Postet af Bundgaard - 27 juli 2009 15:06
Another day, another guest! ... well actually todays guest is not just another guest, but none other than the great and busy Andrew Garda who is heavily involved in podcasting, blogging and who also happens to be a huge fan of the New York Jets. I recently sent him a handful of questions about Calvin Pace's suspension and what he thinks it will mean to the team. Andrew was kind enough to answer... and even through in a couple of extra nuggets!
If you're familiar with Andrew Garda I strongly suggest that you check out his work on the Thundering Blurb and the Thundering Blurb podcast!... but I think I'll just let Andrew introduce himself:
Andrew, tell the people who you are and what you do!
I've been a writer in some way shape or form my whole life. I worked at the University of Southern California's Daily Trojan doing Op-Ed pieces, was a struggling screenwriter for many, many years and have been writing about football for the last eight years. I began covering just Fantasy, but expanded my work over the last two years to cover the NFL Draft for Draftguys.com and NFLDraftbible.com, the Pac-10 for CollegeFootballInsiders.com and various NFL teams for NFLSpot.com (San Diego Chargers) and BleacherReport.com (San Francisco 49ers).
The first question isn't really a question but I would like to hear what you think of this situation. Calvin Pace claims that his suspension was caused by an over-the-counter dietary supplement. We have heard this from many suspended players in the past and I have never really understood this. These players are surrounded by dietists, doctors, agents and personal as well as team trainers why don't they get those people to look at these things before they start to use them to avoid situations like this?
As far as I know, every team's trainers has a number to call to double check the ingredients in a product. Every player - and by extension all their coaches and trainers - should think not twice but four or five times about what they put in their body and they should NOT take anything without knowing 110% that it's clean. No assumptions. No guesses. No hopes. We know Goodell is dead serious about any violation. (for an example see the StarCaps case). Why screw around? There is very little excuse and maybe Pace understands that and that's why he didn't fight it.
Pace will be suspended for the first four games of the season which happens to be some of the toughest games on the schedule - at Houston, at home against New England and Tennessee, at New Orleans. What is it Pace brings to the table and how do you think missing Pace will affect the defence?
I think Pace can be replaced but it will involve some serious stepping up by the rest of the defense specifically underwhelming Vernon Gholston. Bart Scott and David Harris will take over his tackles - they were going to get more of them than Pace anyway. But Pace can make big plays and that might be what the Jets miss. On occasion, Thomas has amassed good stats (58 tackles, 19 assists, 8.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble and one fumble recovery in2006)I am confident Ryan will bring the heat as often as possible against teams - especially the Pats. For New Orleans, the secondary is as important because you know Brees will throw a ton regardless of pressure. Houston wil be interesting - with Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson, they are a vertical threat but that line has been spotty on occasion, though better as the years pass. Tennessee is the toughest test - their ground game outshines the others and if the youngsters wear down, it could be a long day.
A lot of adjustments have to be made between now and game one.
We have some young and talented linebackers but do you see any of them having kind of the same skill set as Pace that might be able to play his role and hold the fort untill he is back or will Ryan and Pettine have to change their overall strategy and scheme?
I think they could - Gholston was supposed to be quite the playmaker. He'll have to be since Ryan has told him he'll start in Pace's place so it's make or break for the young conversion linebacker. could be hard for him to replace Pace's 7 sacks, 5 forced fumbles from last year since he had none of either but he's being pushed hard enough. I worried from when the team made the pick that Gholston was too much a gym product, not enough of a field producer. Here's hoping I'm wrong and Tannenbaum and Mangini were right.
As for the others, it's hard to say what impact a guy like Marques Murrell or an outside linebacker like Jason Trusnik might contribute. Like Ghloston they haven't. Parts of this linebacking corps is very young and inexperianced and haven't shown themselves to be the playmaker a guy like Pace is. Of course, some of that is experiance.
Gholston is the key. If he can step up in camp, it will go a long way towards helping the first few games. I hate to say it, but adding a guy like Derrick Brooks - a vet with some experiance - just in case would make me sleep better at night.
How will Pace's suspension affect the upcoming training camp? Will he play with the starters or will his possible replacement(s) take his place?... and if so will it set Pace back or will he be able to step right in in week 5 as if nothing happened?
