Florham Park, N.J.- In two years in Buffalo the first-round draft pick, Aaron Maybin, failed to record a sack. Through only eight games as a Jet, Maybin has already caused enough mayhem to earn him five sacks to go along with three forced fumbles. Whatever the reason for the change in production, Rex Ryan will happily take it.

Going back to the scouting reports on Maybin coming out of college, everyone agreed the kid had exceptional speed and length to cause all types of problems as a speed pass rusher in the NFL. Everyone also agreed that his lack of strength and bulk could make it easy for Maybin to get lost in the shuffle at the next level. For two years in Buffalo it seemed the negatives far outweighed the positives as he struggled to the point that the Bills just decided to wash their hands of him. (more…)

Florham Park, N.J.- It’s not often you see a quarterback purposely test Darrelle Revis, but yesterday that’s exactly what Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick did. As shocking as it was to see the Bills continually attacking Revis, it was more shocking to see them have success with this strategy.

Quarterbacks facing Revis find themselves in a classic, stuck between a rock and a hard place situation. Throw at Revis and you risk a lot of incompletions and potential interceptions, don’t throw at him and your best receiver is of absolutely no use. With the Bills being thin at receiver and missing Fred Jackson, Fitzpatrick decided he had to try and utilize his most talented weapon. Even if that weapon was matched up against Revis the entire game. (more…)

Florham Park, N.J.- Football can be an extremely difficult sport to evaluate individual players for the simple fact that nothing is ever as simple as it seems. A player’s success is often due to others around them making their job easier, even if the credit isn’t always properly attributed, just the same as a player’s struggles can be a result of surrounding teammates struggling. Which brings us the curious case of Mark Sanchez.

You hear the calls to bench Sanchez from disgruntled fans, people saying he has regressed in his third-year, but that’s not really true. In fact, Sanchez has improved (although only slightly) in every statistical category, except one (albeit a big one, interceptions), since last season. So what is it that is making people say Sanchez has regressed when his numbers say he has actually improved? One reason is obviously the interceptions. It’s one thing to throw a few interceptions here and there, it’s another thing entirely to make the glaring mistakes that Sanchez has made. Still it’s not as simple as just blaming Sanchez. (more…)

Florham Park, N.J.-  The Jets have a few key players dealing with injury problems right now, but Rex Ryan is confident that he will have all his troops ready to contribute on the field this Sunday. LaDainian Tomlinson (knee), Brodney Pool (knee), Matt Slauson (knee), Jeremy Kerley (knee), Shonn Greene (ribs) and Plaxico Burress (personal) all didn’t participate in practice today, but Ryan said, “I think everyone will play, so we’ll see, obviously, as the week goes. Would they have played today? I don’t know about that, but I think by Sunday all our guys will be ready.”

Greene suffered a rib injury against the Broncos last Thursday and had to miss the rest of the game. He said he wanted to come back in, but the doctors decided against it. As of right now Greene says, ”It’s still a little bit painful, but I’ll probably practice tomorrow.” Greene also said, “I got a shirt being made. It’s got special protective padding so I should be good.” (more…)

Florham Park, N.J.- “The biggest thing for the secondary is for us not to fall asleep. We can’t fall asleep back there in the secondary. It can get boring, especially if a team keeps on just running the ball, series after series, play after play.” (c) Darrelle Revis

By now you’ve likely heard this quote and there’s little doubt you’ve heard the complete and total overreaction by many in the media as well. But we should expect that at this point, because after all that’s what we media folks do. But the fact is, as big a deal as people are making out of this comment, it’s not the first time Revis has said that exact quote. In fact Revis says it pretty much every time the Jets face a run heavy offense. (more…)

Florham Park, N.J.- Since I first glanced at the Jets 2011 schedule, before the season started, I thought the Jets got sort of a raw deal with having to play the Patriots on Sunday night then turn around and fly to play in the high altitude of Denver just four days later. But now, I see it as a potential blessing.

