Woody & Jets Are Their Own Worst Enemy

Last summer, when the Jets were successful in ridding themselves of Chad Pennington in a trade that brought in Brett Favre, owner Woody Johnson professed that he would never again have a weak-armed quarterback start for his ballclub.

That proclimation didn't last long.

This afternoon, the Jets pulled off a Mike Ditka-like performance, trading all of their day one draft selections: highly touted prospect quarterback Brett Ratliff, defensive end Kenyon Coleman and saftey Abram Elam to the Cleveland Browns, in order to move from number 17 to number 5 to nab quarterback Mark Sanchez of USC.

According to Randy Lange of New York Jets.com, Johnson "bounced out of the team's draft room, his face lit up as brightly as his green tie ... declaiming, "It's very exciting." (Lange, NewYorkJets.com). Yes, that's right the same guy who never ever, ever again wanted a quarterback who couldn't throw, tossed away his draft for another quarterback who can't throw very far in Sanchez.

One of the many knocks on Sanchez is the fact that he lacks a gun for an arm, something that is very important in today's NFL; watch Super Bowl XLIII between Kurt Warner and Ben Roethlisberger to find that out. For years the Jets had to wallow as Chad Pennington struggled to throw a ball farther than six yards at a time, drawing the ire of fans and media alike by year's seven and eight of Pennington mediocre career in New York. It was the weak arm that prompted the Jets to go out and get a guy like Favre in the first place, and now they are reverting back to bad habits like a child playing with an electrical socket.

Another problem is Sanchez's height. At 6'2" Sanchez is supposed to be about the same height as incumbent starter Kellen Clemens, whom the Jets feared was not big enough to be a starting quarterback. Again, this is yet another condradiction from America's Most Self-Conflicted Franchise. At least Sanchez is more athletic and accurate than Clemens; he is going to need to be in order to dodge the likes of Richard Seymore, Teddy Bruschi of the Patriots, and Aaron Schobel of the Buffalo Bills.

Finally, it is the experience, or lack thereof that troubles. Sanchez has all of 16 whopping starts for one of the top programs in college football. 16 starts in a conference that is a shoe-in for USC every year. When asked how he felt about that, Woody Johnson shrugged off the inexperience factor. "I mean, nobody has everything you want," Johnson said. "But his high school career and those 16 starts, they were pretty fabulous."

I guess the wonderful brain trust of the New York Jets, from Rex Ryan to Mike Tannebaum to Brain Schottenheimer to Woody himself, believes that they have the next Matt Cassel, a guy who never started a college game and wrote miracles in place of Tom Brady last fall for the Partriots. Problem is, Cassel was in a winning system that was devised by Bill Belichick and already had great talent around Cassel, so the kid couldn't screw things up. We shall see how good Cassel can be next fall when he is playing with the woeful Kansas City Chiefs, that will tell the tale for sure.

By the way, where is that great talent on this Jet offense? The offensive line is okay; the running game is pretty good, but there is nobody to catch the football. There were a bunch of talented wide receivers in this draft, but the Jets decided they weren't worth the time. Right now, Gang Green is betting on Jerricho Cotchery to play Randy Moss and Chansi Stuckey to play Wes Welker. That is so phony, it makes dressing up like a vampire or a gorilla on Halloween seem real. Great job Jets.

If Sanchez ever sees a snap in 2009, and that's a big IF, because Kellen Clemens really hasn't been given much of a chance, and could still beat out Sanchez in training camp, he will fit Ryan's plan of playing dink and dunk football.

Oh no, Jet fans!!! Just when you thought the Jets were through with dinking and dunking, they pull you right back in. With his lack of arm strength, Sanchez will be mostly responsible for handing the ball off to Thomas Jones, who is 31 years old and dumping it off to Leon Washington in scripted screen plays. How wonderful; I can already see Washington or Jones getting smashed at the line of scrimmage already by the New England Patriots in the Jets home opener, admist 78,000 booing Jet fans.

Maybe all of those rabid Jet fans at Radio City Music Hall should think before they sell their souls and give away $40,000 for a season ticket and PSL. Same Ole' Jets, nothing ever changes.