I imagine they work Pace pretty hard, though he will lose some snaps to Gholston out of necessity. If that's the case I don't expect too rough a start back. It might be a little tough first game or so, but not horrible.
On the other hand if, for some reason, Ryan & Company decide to have him sit - that will be an issue. We've seen players who miss camp (due to injury like Peyton Manning or hold out like Steven Jackson) who struggle early on. It's never pretty.
But I think Ryan is smart enough to know he needs Pace this season and will work him in camp.
If the defense struggles - what does this mean for the offense?
The way Ryan and Schottenheimer are designing the offense, the defense playing well is pretty important. Either the offense will be led by Clemens (who very little experiance as a NFL starter) or Sanchez (who has very little starting experiance period) - regardless of the who, a strong run game will be needed. In order to have the luxury of running a ton, a game has to stay close.
If the defense can't generate pressure, and the team falls behind, it will be harder to rely on the run which in turn could put more pressure on either young quarterback than the staff wants. The idea - and it worked well for the Ravens last season with Flacco - is to give the quarterback as much room for growth without having to rely on them.
And like I said, both Clemens and Sanchez could use every edge in their first starting season.
But really - is there a battle between Clemens and Sanchez?
Yes and no, I think. I believe Ryan and the staff would love Sanchez to start this year. They moved up to get him and frankly, if they were positive Clemens was the guy - or really even suspected it - that would not have happened.
That said, Flacco would have sat all last year if Troy Smith hadn't gotten sick. So I believe if he feels Sanchez's long term developement would be better served by holding a clipboard in year one, don't think he will hesitate to do it. I think Ryan's old school enough to believe Sanchez has to earn his starting status. And that's a good thing.
Even in a situation which is tailor made for young quarterback success - solid defense, run-centered, low risk - sometiems it's better for a young quarterback to sit. Especially when you consider Sanchez's relative inexperiance even in college.
Covering the Pac-10 last year I saw Sanchez a ton. As the year progressed he looked better and better but I won't lie. I thought another year at USC would have benefitted him. But financially, it would have cost him a ton of money. The guy is very confident and a hard worker, two things which could make a huge difference, whether he starts in year one or not.
A little time to gain some more practice reps isn't a bad thing. But the way the offense is designed - assuming all goes as planned defensively - Sanchez probably won't have too hard a time if he gets the starting gig.
If you're familiar with Andrew Garda I strongly suggest that you check out his work on the Thundering Blurb and the Thundering Blurb podcast!... but I think I'll just let Andrew introduce himself:
Andrew, tell the people who you are and what you do!
I've been a writer in some way shape or form my whole life. I worked at the University of Southern California's Daily Trojan doing Op-Ed pieces, was a struggling screenwriter for many, many years and have been writing about football for the last eight years. I began covering just Fantasy, but expanded my work over the last two years to cover the NFL Draft for Draftguys.com and NFLDraftbible.com, the Pac-10 for CollegeFootballInsiders.com and various NFL teams for NFLSpot.com (San Diego Chargers) and BleacherReport.com (San Francisco 49ers).
The first question isn't really a question but I would like to hear what you think of this situation. Calvin Pace claims that his suspension was caused by an over-the-counter dietary supplement. We have heard this from many suspended players in the past and I have never really understood this. These players are surrounded by dietists, doctors, agents and personal as well as team trainers why don't they get those people to look at these things before they start to use them to avoid situations like this?
As far as I know, every team's trainers has a number to call to double check the ingredients in a product. Every player - and by extension all their coaches and trainers - should think not twice but four or five times about what they put in their body and they should NOT take anything without knowing 110% that it's clean. No assumptions. No guesses. No hopes. We know Goodell is dead serious about any violation. (for an example see the StarCaps case). Why screw around? There is very little excuse and maybe Pace understands that and that's why he didn't fight it.
Pace will be suspended for the first four games of the season which happens to be some of the toughest games on the schedule - at Houston, at home against New England and Tennessee, at New Orleans. What is it Pace brings to the table and how do you think missing Pace will affect the defence?
