Favre: By a Jets Fan

Now that I've had a little bit of time to digest the situation, I feel I'm capable of offering an official person opinion on the matter. That opinion is that I like this situation.

Heading into this season, it was either Chad Pennington or Kellen Clemens. Kellen is alright but won't (at this point) lead us to a division title over the Pats, let alone a Super Bowl. Chad is frail. Very frail. He's also 32 and when you're that age and have a history of injuries like he does, that typically doesn't bode well. Could he have had a good season and take the Jets to the playoffs this year? Absolutely. But that's about it. With Pennington in, NO defense respected the deep ball, and rightfully so. Chad (or Kellen really) couldn't throw it. Because of that, defenses could creep up and snuff out our running game, forcing us to throw short-moderate distance passes for much of the game (I will put part of the blame on our O-Line for this happening last year though). With Brett under center, secondaries are going to have to back off. That, combined with adding Faneca and Woody to the line will help Thomas Jones immensely. He couldn't run at all last year. Our offense will be much more dynamic with Favre.

Also, a free agent signing that mostly went under the radar was our pickup of Bubba Franks. Oddly enough, that signing will probably help out much more than we bargained for. It'll be good for Brett to have a familiar face around that can help translate the NY playbook for him.

Another aspect is attention. Yes, Brett Favre is a drama queen...but the Jets rarely get any attention on the NY sports scene. It always Yankees and Mets and oh yeah, the Giants did win the Super Bowl last year. It's nice to see my team really get put on the map for once. And even with all that attention, Favre can definitely live a pretty low-key life away from Giants Stadium. He will have to deal with a lot more media scrutiny, which I think he's capable of, but the Jets new practice facility is not far away at all from rural areas of NJ.

When it comes down to what we gave up for Favre, I'm actually satisfied. Right now its a 4th rounder, if he plays more than half the season its a 3rd rounder, if we make the playoffs (with him at the helm) its a 2nd rounder, and we give up the 31st or 32nd overall pick if we make the Super Bowl. I like that. We get Favre and keep a first rounder (which GB undoubtedly wanted for him) unless we make a Super Bowl. I personally would do much worse to see my team in the Super Bowl, but that's besides the point.

The NFL is a win now league. If the Jets want to win now, Brett Favre is the right choice. I love Chad Pennington but he just couldn't cut it. With Brett, the Jets should be favored to win at least about 10 games. I wouldn't put them as a Super Bowl contender yet though. We really have to see how all the free agent pickups work out. I would pin them as a Wild Card favorite right now, with room to advance as the year moves on. As for right now, I'm excited to get this season underway and see what Brett can do for the Jets...assuming the Madden Curse doesn't get in the way of that...

I'm now officially ready to embrace Brett Favre as a member of the Jets family.