While every NFL analyst has jumped on and off the Jets bandwagon with great ease, I’ve been firmly touting them as a threat for three years. How Philly got the “dream team” label is startling, especially considering the names on this Jets team; LaDainian Tomlinson, Plaxico Burress, Santonio Holmes, Nick Mangold, Calvin Pace, David Harris, Bart Scott, Derrelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie, Marquice Cole, Dustin Keller, and I haven’t even mentioned their quarterback and coach yet. This is a fantastic team. They’re for real, and yesterday they proved that Buffalo isn’t.
Nevertheless, Buffalo’s part of this three-headed AFC East monster. But it’s sharing a torso with the Jets that bothers me the most. It’s no secret that Tom Brady hates the Jets more than any other team in the league, and it’s no secret that Rex Ryan measures his success against the yardstick that is the New England Patriots. This is all well-known. Not so well-known, however, is the fact that the Jets are getting better. Mark Sanchez has upgraded his turnover tendency from horrible to bad, and his throwing precision from atrocious to “I’ll take it,” which is all that Rex Ryan really ever asked him to do. In a nutshell, Sanchez has become the quarterback that the Jets need to win -- relatively steady, not sloppy to the point of being awful, constantly energetic, a terrific cheerleader for the team, a maker of semi-good decisions, and overall just not terrible. And in making these upgrades, he has established himself as the most solid mid-level quarterback in the league, finally topping Romo, Cassel, Rivers and Ryan. He might not have an arm like Flacco, but he doesn't need it. With the weapons around him, this is a team to be feared.
The Jets are getting better and the Patriots are not. This is something that New England will spend the next six days thinking about. Today is Monday, and Patriots Radio will be quite miserable following the horror that was yesterday’s game. But I will endure the misery, mostly out of love and allegiance to my team. But in the thick of the post-Giants haze, someone’s gonna have to acknowledge that we’re also currently in a pre-Jets haze. And like it or not, by the end of next Sunday, the AFC East will have only one leader.
