John Idzik was hired back in January and already in his short time as New York Jets General Manager he has made some major roster moves and is bringing the concept of a “clean slate” to the team. So far in his short time as Jets GM he has traded away the arguably the Jets best player in cornerback Darrelle Revis to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the Buccaneers first round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft and a third round pick in next year’s draft. The Jets traded away Revis because he wouldn’t back down from his demand of being paid $16 million a year and he only had one year left on his current contract which paid him $11 million a year. Then Idzik and the Jets went into the NFL Draft and drafted some potential franchise players who will be looking to make a name for themselves for many years to come.
The Jets drafted two defensive players in the first round of the NFL Draft with their number nine and number thirteen picks. At number nine the Jets drafted Alabama cornerback Dee Milliner who has been called by some experts as the “next Darrelle Revis.” He was considered the best cornerback in this year’s draft class and will certainly be expected to play like Darrelle Revis this coming season.
With the number thirteen pick the Jets surprised a lot of people when they drafted Missouri defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson. Richardson will be expected to be major force in the Jets interior defensive line and help a Jets pass rush that wasn’t consistent last season. Then came the big headline pick you would expect the Jets to make that puts them on the back page of the New York newspapers. With the 39th pick the Jets drafted West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith. Many expected Smith to be a top ten pick, but fell out of the first round of the draft and had to wait out his embarrassing draft slide until the Jets finally drafted him.
New York then focused solely on their offensive line by drafting three consecutive offensive lineman. Brian Winters was drafted in the third round out of Kent State. The former state wrestling champion, will be fighting for a starting job on the offensive line during training camp. Oday Oboushi from Virginia was the next offensive lineman taken by the Jets. He should provide depth to the offensive line because of his versatility playing tackle and guard. In the 6th round, the Jets drafted Michigan’s Will Campbell who will try to convert from defensive line to offensive line.
But let’s go back to the addition of quarterback Geno Smith and what this draft pick brings to the Jets. With the addition of Geno Smith, Idzik and the rest of the Jets front office is sending a message to current starting quarterback Mark Sanchez. Sanchez is one of the most turnover prone quarterbacks in the league; and now the starting quarterback job is up for grabs.
Idzik also cleared up the quarterback position by releasing Tim Tebow, which was one of the worst acquisitions the team ever made. New York now has five quarterbacks on their roster (Mark Sanchez, David Garrard, Geno Smith, Greg McElory, and Matt Simms) John Idzik made it clear. “It’s an open competition not only at quarterback, but at all positions on our roster. That will hold not only throughout the entire year, but hold as long as I’m here. Mark’s in the competition. We fully expect that it will help him get better. It will help David get better…. It will help Greg. It will help Matt Simms. It will certainly help Geno”.
Will the best move for the Jets be to have Geno Smith start and David Garrard as the backup so Geno can be tutored by Garrard? This would only speed up his development at the quarterback position, and have Sanchez be the third string quarterback because his time in New York is just about over.
Although the Jets didn’t draft any other offensive weapons in the draft they did add New Orleans Saints running back Chris Ivory. Ivory who showed flashes of brilliance in his limited role with the Saints, will most likely be the Jets starting running back in Week 1. This move will surely help a Jets running game that will need to play a major role in the development of Geno Smith if he gets the nod as starting quarterback in Week 1.
From the looks of it, John Idzik is wiping the slate clean for the New York Jets and only time will tell if the moves he has made in his short time as the Jets GM will pay off long term and make Jets fans happy again after two dismal seasons in a row. Slow and steady wins the race and that is what Idzik is trying to; win the race aka a Superbowl trophy.
