Boos, busts and blunders: Reckless climbing

Jets Global

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The Jets made three huge trades to get into the top 10, two of which turned out to be big mistakes. In 1980, they jumped up for wide receiver Johnny "Lam" Jones, an Olympic sprint champion who developed a chronic case of the yips. They had been targeting tackle Anthony Munoz, but pivoted because of concerns about his surgically repaired knee. That didn't prevent him from becoming a Hall of Famer with the Bengals.

In 2003, the Jets made a similarly bold move to get defensive tackle Dewayne Robertson. They ignored a potential knee problem (look, no cartilage!) because they felt he was good enough to be Sapp 2.0. Not even close.

The third trade, in 2009, was for quarterback Mark Sanchez, who won four playoff games (all on the road) before his career petered out. Unlike the previous two trades, this one didn't cost them two first-round picks. They thought they had their franchise quarterback ... until they didn't.

ESPN Rich Cimini
 

Fudbutter

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Guess Cimini didn't watch playoff games which were won by the D and the ground game

the trade up for Darnold was pretty bad too if you look at what Indianapolis ended up with
 

Innocenti

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With Sanchez, they really didn't have other options.

They also passed on Marino for Ken O'Brien. Not getting Marino is not the tragedy that people make it out to be. He came onto a team that 3 months prior, lost the superbowl by 10 points and couldn't bring them any further. The problem was that O'Brien probably would've been available in the 2nd round and that the secondary was atrocious. Darrell Green would've brought a championship to NY.
 

skop

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This is cruel...

IMO, the cruelest of all move ups never happened... he fell right to us. "and the NY Jets select Dan Marino from PITT".

wow 1.0... "Marino to Walker", "Marino to Toon", "Marino to Shuler", "Marino hands off to McNeil for a 1st down to ice the game".

and wow 2.0... "Marino gave the SackExchange a 21 point lead, so Gastineau, Klecko and co. can pin their ears back and do what they do best".
 

SackExchange

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IMO, the cruelest of all move ups never happened... he fell right to us. "and the NY Jets select Dan Marino from PITT".

wow 1.0... "Marino to Walker", "Marino to Toon", "Marino to Shuler", "Marino hands off to McNeil for a 1st down to ice the game".

and wow 2.0... "Marino gave the SackExchange a 21 point lead, so Gastineau, Klecko and co. can pin their ears back and do what they do best".

Marino's legacy has tarnished how good a QB Kenny O was. He is vastly underrated because the Jets took him instead of Marino.
 

skop

The Green Knight
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Marino's legacy has tarnished how good a QB Kenny O was. He is vastly underrated because the Jets took him instead of Marino.

you are 100% correct. Kenny O was much better than he is given credit for.

equally ironic and interesting is a trait Marino and O'Brien "didn't" share, that had Kenny O possessed, he might have gotten his due.
The ability to cut bait, and throw it away...into the stands...any where...just don't take a beating.

After Kenny's OLine started to become porous, he held onto the ball far too long, and as the sacks racked up, he was shell shocked and never the same. he started hanging receivers out to dry. Toon and Shuler most notably.

but you're right. he deserves to be mentioned in the QB Class of '83 as a Quality QB, and not as an also ran as he's been relegated to like Blackledge and Eason (even with a forgotten SB Year).
 
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