Disclaimer: The following is the second part of a five part series in which I will reveal my 5 most hated National Football League Teams coming into the 2010 season. It changes from year to year as teams get undeserved hype and other things, so here's goes nothing.
Coming into every NFL season, all the experts try to pick the team that's going to take the next step. For some teams, that might be winning a single game. For others that might mean getting past the conference championship game.
When these experts make such picks, they occasionally swing and miss worse than Prince Fielder on a 3-2 fastball from Joe Nathan (or any other top closer for that matter). I have a feeling that this will be the case with the New York Jets.
Don't get me wrong, the Jets have talent. They have the best shutdown corner since Deion Sanders in Darrelle Revis. They have a nice, young running back in Shonn Greene, and they have a potential franchise quarterback in Mark Sanchez.
All that is nice, but you have to look at what the Jets did in 2009. Of course the Jets got to the AFC Championship game, but look at the season as a whole and you'll see a different team.
The Jets were 9-7 last season and 3-2 against playoff teams. That's not bad. I mean, you have to beat who's in front of you, right? Well, the 3-2 record is a bit flawed. You see, the Jets got the Colts when they suddenly decided that they didn't care about having a perfect season and benched their starters. Two weeks later, the Jets hosted the Bengals, who not only were fading after the death of Chris Henry left them without a legitimate deep threat (along with Carson Palmer's recovering arm in year one of post Tommy John surgery), but who had also locked up a playoff berth meaning they really didn't care when they got destroyed 38-0 in front of a national television audience.
Still, they made the AFC Championship game...after beating two more bad teams. The Jets picked up a victory against the same fading Bengals team in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, and then got Norv "Can't win the big one" Turner and his San Diego Chargers in the divisional round. So the Jets beat a bad team and a choke artist. Sounds impressive.
Then there's the argument about how they've added all this talent. Santonio Holmes, LaDanian Tomlinson, and Jason Taylor are just some of the names that have joined Rex Ryan and the Jets this season, but they've lost quite a bit too.
Alan Faneca is one of the premier run blocking guards in the NFL. Last season, while the Jets had a horrific passing offense, they also possessed the #1 rushing attack in the NFL, which masked Mark Sanchez's rookie deficiencies. This season, Faneca is gone (Arizona Cardinals) as is their leading rusher from last season Thomas Jones (Kansas City Chiefs) who had a stat line of 1,402 yards and 14 touchdowns. To replace that veteran leadership, the Jets signed Tomlinson, who no doubt is one of the greatest running backs of all-time, although he is declining. He's the same age as Jones and rushed for about half the yardage (730 yards, 12 TD).
So the important pieces of the running game are gone, which brings me to Mark Sanchez. As a portly guy, I tend to hate some of the beautiful people in society. Sanchez is one of those people. A former GQ cover boy, Sanchez is being leaned on to lead the Jets next season. Really? Sanchez challenged Jay Cutler for the NFL interception title last year with 20 INT compared to 12 TDs. Yeah, he was a rookie, but how the hell is he supposed to get the ball to a crappy receiving core. Braylon Edwards drops everything in sight and Santonio Holmes is suspended for the first 4 games of the season.
So this team is a bit different than the others that have made this list. The Jets are hated because they're simply overrated. I could always be wrong about this and maybe Sanchez improves in year two under Rex Ryan (who has guaranteed a Super Bowl Championship already). The Jets have a strong defense and a blossoming offense, but I just don't see them overcoming the loss of two staples in their running game.
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