Looking back at last April’s NFL Draft you have to be happy if you’re a Jets fan.  The Jets got two starting offensive linemen, a quarterback for the future and 4 other nice players.  Here’s a breakdown:

With the Jets 1st round picks they selected OT D’Brickashaw Ferguson and C Nick Mangold.  Both of these guys started all 16 games for the Jets and look like future stars that will anchor their offensive line for a long, long time.

In the 2nd round the Jets drafted strong armed QB Kellen Clemens.  He only played in 2 games and threw 1 incomplete pass.  He also carried the ball 2 times for 10 yards.  Eric Mangini declared the QB position an open competition for next season so Clemens will get a chance to compete with Chad Pennington and Patrick Ramsey.

3rd round pick ILB Anthony Schlegel didn’t do much at all.  He played in 4 games and made 1 tackle.

The Jets other 3rd round pick SS Eric Smith looks like a keeper.  He played in 15 games and made 27 tackles and intercepted 2 passes.  He has the look of a future starter for the Jets.

In the 4th round the Jets selected college QB Brad Smith and converted him into a RB/WR.  He played in all 16 games (3 starts) and he carried the ball 18 times for 103 yards (5.7 ypc).  He also caught 9 passes for 61 yards (6.8 avg).  Smith returned 1 kickoff for 4 yards.  He looks like a keeper that will only get better with experience.

The Jets other 4th round pick was a solid one.  RB Leon Washington might be small be he plays bigger than he looks.  He played in 16 games (8 starts) and carried the ball 151 times for 650 yards (4.3 ypc) with 4 TD runs.  He also caught 25 passes for 270 yards (10.8 avg).  It’s debateable as to whether Washington could handle a full workload as the main back for the Jets, but he certainly would be a great third down back.

5th round pick TE Jason Pociask didn’t play a down last season.

6th round pick CB Drew Coleman looks like a keeper for the Jets.  He played in all 16 games and made 26 tackles, had a sack, forced a fumble and defensed 2 passes.

7th round pick Darrell Adams didn’t play a single down.

The Jets thought they solved their running backs problems when they traded for Kevan Barlow but they were wrong.  Barlow was a huge disappointment this season as he proved he couldn’t carry the load.  Leon Washington was a late draft pick, but he was the Jets best running back as a rookie.  Washington is more of a third down back because of his size so the Jets will either trade for running back, draft one or sign a free agent to be the main man next season.  Washington played in all 16 games as a rookie and carried the ball 151 times for 650 yards (4.3 ypc) with 4 TD runs.  He also caught 25 passes for 270 yards (10.8 avg).

Cedric Houston missed half of the season due to injury.  He played in 8 games and carried the ball 113 times for 374 yards (3.3 ypc) with 5 TD runs.  He also caught 7 passes for 43 yards (6.1 avg).  For his career, Houston has played in 20 games (5 starts) and he’s carried the football 194 times for 676 yards (3.5 ypc) with 7 TD runs.  He also caught 15 passes for 109 yards (7.3 avg).

Kevan Barlow had a horrible season for the Jets.  He played in 12 games and carried the ball 131 times for 370 yards (2.8 ypc) with 6 TD runs.  He also caught 7 passes for 21 yards (3.0 avg).  For his career, Barlow has played in 84 games (33 starts) and he has carried the football 1,022 times for 3,984 yards (3.9 ypc) with 30 TD runs.  He also has caught 144 passes for 1,164 yards (8.1 avg) with 3 TD grabs.

Derrick Blaylock got a chance early in the season as he played in 4 games (2 starts) and carried the ball 25 times for 44 yards (1.8 ypc).  He also caught 5 passes for 29 yards (5.8 avg).  For his career, Blaylock has played in 51 games (8 starts) and he’s carried the ball 198 times for 820 yards (4.1 ypc) with 10 TD runs.  He also has caught 53 passes for 520 yards (9.8 avg) with 2 TD catches.

Fullback B.J. Askew played in 13 games this season and only carried the ball 6 times for 11 yards (1.8 ypc).  He also caught 9 passes for 50 yards (5.6 avg).  For his career, Askew has played in 55 games (6 starts) and he’s carried the ball 27 times for 102 yards (3.8 ypc).  He also has caught 12 passes in his career for 73 yards (6.1 avg).

The fact that Eric Mangini took this team to the playoffs after a 10-6 (62.5%) season proves that he’s a great coach, but, he did that with a last place schedule.  We’ll see if he can do that again next season when the slate will be much tougher for him to navigate.  Mangini benefitted from Chad Pennington’s return and the emergence of Jerricho Cotchery in the offense.  The Jets will no doubt be looking to draft a running back or sign one as a free-agent.  For now though, Mangini has earned all the credit that he’s been getting.

The Jets played tough, but the beginning of the end was when the Patriots marched 80 yards in 15 plays for a TD with 11 seconds left in the first half to give the Patriots a 17-10 lead at the half.  Although the Jets kept close until the 4th quarter, the Patriots never looked like they felt threatened in the second half of this game. 

The 4th quarter was a disaster for the Jets after they pulled with 23-16 at the start of the 4th quarter.  Tom Brady then engineered a 13 play, 63 yard TD drive that took 6:23 off the clock.  Shortly after that, Chad Pennington threw an interception that was returned 36 yards for a TD by Asante Samuel and that pretty much ended the Jets season.

Chad Pennington played ok as he hit 23 of 40 passes for 300 yards with 1 TD pass and 1 big interception.  The Jets didn’t really mess around with a running game as they only ran the ball 16 times for 70 yards.  Jerricho Cotchery had another great game against the Patriots with 4 grabs for 100 yards, including a 77 TD reception.  He also carried the ball 2 times for 19 yards.

The defense had a hard time with the Patriots.  The Patriots ran for 158 yards and passed for 200 net yards.  The Jets defense had big trouble with Reche Caldwell and Jabar Gaffney which just proves how great Tom Brady really is.

It’s sad that the Jets season is over, but the season capped a great new start for the New York Jets with Eric Mangini calling the shots.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=270107017

Chad Pennington won the much deserved NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award this season.  Without him the Jets would be just as bad as they were last season.  Pennington started all 16 games this season and completed 313 of 485 passes (64.5%) for 3,352 yards with 17 TD passes and 16 interceptions (82.6 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 35 times for 109 yards (3.1 ypc).  For his career, Pennington has played in 60 games (53 starts) and has completed 1,080 of 1,659 passes (65.1%) for 11,973 yards with 72 TD passes and 46 interceptions (89.3 QB Rating).  He also has carried the ball 127 times for 364 yards (2.9 ypc) with 5 TD runs.

Patrick Ramsey only played in one game and threw one incomplete pass this season.  For his career, Ramsey has played in 34 games (24 starts) and he’s completed 480 of 862 passes (55.7%) for 5,649 yards with 34 TD passes and 29 interceptions (74.9 QB Rating).  He also has run the ball 45 times for 83 yards (1.8 ypc) with 2 TD runs.

Rookie Kellen Clemens played in 2 games this season and threw one incomplete pass.  He also ran the ball twice for 10 yards (5.0 ypc).

I’ve been waiting for this all season.  We’re in.  I can hardly wait ’til Sunday.  I think that the inter-division playoff game favors the underdog.  The “dog” has been there before and shouldn’t see anything that would surprise them.  In my opinion the Jets should have beat the Pats in their 1st meeting.  The Jets didn’t show up until the middle of the third quarter, and against a tough Pats team you have to play hard all game.  The other interesting part of this game is the Mangini-Belichick rivalry.  There is no love loss there.  It would kill Belichick to lose to coach Mangini again.