New York Jets Learned Lesson By Not Addressing CB Needs

By Luis Tirado Jr. @LTJ81 on November 2, 2014

Ever heard of Marcus Williams, Josh Thomas or Phillip Adams? Exactly, no one really has for the most part. These are some of the latest cornerbacks that will see starting time for the New York Jets these next few weeks. At 1-7 so far for the season, many thank their offensive woes for this terrible season but make no mistake about it, the Jets are getting torched by opponents due to their weak cornerbacks holding down the fort. Their defensive secondary is so terrible, not only is there no consistency but no household names either.

Long gone are the days of Darrelle Revis and Antonio Cromartie which have now been replaced with players that are at most depth chart fillers. None of the above with the exception of maybe Antonio Allen have any business of being a starter. They don’t have the ability to become true shut-down defenders necessary to be successful at the position which has proved to be one of the key areas of opportunity to expose for opposing teams.

Of course this all could have been avoided had the Jets spent some of their salary cap money in acquiring better talent to solidify their cornerback situation. They had plenty of opportunities to grab a solid cornerback or two via free agency but elected to believe in that Dee Milliner and Dimitri Patterson would be their starting duo. Needless to say, neither are playing now as injuries and just flat out boneheaded decisions have come back to haunt the Jets big time.

The Jets should have used common sense in that head coach Rex Ryan is habitually known as being a solid defensive mastermind that uses a ton of man-to-man coverage. Without solid cornerbacks to help with that, he’s had to go against the norm and use zone coverage defensive schemes more than ever before. Not only have the Jets been embarrassed by top offensive teams, most of the time it’s completely ineffective against decent receivers.

Hopefully the Jets learned a valuable lesson in going after tried and true talent rather than keeping your fingers crossed for cheap alternatives. Sure, drafting also helps, but the choices made the past few years, especially at cornerback, have been rather suspect. No draft pick nor free agent acquisition has done anything remotely close to what Revis and Cromartie established years ago. Now the Jets are a laughingstock because even some of their coaches have no idea who these penciled in starting cornerbacks are.

Overall, the Jets need to use this season as a great example on what not to do for the next few years when you have money to spend and talent to acquire. Next time around, especially in free agency, they absolutely need to bolster their cornerback situation like there is no tomorrow because this is all getting extremely all out of hand.

Luis Tirado Jr. is a New York Jets writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @LTJ81, like him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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