati Bengals.

Both veterans held off rookie quarterbacks, Brady Quinn and Carson Palmer respectively, and led their team to improved records but fell short of the playoffs. The move for the veteran over the rookie was a short term success, but the long term ramifications are still unclear.

Anderson and Quinn are still battling for the starting spot for a new regime in Cleveland. Palmer supplanted Kitna the next year and won the division in 2005, but his post season injury has hindered him ever since and the Bengals are still struggling to stay relevant.

Ryan will need to determine if the 2009 Jets are poised to win now and use which ever quarterback gives them a better chance to win now, or use 2009 so Sanchez, the quarterback he drafted and will ultimately tie his coaching reputation to, can learn the NFL game, allowing Sanchez to make mistakes and lose a few games in the process so he can learn what it takes to win at this level.

The Jets were big spenders in the 2008 off season, signing veterans Alan Faneca, Tony Richardson, Damien Woody, and traded for Kris Jenkins. They continued that trend this off season by bringing in  Bart Scott and Lito Sheppard. These are all well-traveled vets that cost a lot of money and would suggest the Jets are trying to win now, and starting a rookie could suggest the exact opposite strategy.

But the Falcons and Ravens proved last year that you can win with a rookie leading the way, but both those teams defied tremendous odds to do so, and the Jets will face those same daunting feats.

The Jets also play one of the toughest schedules in the league. The divisional games will all be brutal battles, as they usually are, as New England, Miami and Buffalo all expect to contend in 2009. The Jets will also play eight games against two of the toughest division in the NFL, the AFC South and NFC South as well as make a trip to their own personal hell hole, Oakland.

The first four games are especially tough, starting the season on the road against the Houston Texans, coming home for the Patriots and Tennessee Titans and going down to New Orleans to play the Saints. This could easily be the toughest four-game stretch the Jets will have during the season.

If Sanchez starts any of these games, you can guarantee he will start the rest of the season. The Jets only have two prime-time games, a Monday Night match up with the Dolphins in Miami on Oct. 12, and a Thursday Night game against the Bills in Toronto on Dec. 3.

The Toronto game serves as a big advantage to the Jets, getting to avoid the frigid climate and ferocious fans of Buffalo and play in what is essentially a neutral site in front of fans that will be more focused on the Maple Leafs than any NFL game.

If the Jets make it to the playoffs, they will be led by their defense. Throughout his Baltimore tenure, Ryan’s defenses were continually one of the best and most respected in the NFL, utilizing an aggressive and tenacious style that used big plays and turnovers to hinder opposing offenses.

Linebacker Bart Scott followed Ryan from Baltimore to New York and will be one of the defensive leaders on this team. Scott and fellow linebacker David Harris and Jenkins at defensive tackle might be the best interior trio of any NFL defense.

The big questions on the Jets defense will come from the outside lineman and linebackers in the front seven. Sean Ellis is the longest tenured Jet and has done a respectable job but he needs a complimentary rusher to be effective. Calvin Pace had some good moments last season but faded down the stretch.

Bryan Thomas has been wildly inconsistent over his career and Vernon Gholston was deemed a bust by Eric Mangini and rarely saw the playing field. Ryan will make it his mission to get the most out of Thomas and salvage Gholston (it would be foolish to dismiss a second year player, especially a linebacker playing for a 3-4 defensive guru) to develop a pass rush from the edges.

The secondary should be improved with the additions of Jim Leonhard and Lito Sheppard to a couple of rising stars, Kerry Rhodes and Darelle Revis. It might take more than one season for the Jets defense to resemble the Baltimore defense, but the Jets will play a more fearless and aggressive style under Ryan, and it will need to be near perfect if the Jets are going to make a run in 2009.

 Aside from the quarterback position, the Jets' offense is very much the same as it was last year. The only significant departure is Laveranues Coles, who signed with Cincinnati. The offensive line is intact from a year ago, buoyed by youngsters Nick Mangold and D’Brickashaw Ferguson.

The Jets' running game should be its biggest strength, with the three-pronged attack of Thomas Jones, the AFC’s leading rusher in 2008, Leon Washington, the NFL’s all-purpose yards leader in 2008, and third round pick Shonn Greene out of Iowa, the Jets second pick of the draft.

There are currently rumblings about the contract situations of both Jones and Washington, but both are still under contract and should be in training camps when they start becoming mandatory. Dustin Keller was impressive during his rookie season as a receiver, but must still hone his blocking techniques.

The Jets' biggest weakness is at the wide receiver position, where they have not found a replacement for Coles to compliment Jerricho Cotchery. Rumors continue to circulate that the Jets are interested in signing Plaxico Burress. If he doesn’t serve either jail time or a suspension, it sounds like just the type of risk Mike Tannenbaum is willing to take and should certainly make life easier for Clemens or Sanchez when they look down field for an open receiver.

Overall, the Jets have a lot of talent on their roster but a lot of variables are still to be determined. It is unknown who will be behind center for the majority of the season or what kind of performance to expect from either Clemens or Sanchez.

Can the defense step up and emulate the Ravens successful run? The success of Ryan and Sanchez in New York might need to take some hits in 2009 if they will succeed in the long term. Last season’s 9-7 mark left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth, but it is possible for the Jets to finish worse in 2009 and give fans plenty of confidence for 2010 and beyond.

All Jets fans need to do is look at their neighboring Giants fans and their emotional roller coaster with Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning to see that valleys always precede the peaks. If the Jets can finish 8-8 in 2009 while playing hard all 16 games and knocking off a couple of better teams in the process, the future will be bright for Gang Green.