It’s Christmas in April for us football fans, as the NFL released the schedule for the 2008 NFL Season.

Here’s the good news for the Jets. Their strength of schedule is one of the weakest in the NFL.

Here’s the bad news. The Patriots have the weakest.

Congrats to the 2008 AFC East Champion New England Patriots.   Let that depressing thought sink in for a moment.

Interesting notes:

- The Jets open and end the season with the Big Tuna Fish.

- The Pats come to town for the season opener in Week 2.

- The only time the Jets are schedule for prime time football is Week 3, at San Diego on Monday night.

Full schedule and bold predictions with snarky comments:

at Miami – You would hope this would be a win against a new coaching staff and a bad team.  The AFC East incest continues with the Mangini-Parcells-Belichick free-for-all.

New England – Loss.    Although we’ll see how well Coach Hoodie does without taping defensive signals.

at San Diego – Over/under on LaDainian Tomlinson touchdown is two.  Loss.

Arizona – Arizona generally doesn’t do well on the road (of course, I’m making predictions in April, so this is all moot), figure a win.

Bye Week 5

Bengals- You figure by this time Ocho Cinco is either A) off the team or B) caused so much trouble that the Bengals have become team turmoil.  On the field that is, not off the field (we’re looking at you Chris Henry!)  Bold prediction: win.

at Da Raiders – Remember when this was a match up that the entire country look forward to?    This has Ian Eagle/Solomon Wilcots announce team written all over it.  Nothing against those two, but I don’t think you’ll be seeing the A team call this game.   Anyway, JaMarcus Russell will be going through some growing pains, win here.

Herm ball aka the Chefs – Win.    As bad as the Jets were, the Chiefs are worst.  Beware fantasy owners, Larry Johnson will breakdown.

at Buffalo – The Jets NEVER do well in Buffalo, so this is a loss.  Got to give credit to Dick Jauron for making something up there and for benching J.P. Losman.

Rams – Interesting game here.     The Rams are a lot better than the record showed last year.  There’s always a game (or four) where you ask yourself “how the hell the Jets lose that one?”   I’ll go out on a limb and say loss.

at Pats (Thursday night) – The good old NFL Network decided to put this on a Thursday…they could play this on the moon and this still will be a Jets loss.

at Titans – I get the feeling the Jets, who always have a win or two out of nowhere, will go down to Nashville and shock VY and the boys.  Vince Young really regressed last season, and just have a hunch on this one.

Denver – I’m going win here, just because I don’t Denver and Jay Cutler are that good.

at 49ers – Mad Mike Martz is the OC with Niners.   Remember that 35-0 game against the Jets where he ONSIDE KICKED when he coached the Rams?   Anyway, Alex Smith stinks, so I’ll go win.

Bills – The Jets generally do better at home against Buffalo, so I’ll go win.

at Seattle – No chance.    Seattle is such a great home team.

Miami -I have the Jets at 9-6 at this moment.    If you think that the AFC will be as tough as last season, 10-6 would probably be the minimum for a team to get in as a wild card.  This?  Will be one of those heart breakers, where Miami costs the Jets a playoff spot.

9-7 for 2008.

Back at posting on this blog, which is becoming therapeutic every single week I do it.  For those who read this, I’ll be running a live blog during the NFL Draft, with special attention to the Jets pick.

Big news for the Jets was the re-signing of Kerry Rhodes for $33.5 million big ones.

Five year deal with $20 million guaranteed.   Considering all the money that was being spent on free agents, it was good to see the Jets lock up one of their own.   Rhodes, who was unfairly robbed of a Pro Bowl season in 2006, had a bit of a down year –68 tackles, two sacks, but did have a career high in picks with five interceptions.

He’s 25-years-old, an upcoming safety and an extremely important part of Mangini’s defense.     Good investment here.

The battle between New York and Boston continues, as Victor Hobson signed with the Pats for a one year deal.

I dont think anyone is going to be crying any tears that Hobson is gone, but you’ve got to wonder what Coach Voyeur will be able to do with him.  I’m half-jokingly saying this, but you’ve got to wonder is Belichick signing him because he can’t videotape the Jets signals anymore?

Just a couple of weeks until the draft and it’s all quiet on the Western Front in terms of who the Jets are going to pick.  The Dolphins are in talks with Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long’s agent.

