New York Jets: Why Their Winning Will Continue for Seasons to Come

The New York Jets are close. So close. After finishing their regular season at 11-5, the Jets can safely say that they are a franchise in its prime.

Sure, Mark Sanchez wasn't perfect this season, even though he did drastically improve his passing yardage total (3,278) and TD-INT ratio (17-13) from his rookie campaign.

After his outstanding postseason performance (five TDs to one INT), I think it's safe to say that Sanchez is definitely not the weakness of the New York Jets anymore.

The first thing that a consistently successful franchise must have is a franchise quarterback. I bring up the quarterback position first because is so decisive to the success of a franchise.

Franchise quarterbacks are in such high demand because, as in Sanchez's case, they sometimes take time to develop. Drafting a quarterback in an early round and having him turn out to be a bust will set an entire franchise back five years. A true franchise quarterback is not somebody who is the reason a team loses, but rather the reason a team wins.

After looking at not only Sanchez's touchdowns and yards, but also the situations in which he threw for those touchdowns and yards this year to put his team in position to win, there should be no doubt that Mark Sanchez is becoming the face of the New York Jets franchise right before our very eyes.

So, franchise quarterback: check. However, for the franchise quarterback and, subsequently, the franchise to be successful, this quarterback must be surrounded with the pieces necessary to help his team win. Well, the New York Jets know this too, which is why they went out and traded for Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes last year.

A solid running game is also crucial in order to take pressure off the quarterback until he can learn to carry a team on his shoulders. The addition of a young, talented offensive line to tie the whole package together can turn an average offense into an elite, dominating, scoring machine.

What do you know? The Jets have both.

Now that I've expressed the importance of a balanced offense, it's time to put into words the significance of the defense. While the Jets' defense was notorious for its physicality and run-stopping prowess in the regular season, this same defense gave up 166 rushing yards to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Jets' AFC Championship postseason loss.

The Jets used their outstanding corners to limit Mike Wallace and Hines Ward to a combined 20 yards receiving and forced "Big" Ben Roethlisberger into two interceptions. With shutdown corners like the Jets have, stopping the run should've been easy.

However, despite their talented secondary, which should have freed up the front seven to put more pressure on the quarterback and run game, Big Ben repeatedly ran for key first down conversions, and New York was somehow unable to stop Rashard Mendenhall from rushing for 121 yards and a touchdown.

During Big Ben and Mendenhall's rushing spree, the New York Jets' front seven looked tired and, let's face it, old—and with good cause. The average age of nine of the Jets' regular rotation of their front seven (Calvin Pace, Bart Scott, David Harris, Bryan Thomas, Mike DeVito, Shaun Ellis, Sione Pouha, Trevor Pryce and Jason Taylor) is 31 years old.

While the Jets do have some building blocks in David Harris and Mike DeVito, and while Calvin Pace is still only 30, I think it's time for them to get young and fast, fast.

While the Jets' secondary has young superstars in Darrelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson, as well as hard-hitting safety Brodney Pool and their signal caller in Jim Leonhard, the aging front seven is the area that is in the most need of help. That's why with the 30th overall pick of the NFL draft on April 28th, the New York Jets should select an outside linebacker to help out with their needs.

Though they did finish inside the top 10 in total sacks this season (40), their leading pass rusher was Bryan Thomas, and he only had six sacks. This is because the Jets get most of their pressure by bringing exotic corner blitzes and such pulled from the depths of Rex Ryan's playbook.

However, if they could manage to generate pass rush with only their front four, they could then lock down Revis and Cromartie on the outside and basically wait for opposing quarterbacks to make mistakes.

While this linebacker that the Jets will hypothetically draft must have the ability to pass rush, he must also be able to have the size to stop the run. This is why I think Von Miller (Texas A&M) would be the perfect fit.

Miller's 6'2", 250-plus-lb. bowling ball-like frame would be a solid fit for that outside linebacker role. He would be able to get low to the ground and have a good angle to get around bigger offensive linemen with his his ability to speed rush—he runs a 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds.

If the Jets don't draft Miller or don't have the opportunity to, look for them to either draft another linebacker or go for a defensive lineman like Stephen Paea, Cameron Heyward or Adrian Clayborn.

If and when the Jets solidify their front seven, they will have a much bigger chance at breaking the barrier to get through the AFC Championship and into the Super Bowl. The addition of a few young talents on defense, compounded with Rex Ryan's downright mad defensive schemes, should ensure that the Jets keep winning for a long time.