Fred Smerlas..."The Jets are a fraud"

[evans555]

Bills fan here, this was a refreshing read as it was something different from the daily media hype of the New York Bretts

I cant believe actually gonna say this but I am rooting for the Pats over the Jets this Sun!




http://myespn.go.com/blogs/afceast

Smerlas: Jets are 'frauds'

September 12, 2008 5:57 PM

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Graham

I had the pleasure of speaking to Fred Smerlas on Friday afternoon. Let me correct that. I had the pleasure of listening to him.

Smerlas, a five-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle, is a riveting gabber. We covered a bunch of topics, among them his AFC East predicitions now that Tom Brady has thrown his last pass of 2008.

Perhaps not surprisingly, he sees the division coming down to the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots, a pair of teams he played for. He also takes exception to much of the media anointing the New York Jets the new team to beat.

"The Jets are frauds," Smerlas said from his office in Marlboro, Mass. "They barely beat Miami, a team that absolutely sucks. I've watched tape of [the Dolphins], and they're in trouble. The Jets had a hard time with them.

"Brett Favre is going off the cuff in the huddle. Favre, that pass he threw [a 22-yard desperation lob to Chansi Stuckey] was a punt. It turned into a touchdown, and they win by six points."

Compared to Favre, Smerlas said Bills QB Trent Edwards "is a much more structured player. [Marshawn] Lynch is a good running back. Their O-line is good. Their defense is better. Buffalo is balanced on offense, defense, special teams."

But Smerlas isn't about to give up on the Patriots either.

"So who's going to be there? The Patriots and the Bills will be there in the end."

 

[PatsDeb]

Pssst...Evan - I don't know if you know this, but Fred Smerlas is a bigger Pats homer than everyone on this board. It's all good though; I love Freddie!!

 

[cartmen]

BAh bababababababababa Pats rule Brady is God BABABABABABABABa

 

[PATSNUTme]

I'm the Mayor of Homerville. Fred is President of Homer Nation.

 

[IcyPatriot]

Love Freddie .. especially when him and DeOssie are together. Fred is extremely astute and misses nothing ... his comments got me revved up a bit more.

 

[Richter]

The thing is, he's right. If Favre tries to pull that crap against a real defense, he'll get killed. Jets go 0-4 versus the Pats and Bills this season.

 

[Gwedd]

I have to be honest here. I am a true Pats fan, but I am impressed with the strides the Bills have made over the past couple years. They are definatley a good team, and look to get better. I hope we can sweep them this year, but it would not surprise me to split the series with them.

But the Jests and the "Fins? yeah... not so good.

 

[SVN]

we all hate the jets but i really dont get this logic of jets are a fraud logic just because we dislike them...and just because they barely beat a bad miami team in miami. we too struggled to win in the end against KC and their backup QB.if you ignore the green color and see their players ..they are talented. no longer dwayne robertson and victor hobson and vilma play for them . they have players they believe fit their scheme with jenkins,pace and harris. revis and rhodes are very good in the secondary and they have addressed their o line also.
the jets may struggle but iam not sure what they needed to do more than they did to try and compete .iam glad they threw all this money and brought in favre because it sets them back after 1 or 2 yrs again but this team is good now.cant say that they almost held on against miami but say we played red zone D against KC. if we think we will improve as the season , they can too.
personally i like the bills a lot but they havent made the playoffs in 7-8 yrs now. lets wait.

 

[Richter]

I have to be honest here. I am a true Pats fan, but I am impressed with the strides the Bills have made over the past couple years. They are definatley a good team, and look to get better. I hope we can sweep them this year, but it would not surprise me to split the series with them.

But the Jests and the "Fins? yeah... not so good.

Yeah, I like that Bills team this year. I was not surprised at all with the way they handled Seattle. Of course, I think people have been overrating the Seahawks as well... their offense is going to be bad this year, very bad. But that Buffalo defense is stout, and if Edwards can just protect the ball and keep the offense balanced, they should make the playoffs.

 

[Richter]

we all hate the jets but i really dont get this logic of jets are a fraud logic just because we dislike them...and just because they barely beat a bad miami team in miami. we too struggled to win in the end against KC and their backup QB.if you ignore the green color and see their players ..they are talented. no longer dwayne robertson and victor hobson and vilma play for them . they have players they believe fit their scheme with jenkins,pace and harris. revis and rhodes are very good in the secondary and they have addressed their o line also.
the jets may struggle but iam not sure what they needed to do more than they did to try and compete .iam glad they threw all this money and brought in favre because it sets them back after 1 or 2 yrs again but this team is good now.cant say that they almost held on against miami but say we played red zone D against KC. if we think we will improve as the season , they can too.
personally i like the bills a lot but they havent made the playoffs in 7-8 yrs now. lets wait.

