COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

The Jets quarterback quandry got even more interesting on Friday night when the team selected Christian Hackenberg out of Penn State with the 51st pick of the draft. Hackenberg had been linked to the Jets for days leading up to his selection after rumors about Paxton Lynch heading to Gang Green died out by Thursday night. Once former Jets quarterback Chad Pennington announced to the crowd that the Jets had selected Hackenberg, a collective gasp could be heard in the audience in Chicago. Those dressed in Jets gear sat in their seats,  with their hands on their heads in total disappointment and shock, and who could blame them. The Jets have totally made their quarterback position into the biggest joke in the NFL. Not event the Cleveland Browns can claim this much instability at the position. In Hackenberg the Jets get a total project . He was brilliant his Freshman year under Bill O'Brien's pro style offense for the Nittnay Lions, but struggled horribly when O'Brien left ...

The stalemate between the New York Jets and quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick hit ridiculous speed a long time ago, as neither side can come to terms on any kind of deal. Heck, they can't even meet halfway right now. Reports surfaced on Thursday that Fitzpatrick would rather sit out the entire 2016 season than play for the Jets and their offer. The Jets reportedly offered a deal in the $7 million to $8 million range. Fitzpatrick wants a deal around $16 million a year. Even the Denver Broncos steered clear of Fitzpatrick when his asking price was too much for them. The Jets want to get a deal done with Fitzpatrick, if for no other reason than the fact the quarterback had great locker room chemistry with his teammates and played well last year. Fitzpatrick has seen the likes of Brock Osweiler, Sam Bradford and Chase Daniels cash in on mega deals, and none of those guys threw 31 touchdown passes last year. Fitzpatrick did. If Fitzpatrick is fixated on sitting out an entire season bec...

It has been a pretty bizarre off-season, at least for one of the two teams in New York. In one corner, Giants GM Jerry Reese is under the gun to get the G-Men back on track, or else face the wrath of John Mara and company at the end of the upcoming season. In the other corner, the Jets continue their kamikaze off-season. It has not been fun for either team this Spring. It didn't get any better after the first night of the NFL draft. The Giants pretty much panicked with their first pick in the draft when the selected Eli Apple, a corner back out of Ohio State with the 10th pick. A lot of people had defensive end Leonard Floyd falling to the Giants at 10, but the Bears traded up to nine to get him. The Giants could have tapped Shaq Lawson, the talented pass rusher out of Clemson, but surprisingly passed on him. Yes, the Giants needed a cornerback, they had one of the worst pass defenses in the league last year, but Apple is a guy who is extremely raw, and was kind of a reac...

The 2016 NFL schedule is now available ! The schedule, which was not supposed to be released until next Thursday, was instead released this evening with a whole slew of surprises, big games and monster primetime match-ups.  From the national perspective, the NFL hits a monster homerun with its top two primetime games in week 1, the Panthers will visit the Broncos in a Super Bowl rematch on the opening Thursday night. Meanwhile the Patriots will visit the Cardinals on Sunday night football. The NFL did drop the ball a bit by having Rams and 49ers in San Francisco rather than in Los Angeles in Week 1 on Monday Night Football, but there is a chance the reason the Rams didn't get a single primetime home game had a lot to do with the team playing in a college stadium. As far as the local teams, the Jets will open the season at home for the seventh straight season, and for the second straight year it will be against a AFC North opponent from Ohio. No not the Browns, but the Cincinn...

When reports surfaced on Friday that D'Brickashaw Ferguson had decided to retire from pro football everyone was stunned, except for the Jets. Perhaps Gang Green really did anticipate his retirement coming, because 36 hours after the announcement the Jets formally acquired Ryan Clady and a seventh-round pick from the Denver Broncos in exchange for a fifth-round pick.   All of sudden the Jets have replaced Ferguson, who started 167 consecutive games over 10 years for New York, with a tackle who when healthy is a physical presence on the offensive line, who stands at 6'6" and 315 pounds.  The big question regarding Clady is health. While his predecessor was always the top bill of health, Clady was the opposite. He has missed 30 games over the past three seasons.  He played only two games in 2013 when he suffered a Lisfranc injury (foot injury) that led him to miss the rest of the '13 season. Clady missed all of the Broncos 2015 Super Bowl season.  Becaus...

