Monday, May 5, 2008

Vilma: Oh, they shall rue the day


Generally speaking, the Jets have been making decent organizational moves (over the last two years). They had the best draft in 2007 (D'Brickshaw Ferguson and Nick Mangold are two of the coolest names you will ever hear...and the cornerstones of what will become the best offensive line in the NFL) and they have acquired good talent on the open market (e.g., Thomas Jones).

But....they recently made a big mistake. Jonathan Vilma, a young gun LB for the J-E-T-S, was allowed to leave the team. He went to the New Orleans Saints.

Vilma was the defensive rookie of the year a couple seasons ago and he is a playmaker. Last year his numbers were down, but the Jets sucked. And, more importantly, the Jets didn't have a decent defensive line last year (and haven't had one since they lost their big DE to Atlanta). In that environment, Vilma was being bombarded by blockers. Everyone knows that a great LB needs a few quality defensive linemen to keep guards and fullbacks off of him.

Mark my words: the Jets will regret this move.

And mark this while your at it: the Saints have done a nice job of upgrading their defense this offseason. Vilma, Dan Morgan (LB from the Carolina Panthers), big DT tackle from USC, and a number 2 CB from Indiana. The Saints defense will be considerably better this year.

And expect big things from Vilma.

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