Who said the Jets are frauds because we dislike them? No one I've heard has made that claim. I think they're frauds because of my opinion of their talent, their coach and their quarterback. Jenkins has been nothing but a fat, injured load for years, Pace has done nothing during his career to make me believe he'll suddenly become and impact player, Revis and his tight hips and poor lateral agility should be a safety, and Favre is maybe the most overrated player ever. I like Kerry Rhodes and David Harris, but they aren't going to be enough to put this Jets team over the top. They also need to contend with the fact that their "franchise" left tackle, D'Bustashaw, has regressed steadily since he came into the league.

 

[K-Ro 25]

Who said the Jets are frauds because we dislike them? No one I've heard has made that claim. I think they're frauds because of my opinion of their talent, their coach and their quarterback. Jenkins has been nothing but a fat, injured load for years, Pace has done nothing during his career to make me believe he'll suddenly become and impact player, Revis and his tight hips and poor lateral agility should be a safety, and Favre is maybe the most overrated player ever. I like Kerry Rhodes and David Harris, but they aren't going to be enough to put this Jets team over the top. They also need to contend with the fact that their "franchise" left tackle, D'Bustashaw, has regressed steadily since he came into the league.

Wow

 

[SVN]

Who said the Jets are frauds because we dislike them? No one I've heard has made that claim. I think they're frauds because of my opinion of their talent, their coach and their quarterback. Jenkins has been nothing but a fat, injured load for years, Pace has done nothing during his career to make me believe he'll suddenly become and impact player, Revis and his tight hips and poor lateral agility should be a safety, and Favre is maybe the most overrated player ever. I like Kerry Rhodes and David Harris, but they aren't going to be enough to put this Jets team over the top. They also need to contend with the fact that their "franchise" left tackle, D'Bustashaw, has regressed steadily since he came into the league.

pats were also looking to sign pace from what i know. iam pretty sure if he had signed here we wouldve been 'excited' to see what he can do. but with the jets he is just an unproven player.
i also hope he is a JAG but right now the probability of being good/bad is just abt equal.

 

[JoePats]

pats were also looking to sign pace from what i know. iam pretty sure if he had signed here we wouldve been 'excited' to see what he can do. but with the jets he is just an unproven player.
i also hope he is a JAG but right now the probability of being good/bad is just abt equal.

Exactly right. Now, the Pats were not going to give him the money the Jets did, but that's not relevant in terms of how much he improves their team. Look who he replaced: Victor Hobson. Hobson was playing at his weaker position on the Jets last year, OLB, where he was hideous. He then came to the Pats, where he played his stronger position, ILB, and couldn't even make the team. He started on the Jets last year at his weaker position! And somehow this is not supposed to be an upgrade? Please.

 

[Richter]

pats were also looking to sign pace from what i know. iam pretty sure if he had signed here we wouldve been 'excited' to see what he can do. but with the jets he is just an unproven player.
i also hope he is a JAG but right now the probability of being good/bad is just abt equal.

Please stop that. Stop with the "if he signed here, we'd love him" crap. It's a strawman argument, it's used all the time, it's unsupportable and brings nothing worthwhile to the table. Considering how much of a bust he's been throughout his career, I would have looked at his signing with the Pats with mild trepidation. It would have depended on how much money he signed for, of course. He got big money from the Jets, so they better hope he produces to that level. I doubt he will. It's not that he'll necessarily be a bad player- it's just that they're paying him to be an elite outside rusher, and I highly doubt he'll produce like one. Their pass rush does not scare me whatsoever, nor does their passing offense. The Pats contain Thomas Jones and keep a balanced offense, and let Favre reel off his usual string of brain farts against a good defense, and they'll win handily.

 

[SVN]

Please stop that. Stop with the "if he signed here, we'd love him" crap. It's a strawman argument, it's used all the time, it's unsupportable and brings nothing worthwhile to the table. Considering how much of a bust he's been throughout his career, I would have looked at his signing with the Pats with mild trepidation. It would have depended on how much money he signed for, of course. He got big money from the Jets, so they better hope he produces to that level. I doubt he will. It's not that he'll necessarily be a bad player- it's just that they're paying him to be an elite outside rusher, and I highly doubt he'll produce like one. Their pass rush does not scare me whatsoever, nor does their passing offense. The Pats contain Thomas Jones and keep a balanced offense, and let Favre reel off his usual string of brain farts against a good defense, and they'll win handily.

iam not using any strawman arguments nor iam not debating the money they paid. doesnt mean he cant be good. just saying what we all say here -maybe not you. anyone who plays for us is 'goiing to be a solid player' . for other teams he is unproven waste. going by your logic the jets have regressed even further from last yr and its the same team like with hobson and vilma and dwayne robertson.would you be more worried with pennington playing than favre or you think favre is the same as pennington ?if anything , our team has remained more or less the same but they have had a lot of changes. there is nothing to say they can be good but nothing either to say they will be bad.
we can be a superior team and win with the other teams players being decent too.

