Here Come The Warm Jets: Free Agency

The Jets have been amongst the busiest teams since the 2008 free agency period began. Let's do a recap:


Trade 3rd and 5th round picks to Carolina for Kris Jenkins

This addresses a huge need for the team: no true NT, which is critical to the success of the 3-4 defense. Jenkins is large, and at times in his career has been amongst the best DTs in the league. And my fellow blog author agrees that he is tastefully named.

Here Come The Warm Jets Feels: Fortified


Trade Jonathan Vilma to Saints for 4th round pick and conditional 2009 picks

Sad to see Vilma, a hard working and talented LB who was a big part of the two recent good seasons (2004 and 2006), have to go. But he wasn't right for the 3-4, and he was pretty badly injured, so he had to go. Getting something in return is great. Glad he went to a team the Jets rarely play, so it will be easy to unabashedly root for him to thrive in the rest of his career.

Here Come The Warm Jets Feels: Tearlessly Melancholy


Sign Alan Faneca from Steelers to 5-year contract

This addresses the largest need on the team: fixing the offensive line. Mangini and Tannenbaum screwed up tremendously last year with the Pete Kendall situation. This is the very expensive correction to that problem. This should instantly help the line, and should even make D'Brickashaw Ferguson play better, with a significant upgrade in talent next to him. That, in turn, can improve the running game, which, in turn, should improve the passing game, and therefore the entire offense.

A note on the large contracts: the salary cap recently went up by quite a bit. Therefore, many teams had a lot of extra money to spend on free agents. That means the market for these top free agents is one with low supply and high demand, and different contract numbers to throw around than a few years ago. So, sure, Faneca became the highest paid offensive lineman. But he would have been one no matter where he signed - this isn't a case of the Jets vastly overpaying (like, say, Otis Smith paying Rashard Lewis about $20 million more than any other NBA team would have.) The Jets paid what they had to pay to get the best talent available given the market conditions.

Here Come The Warm Jets Feels: Uncomfortably Titillated


Sign Calvin Pace from Cardinals to 6-year contract

I, like most NFL fans, had not heard of Calvin Pace prior to the free agency period. Here's the deal: he played in the 3-4 for the first time last year, and had a huge year, with 98 tackles and 6.5 sacks. He's young, and can play LB or DE. Every team that played the 3-4 wanted him, including Bill Parcells. If Parcells likes a guy on defense, I tend to like the guy, too. So I'll give the team the benefit of the doubt. Still, this is a huge contract for a guy who only had one good year on a team that was not remotely good.

Here Come The Warm Jets Feels: Anticipatory


Sign Damien Woody from Lions to 5-year contract

They brought him in to replace Anthony Clement (who was cut today) at RT. All he has to do is not suck more than a vacuum in a vortex, and he is a significant upgrade at RT. This, too, makes the line much more solid. Ferguson, Faneca, Mangold, Moore, and Woody. This line, I think, will make Thomas Jones look even better. And, hey, Woody has two rings from his time in NE, so, there's that. Don't sports-types always say that counts for something? I don't, but, hey, why be negative now?

Here Come The Warm Jets Feels: Difficulty Resisting Making A Hard-On Joke Using The Word "Woody"


Those are the main moves so far. Word is that there will be a few more small signings coming soon (the best rumor being getting Brendan Ayanbadejo from the Bear - he's a fantastic special teams guy).

All this plus the high picks in the first and second rounds make me feel much better about the team going into the year. And if McFadden slips to the Jets at #6.......

That said, there is still the matter of the QB position, which is not, how you say, strong right now. But let's deal with that later.

For now, let's put it this way: the Jets lost 7 games last year by 7 points or less. In many of those, it was either the inability to stop the run or the inability to have long drives in the fourth quarter, or both, that lost them these close games. Do all these additions help them in their weakest areas? I say yes. So that should lead to significantly more wins than last year (remember, a 100% improvement, which is significant, only gets them to 8-8.)

It's a fine line in the modern NFL between 6-10 and 10-6. Moves like these make me more hopeful that the Jets can be on the right side of that line in 2008.

And, really, all I ask for out of my football team at this time of the year is to not leave me feeling hopeless. Today I do not feel hopeless. Just don't show me any highlights of Clemens or Pennington throwing the ball until, say, August.