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3:51:00 PM EST
Cimini: Jets Should Consider Ryan
The season's final five contests could be the most meaningful meaningless games in recent Jets history. They have five more chances to evaluate Kellen Clemens, and when it's over, the Jets must ask themselves this question:
Do we like him or do we love him?
When considering a young quarterback, there's a huge difference between like and love, especially if there's an alternative. And there might be a tempting alternative for the Jets.
At 2-9, they are careening toward a top-five draft pick, and there could be at least one potential franchise quarterback available, Boston College's Matt Ryan.
"If I'm the Jets, I make sure Kellen Clemens is a special quarterback," said Mike Mayock, the draft analyst for the NFL Network. "If he's just pretty good, they have to look hard at Matt Ryan. That guy is a franchise quarterback and you can't pass up franchise quarterbacks."
It sounds absolutely crazy, but Cimini does have a point here. The Jets are going to be facing a juggernaut in New England for the foreseeable future. Chad Pennington was a very good quarterback for this team for years, but the Jets were never able to get over the hump. This team is going to need a superhero to overcome the NFL's Evil Empire. Even if Clemens is above average, that might not be enough to ever overtake the Pats.In the interest of full disclosure, I am a student at Boston College. I am as familiar as anybody with Ryan. He is going to be a franchise quarterback. Ryan has all of the raw accessories that scouts think make a great quarterback like arm strength, height, and mobility within the pocket. He also has the attributes that actually make a great quarterback like intelligence, accuracy, leadership, clutch play, toughness, and intangibles. He was the ACC Player of the Year last season while playing on a broken foot. He has delievered game-winning drives late in his two biggest games of the year, both coming in extremely hostile environments. He has his team one the cusp of the top ten despite having a shaky offensive line and average at best skill players. BC is going to produce a number of overrated prospects for the Draft this year like Gosder Cherilus and DeJuan Tribble, but Ryan has the goods. Simply put, he is a guy around whom one can build a Super Bowl contender.
Half a season is not a fair amount of time to give Clemens a proper evaluation, especially considering the holes he is dealing with on his offensive line. If Ryan is there, the Jets still at least need to entertain the possibility. Even if Kellen turns out to be the real deal, having a pair of terrific signal callers is not much of a problem to have. Clemens' contract is reasonable enough to spend first round money on a quarterback. If a team has a chance to get a franchise guy, it should do it.
There is little chance that this will happen. If the Jets passed up Matt Leinart and Brady Quinn in the past two Drafts, there would be little reason to believe they will take Matt Ryan this time. This team has a lot of holes to fill, but it will take more than a single offseason to fix everything. The goal should be to improve in any way possible for the longterm. The right pick probably will end up being Darren McFadden, not Ryan, but a quarterback that good should at least be discussed. Of course, Clemens can make all of this moot by improving in December and staking a claim to the job.
Written by georgecoztanza Blog about this entry |
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