After suffering a brutal loss like the Jets did last night the best thing you can do is try and erase it from your memory and immediately move on, but with the usual week long break between games that’s pretty much impossible. Last night Rex Ryan made sure to stress that they couldn’t and wouldn’t dwell on this loss. That’s good because this week they have no choice, just two days from now they board a plane to Denver to play against a quarterback, the likes of which Ryan has never seen (I’m not saying Tim Tebow’s an amazing new breed of quarterback and I’m not saying that he can’t play in this league. But I am saying I have no clue what to make of him from what I’ve seen. He doesn’t look like he can play quarterback in this league at a sustainable level, but somehow he keeps winning and he’s doing it in the most unconventional way I’ve ever seen and in a way that Ryan has never had to coach against). (more…)

East Rutherford, N.J.- With the Patriots coming into this game reeling from losing two straight, it was the Jets turn to falter and hand the game to the Patriots and that’s exactly what they did. They hung around through the first half, but then went into a downward spiral of ugliness in the second half as the Patriots easily dismissed the Jets and sent this crowd home disgusted, for that Rex Ryan apologizes.

“Obviously, we wanted this game in the worst way, but you’re not going to beat New England, you’re not going to beat many teams when you make the mistakes we made.” Ryan said, “We’ve been down this road before, I apologize to our fans. I thought our fans were ready to go, just like I thought we were. It’s disappointing, we can’t dwell on it. We have four days until we play another team, that’s playing well, playing Denver. We have to put this game behind us as fast as we can.” (more…)

Florham Park, N.J.- The question most commonly asked by reporters this week has been, “What’s the biggest difference between where this Jets team is now as opposed to where they were before the last game against the Patriots?” A simple question gets a simple answer, the play of the offensive line is easily the biggest difference. Of course that has a lot to do with the fact that Nick Mangold has got a few games under his belt since he returned from his high-ankle sprain.

“I think it (having Mangold playing) just gives the other guys a lot of confidence, too, up front.” Mark Sanchez said, “For me, of course, I feel great talking to Nick and we have such a good relationship on and off the field that when we’re playing games, it’s just that, we’re playing. We’re having fun.

“Talking to him at the line of scrimmage, it’s not the same as I used to be, where I was just terrified to ask, ‘Man, I really don’t know what’s going on. Nick, help.’ He’s just so good about, I’ll say something, ‘Okay, let’s direct it here.’ And he says, ‘Okay, you’ve got so-and-so, you know that.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m good, I got him.’ It’s more of a discussion, so I think the other guys see that how comfortable I am. And he’s so calm. Whether he are up by 40 or down by 40, he’s always just smiling and happy and having fun. He’s just a good leader on that offensive line. So, we all love having him back.” (more…)

Florham Park, N.J.- This week’s edition of the ‘Game Balls’ column will be a bit different than most. This week game balls go to every single Jet player that stepped on the field yesterday in Buffalo (except maybe Matt Mulligan), to give the Jets their third straight win and put them in a three-way tie for the division lead. Under Rex Ryan the Jets always seem to play better when their backs are against the wall and everyone has counted them out and that is exactly what they have done again with this three game winning streak on the back of their three game losing streak. Now many of the same people who were already shoveling dirt on the 2011 New York Jets are now saying the AFC East is there for the Jets to take. If you were one of the doom and gloomers who had the Jets season dead and buried, shame on you (you know the old saying “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me”), but if you stuck by this team and had faith in them give yourself a pat on the back, you deserve it. (more…)

Florham Park, N.J.- A lot has been made of the fact that this year’s Jets team is undefeated at home, but has yet to win a game on the road. The ludicrous assumption many people are jumping to, without actually assessing the situation, is that the Jets don’t play well on the road. The Jets have played four games at home and three on the road, but those three road games were against the three best teams they have faced this year (Oakland with a healthy Jason Campbell was set to make a serious run, now with Carson Palmer I’m not so sure). And, oh yeah, two of those three games were without their All-Pro center Nick Mangold and I think everyone can agree this Jets team is much better with Mangold in the lineup.

How soon everyone seems to forget that last regular season this Jets team only lost two road games and they have managed to win two road playoff games each of these last two seasons on their way to the AFC Championship. So basically, I’m not buying that the Jets all of a sudden can’t play on the road. It’s way too early in the season to start making declarations for this year’s league MVP, but with missing those two games Mangold has made a solid case for himself as the clear cut MVP of this Jets team and it’d be a big mistake to use the Raiders or Ravens games as a basis of what to expect from this Jets offense as long as Mangold is playing. With Mangold back to 100 percent and being a full participant in practice the Jets must look to continue their own momentum from before the bye week and hand the Bills their first home loss of the season to give the Jets a ever so slightly lead on the Bills in the division race. (more…)