Simple as that in my eyes. The defense could be better, sure, and there are things about it that I want addressed ASAP. But let's not kid ourselves--if our offense sucks not even that much less, we're legit championship contenders. What the answer is as far as how to make that happen is what we all should be discussing. But that's not the point of this fanpost. Basically I'm just a little sick of complaints about the defense.

They're an easy target after the previous loss. After we got Tebowed at the expense of inarguably our worst defensive starter, it's easy to hate on the defense. But seriously... The defense gave up 3 points through 54 minutes of that game. The offense spotted them a touchdown earlier. The defense wouldn't have even been in the position they were in if not for that massively stupid play. That's been a recurring theme the past couple of weeks, hasn't it. "But 95 yards at the end of the game to Timmy Tebow! So unclutch!!!" Well, if you put your defense in the position where they have to keep the opposing offense from scoring a TD at the end of a game, two things happen--one, your defense has to get conservative so as to not give up the big play, which makes it easy to drive up the field; and two, it's the end of the game, players are tired and thus are more prone to errors or just not doing their job as well as they should. If the offense doesn't stink the whole joint up the whole game, they don't put the defense in that position. I honestly can't remember the last time our defense truly lost us a game where our offense did enough to win.

That brings me to another point. You know... Every elite team has an offense that can bail its defense out when necessary. Not just this year, but throughout NFL history. The old adage that defense wins championships... In my opinion it's mostly BS, or at the very least it's only true if your offense is worth a damn. I can only think of one team with a crappy offense that ever won a Super Bowl, and that's the 2000 Ravens. So basically if you're going to win a Super Bowl with just defense, it had better be historically good. Our defense is easily in the top 3 this year along with the Ravens and 49ers. The Steelers ain't far behind either. Everyone considers those three Super Bowl contenders. All of them have offenses that while they aren't world-beating (exception being the Steelers, whose offense might be better than their defense which is scary), they've proven that they can put up enough on good teams to win.

Meanwhile we're spotting teams at least a touchdown a game nowadays, and I still hear people talking about problems on defense. Nobody has a perfect defense man. Yes, Eric Smith sucks and we have no consistent pass rush. Guess what? The defense is still top 3. Hell it's probably only 2nd to the Ravens'. If you consider all the bad field position and time of possession and all that, they might be the best overall. Meanwhile the offense nets 9 points against a bad, bad Patriots defense and 6 against an improving but still not impressive Denver defense.

So just remember when you want to bitch about the defense... It's the offense, stupid.

via media.nj.com

Here's the thing. Remember last year when Darrelle Revis held out? What was the main sticking point of that whole ordeal? He wanted to be the highest paid CB in the league--he literally said he wanted to make "50 cents more" than Nnamdi. He ended up signing for less than that, but unfortunately for us Jets fans his contract was structured in such a way that he's most likely going to end up holding out yet again after this season.

So how does signing Nnamdi Asomugha benefit us, apart from the fact that we'd be acquiring a great player? Well, it's two-fold. First, Asomugha is the only CB that really approaches Revis's level of dominance, so that gives the front office somewhat of an insurance policy in case Revis seriously holds out--for example, if his holdout actually lasts into the regular season. Asomugha would allow Rex Ryan and Mike Pettine to install the '09 and '10 versions of their defense, which as we know is already good enough to be the best in the league.

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Considering that our beloved JB stole my favorite pick for the Eagles, I decided to go with the next best talent at a need position for my 2nd favorite team.  I could have gone a number of routes, and actually I strongly considered G Mike Pouncey here, as well as DT Muhammad Wilkerson though to a lesser extent.  Pouncey would be a great fit for Philly given that they've needed better interior linemen for what feels like forever now.  Wilkerson would boost their inside pass rush which is always welcome in the Eagles' D, plus he's a local prospect out of Temple.

Ultimately though, the decision to pick Jimmy Smith came down to two words: Dimitri Patterson.  He was probably--almost definitely, really--the worst starting cornerback in the league last year.  Then consider that there's nobody on the roster better than him, and it becomes a need so huge that you almost have to reach to fill it.  Fortunately though Jimmy Smith is a good enough talent that it's not a reach at all--in fact he's arguably the best talent left on the board at this point.

More after the jump.

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