Whether it’s Parcells setting up a smoke screen is hard to say.  Not that the Jets were going to take Long, but the board gets a little less murky with Long going to the Fish.

Back soon with more thoughts.

And after yet another long hiatus, yours truly is back at it.

Looking at the stats for this page, I can’t believe, even with some of the irregular posts on here that people are staring at my writing. Even if it is to say that it sucks. For that, I thank you.

Now, onto pressing matters. In bullet form!

- Laveranues Coles will be a Jet…guaranteed.

The deal is that Coles’ $11 million dollars left on his deal is his for the next two years, and even though 87 was looking for an extension, it’s still a victory for Tangini and company. They don’t get the headache of what happened with Pete Kendall last year and they make sure that Coles, who can be a bit of a sulk, is at the very least placated with a deal that will be acceptable to both sides. He’s 30 — by no means an old man – although he is coming off a disappointing year, just 55 catches and 646 yards. Big reason why his numbers were down were because of a concussion that made him miss games and the fact that A) The Jets couldn’t protect their quarterback last season and B) Coles was dealing with an ineffective Chad Pennington and basically, a rookie quarterback in Kellen Clemens.

- According to Gary Myers of the Daily News, the Jets will not trade Chad Pennington.

Very interesting article, in which Myers says that the Jets brain trust says that they won’t trade Pennington, and yet they’re looking to draft another quarterback.

Huh?

Let me get this straight. You have an experienced quarterback on your roster that you can somewhat trust (Chad) and a young quarterback that you drafted to be the future (Kellen). Why on Earth are you looking to draft Matt Ryan or Joe Flacco?

Now, this could be a smokescreen for the Jets to draft who they really want, which could either be Darren McFadden or Chris Long or Vernon Ghoulston. Even so, any Jets fan has to be disheartened to hear that the team wants to draft another quarterback…maybe it’s them playing to the press to motivate the two quarterbacks, but you have to admit, if your either Pennington or Clemens, you gotta wonder what the hell is going on? Especially with the veteran signings, what does this mean?

My gripe is if your Tannenbaum or Mangini, pick one strategy. Either go for it this year, or try and rebuild the roster with young talent. It seems like they’re trying to rebuild the team and win at the same time, which, for the life of me I can’t understand. You can’t really do that on the fly, especially considering that even with the signing of Jenkins and Faneca etc., this team is probably not a playoff team. End of story.

Start printing those Super Bowl tickets baby. The Jets have signed Bubba Franks!

Sarcasm aside (the hell you say!), Franks is a decent backup. He scored nine touchdowns in 2001 and has his best year in 2002 — 54 catches , 442 yards and seven touchdowns. You’re not getting Antonio Gates in his prime — hell, your not getting Bubba Franks in his prime — but you’re getting a serviceable backup, who can perform when called upon.

The Jets have also hosted another ex-Pat, this time Troy Brown.

I don’t think Brown is anywhere close to the guy that helped the Pats to three Super Bowls, but you can always use a guy that can play as a slot fourth receiver who’s smart, a determined special teamer AND play dime corner in a pinch. You’re not gonna find many players in the league that can contribute to a team in all phases of the game.

It’s been pretty slow after the intinal first round of free agency around the Jets, so I figured why not take a trip down memory lane and re-visit Dewayne Robertson…or more accurately, the Dewayne Robertson draft.
The year was 2003. The Jets had two first round picks : the 13th pick, which the Jets got during that year Dan Synder lost his freaking mind…again…and gave up the pick to the Jets for Coles.

Now, at the time, the Jets were coming off a 9-7 year, a magical run when Chad came in relief of Vinny and led the Jets to the postseason and that destruction of the Colts in the first round.

So you have two first round picks. The smart, prudent thing would be to keep both picks and take two first round talent players.

So Herm and Terry Bradway decide to trade up and get Dewayne Robertson. Uh oh.

Coming out of Kentucky, Robertson was considered another Warren Sapp type defensive tackle. Naturally with Herm playing that Tampa “2″ defense, he wanted Robertson in the middle and cause havoc. Only problem is he never turned out that way.

For Jets fans, these are the following players you could have had had you kept the picks:

Ty Warren

Troy Polamalu

Bryant Johnson (eh)

Calvin Pace…(hey, I know that guy!)

Willis McGahee

Larry Johnson

Nnamdi Asomugha

Nick Barnett