D'Brickashaw Ferguson won't take a paycut to stay with the Jets. Instead the pro Bowl leftt tackle decided to retire for reasons most still are not sure of. One thing is for sure, the Jets offseason which has been pockmarked by the ongoing Ryan Fitzpatrick negotiation, has now taken a new twist with the Jets losing their blindside protector for the quarterback, which will almost undoubtably change the course of the Jets draft plans. For Ferguson the announcement of his retirement comes as a big surprise, even if the Jets claim that it isn't, at least to them. While Ferguson's production had dropped off the past couple of years, there was no indication from him until the day it happened that he was going to retire. In fact, it is ironic in more ways then one that he made his firm decision only after the Jets spoke to him about a pay cut. Reports have indicated that Ferguson had considered retirement for sometime, especially if he couldn't meet his own standar...

The 2016 regular season schedule for the NFL must be coming up fairly soon. How do we know? Well, the preseason schedule was released this afternoon. Most already knew that the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts were to play a preseason game at the Hall of Fame at the start of August, but the rest of the meaningless slate is now available. Regarding the Jets and Giants, the two New York teams will face one another in their annual Preseason Week 3 tilt with the Jets serving as the home team. The Jets will open the preseason hosting the Jacksonville Jaguars at the Meadowlands. The last time these two faced off in the summer, you have to go back to 2013. The Jets and Jags did meet in the regular season last year, with the Jets getting the win. The Jets will then visit the Redskins in Week 2 of the preseason schedule. New York will close out the summer with a trip down I-95 to Philadelphia. The Giants, meanwhile will have a AFC East flare to the schedule. In addition to their...

Due to the inclement weather on Monday, the Yankees smartly postponed their season opener against the Houston Astros til Tuesday at 1:05 p.m. It was the right decision, in fact the Yankees made the announcement around 8:00 this morning, which was a classy move. Instead of having 50,000 people travel to the Stadium and sit in rain for no reason, might as well postpone it. The Game will be a rematch of last Fall's Wild Card game between the Yankees and Astros with the same pitching matchup, Masahiro Tanaka and Dallas Keuchel. Keuchel dominated the Yankees last season in the playoffs, and is one of the American League's top starters. Tanaka is one of many Yankees out to prove that he is more than an aging player who gets injured too often.

ROYALS 4, METS 3 The Mets opened up 2016 the exact same way the closed out 2015, getting buried by the Kansas City Royals amid a plethora of mistakes and bad decisions. A bobbled ball in the outfield by Yoenis Cespedes, a misplay in the outfield by Juan Lagares, questionable decision making by Terry Collins, and poor at bats did the Mets in on a night where they had to sit through an entire World Series celebration ceremony.  While it is only one game, and there are 161 more games to go in the season, Sunday's loss was disturbing. Disturbing from the vantage point that the Mets may have been exposed a bit as a team that needs more work on the fundamentals if this season is truly going to be a success.  This is not to take anything away from the Royals, who have built a reputation as a team that prays upon and cashes in on other teams mistakes. There is a reason why Kansas City has been to two straight World Series' and has a championship to ...

The Mets are back in Kansas City for the first time since Game 2 of the World Series last October. The last time these two teams met it was Game 5 of the World Series with the Royals erasing a 2-0 deficit to comeback and stun the Mets in extras 7-2, taking the Fall Classic in five games. The series was best know for Kansas City's uncanny ability to be clutch at the most opportune of times, while the Mets were exposed and beset by terrible mistakes in the field. Make no mistake these two teams respect one another, but aren't exactly fans of one another. Two of the games were decided by two runs or less, and Game 5 had extra innings. There was even an incident involving Noah Syndergaard going high and tight to Alcides Escobar in Game 3 that resulted in Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas screaming at Syndergaard from the Royals dugout. Many expect KC to seek revenge this week, although when a team raises a World Series banner and distributes rings, I don't find it hard ...

Last Fall the New York Mets gave us a run that nobody ever expected. First they won the NL East, then they outlasted the Dodgers in the NLDS, and stunned the national darling Chicago Cubs in the NLCS, dominating them in a four game sweep. Suddenly a franchise that couldn't do anything right was in its first World Series in 15 years. While the Mets came up short in the Series to the Kansas City Royals, a series plagued by hideous mistakes, it was still a pleasant surprise to even see the Mets reach the pinnacle of the sport. Now the expectations are much, much higher. Many think the Mets have what it takes to win the World Series this year. Others think it's World Series title or bust. No doubt as we head into the 2016 season, the Mets come in with one of the best, young rotations in all of baseball. Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Steven Matz are not only all under the age of 28; they all can light up a radar gun in the mid to upper 90s, and have already ...