 

[WhiZa]

Did anyone hear Tim Graham on ESPNews? Saying things like the patriots made a bad choice to keep Brady in games last season to "run up the score every game". Could have been valuable playing time for Cassel.

Nice to hear a middle ground opinion from a die hard Bills fan who gets paid to run a nonbias AFC East blog.

 

[SVN]

Did anyone hear Tim Graham on ESPNews? Saying things like the patriots made a bad choice to keep Brady in games last season to "run up the score every game". Could have been valuable playing time for Cassel.

Nice to hear a middle ground opinion from a die hard Bills fan who gets paid to run a nonbias AFC East blog.

he is a ex miami writer so what can you expect . if cassel had come out thrown a few more TD's they wouldve said the same -they are running up the score.
memo to other 31 teams. if your team is up by a lot of points. take out your QB and give the backup QB reps by handing off the football to the RB because your starter may get injured next yr

 

[Richter]

iam not using any strawman arguments nor iam not debating the money they paid. doesnt mean he cant be good. just saying what we all say here -maybe not you. anyone who plays for us is 'goiing to be a solid player' . for other teams he is unproven waste. going by your logic the jets have regressed even further from last yr and its the same team like with hobson and vilma and dwayne robertson.would you be more worried with pennington playing than favre or you think favre is the same as pennington ?if anything , our team has remained more or less the same but they have had a lot of changes. there is nothing to say they can be good but nothing either to say they will be bad.
we can be a superior team and win with the other teams players being decent too.

Judging by your response, you don't understand my argument. Will the Jets be better? Probably. It's hard not to be better than 4-12. The thing is, going from Hobson to Pace is like going from Vince Young to Jon Kitna as a passer, not from Young to Brady, which is how it's being treated, because he got a lot of money. Pace has done nothing in his career, is not proven as an outside rusher in their scheme, and is being paid like a top tier player. Does he make the Jets better? Probably some, yes. Is it enough to significantly upgrade the team? No. And that money he's being paid likely prevented the Jets from bringing in other players that could have made them more competitive. And yes, I actually would be more worried with Pennington in there. He knows the offense better, the receivers better, and takes better care of the ball than Favre. Favre might burn you slinging the ball around, but he's more likely to keep both teams in the game with his play.

You say there is nothing to say the changes the Jets made will be good or bad. I say there is- the past performance of the players they brought in. Going by that, and projecting them into the Jets system, I'm not seeing many guys that will upgrade what was a meager 4-12 squad significantly to compete with even a weakened Patriots squad that is playing without its best player. If the Pats struggle, it's more likely to be because they played poorly, down to the level of their opponent, not because the Jets suddenly improved by a great amount and started winning significantly more individual matchups.

And you're right, the Patriots can win by being the better team playing against other solid players. They've done in plenty in the past against actual good teams, like the Colts and Chargers. No one is saying otherwise, but you keep painting that as my position, which IS a strawman argument. I say I don't think highly of the Jets players, because of my evaluation of them, not because of the laundry they wear. Period.

 

[JoePats]

You say there is nothing to say the changes the Jets made will be good or bad. I say there is- the past performance of the players they brought in. Going by that, and projecting them into the Jets system, I'm not seeing many guys that will upgrade what was a meager 4-12 squad significantly to compete with even a weakened Patriots squad that is playing without its best player.

This is illogical. You have taken a negative opinion of Mangini and thus assumed that he can't possibly do anything right, instead of looking at what he actually did, and what he actually lost.

For example...

Favre > Chad Pennington...this is obvious. Well you might say that Favre's low is lower than Chad, while ignoring that Favre's upside is absurdly better.

Jenkins > Robertson...Sure Jenkins has had his issues. So does Robertson. Mainly he stinks. The Jets couldn't even get a 3rd round pick for a guy they drafted 4th overall. And he was playing out of position, playing 3-4 nose. How is this not a big upgrade?

Pace > Hobson...Victor Hobson playing his best position can't get a job on any team in the league. Victor Hobson playing his weaker (OLB) position STARTED last year on the Jets. Pace is a rush linebacker who fits well in a 3-4 defense. Mangini is not the only one who thought so. Bill Parcells did. Bill Belichick did. But of course, he is not an upgrade over a guy who was playing out of position last year and this year can't find a job.

08 OL > 07 OL...Faneca is only a seven-time Pro Bowler. Woody is only replacing Anthony freeking Clement. But yea I could see how these aren't significant upgrades.

 

[fgssand]

Gee, I took a nap, what did I miss???????