I think Pace can be replaced but it will involve some serious stepping up by the rest of the defense specifically underwhelming Vernon Gholston. Bart Scott and David Harris will take over his tackles - they were going to get more of them than Pace anyway. But Pace can make big plays and that might be what the Jets miss. On occasion, Thomas has amassed good stats (58 tackles, 19 assists, 8.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble and one fumble recovery in2006)I am confident Ryan will bring the heat as often as possible against teams - especially the Pats. For New Orleans, the secondary is as important because you know Brees will throw a ton regardless of pressure. Houston wil be interesting - with Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson, they are a vertical threat but that line has been spotty on occasion, though better as the years pass. Tennessee is the toughest test - their ground game outshines the others and if the youngsters wear down, it could be a long day.
A lot of adjustments have to be made between now and game one.
We have some young and talented linebackers but do you see any of them having kind of the same skill set as Pace that might be able to play his role and hold the fort untill he is back or will Ryan and Pettine have to change their overall strategy and scheme?
I think they could - Gholston was supposed to be quite the playmaker. He'll have to be since Ryan has told him he'll start in Pace's place so it's make or break for the young conversion linebacker. could be hard for him to replace Pace's 7 sacks, 5 forced fumbles from last year since he had none of either but he's being pushed hard enough. I worried from when the team made the pick that Gholston was too much a gym product, not enough of a field producer. Here's hoping I'm wrong and Tannenbaum and Mangini were right.
As for the others, it's hard to say what impact a guy like Marques Murrell or an outside linebacker like Jason Trusnik might contribute. Like Ghloston they haven't. Parts of this linebacking corps is very young and inexperianced and haven't shown themselves to be the playmaker a guy like Pace is. Of course, some of that is experiance.
Gholston is the key. If he can step up in camp, it will go a long way towards helping the first few games. I hate to say it, but adding a guy like Derrick Brooks - a vet with some experiance - just in case would make me sleep better at night.
How will Pace's suspension affect the upcoming training camp? Will he play with the starters or will his possible replacement(s) take his place?... and if so will it set Pace back or will he be able to step right in in week 5 as if nothing happened?
I imagine they work Pace pretty hard, though he will lose some snaps to Gholston out of necessity. If that's the case I don't expect too rough a start back. It might be a little tough first game or so, but not horrible.
On the other hand if, for some reason, Ryan & Company decide to have him sit - that will be an issue. We've seen players who miss camp (due to injury like Peyton Manning or hold out like Steven Jackson) who struggle early on. It's never pretty.
But I think Ryan is smart enough to know he needs Pace this season and will work him in camp.
If the defense struggles - what does this mean for the offense?
The way Ryan and Schottenheimer are designing the offense, the defense playing well is pretty important. Either the offense will be led by Clemens (who very little experiance as a NFL starter) or Sanchez (who has very little starting experiance period) - regardless of the who, a strong run game will be needed. In order to have the luxury of running a ton, a game has to stay close.
If the defense can't generate pressure, and the team falls behind, it will be harder to rely on the run which in turn could put more pressure on either young quarterback than the staff wants. The idea - and it worked well for the Ravens last season with Flacco - is to give the quarterback as much room for growth without having to rely on them.
And like I said, both Clemens and Sanchez could use every edge in their first starting season.
But really - is there a battle between Clemens and Sanchez?
Yes and no, I think. I believe Ryan and the staff would love Sanchez to start this year. They moved up to get him and frankly, if they were positive Clemens was the guy - or really even suspected it - that would not have happened.
That said, Flacco would have sat all last year if Troy Smith hadn't gotten sick. So I believe if he feels Sanchez's long term developement would be better served by holding a clipboard in year one, don't think he will hesitate to do it. I think Ryan's old school enough to believe Sanchez has to earn his starting status. And that's a good thing.
Even in a situation which is tailor made for young quarterback success - solid defense, run-centered, low risk - sometiems it's better for a young quarterback to sit. Especially when you consider Sanchez's relative inexperiance even in college.
Covering the Pac-10 last year I saw Sanchez a ton. As the year progressed he looked better and better but I won't lie. I thought another year at USC would have benefitted him. But financially, it would have cost him a ton of money. The guy is very confident and a hard worker, two things which could make a huge difference, whether he starts in year one or not.
A little time to gain some more practice reps isn't a bad thing. But the way the offense is designed - assuming all goes as planned defensively - Sanchez probably won't have too hard a time if he gets the starting gig.
Etiketter: Andrew Garda, Calvin Pace, Mark Sanchez, NewYorkJets.dk proudly presents, Rex Ryan, spørgsmål og svar, The Thundering Blurb, Vernon Gholston
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