The Jets: This Year and Beyond

When looking at the Jets roster this year, you see many new faces, who also have contracts ending at years end. At 1st glance, this may look like the Jets are throwing in all their chips in a desperate attempt to stay in the thick of things. On the other hand, it is easy to overlook the trend that Mike Tannenbaum and the Jets are following.

In order to look at our future, we have to look at our past. In recent years under Tanny, when we have a position that draws a lot of questions, Mike has pulled the trigger on big name pickups. An example of this would be in 2008, when the Jets brought in the "ageless wonder" Brett Favre. The Jets management saw what was needed and what was possible, and they made the move.

Let's move forward in time to the 2009 season... The Jets pull the trigger on a huge draft day trades to grab Mark Sanchez, and Shonn Greene. The biggest question going into the season was how reliable was the Jets receiving core going to be? The Jets recognized this concern and pulled the trigger on a trade to bring Braylon Edwards in. People only recognize him for his drops because they were pretty bad drops. What people fail to see, is how much our receiving core became with Braylon in there. The passing game opened up just enough for them to be more effective on those much needed 1st downs.

In both the 2008, and 2009 seasons, the Jets recognized where they were weakest, and pulled the trigger on moves to rectify the situation. In both seasons, the end result was a winning record. In 09, the very end result was playing in the AFC Championship game.

Now here we are in 2010, and what the Jets have done, they are doing again. They grabbed some talent, and they filled their needs... their stars have blossomed from when they were only seeds. I am sorry, I felt like rapping,  but the basic trend continues. In 2010, the Jets have made a number of big moves to fill the positions they thought needed to be taken care of. If our past predicts our future, than our future should hold another winning season in it, and possibly even more.

We might be losing a lot of these 1 year, contract guys, but don't for a second believe that the Jets are going to be satisfied with what they have at that point. I predict them doing much of what they have done for the past 3 off-seasons. They are going to go out, and pull the trigger on players, that can come in and build upon the foundation they have built. Some have compared us to the Redskins, or even the Lions, but can anyone really say that either of those teams had the foundation the Jets have. This foundations includes a young, and ferocious O-line, and a ball hawking defensive secondary in a passing league? With those 2 areas squared away, the Jets should have a very successful present and future.