Geno's Coming to Town

 NFL Draft

The Jets made a big splash at the 2013 NFL Draft, with the ripple effect still taking place today. With the 39th pick, Gang Green selected Geno Smith, the quarterback from West Virginia, who looked like he was in agony in the green room, as all 32 teams passed on him in the first round. I like the pick, and when he practically fell into our lap in the second round, it was a no-brainer to take him. After a 2012 which saw some of the worst quarterbacking I've seen in 25 years of watching football, Smith has to be an upgrade. 

Geno joins a list that includes Richard Todd, Ken O'Brien, Vinny Testaverde, Chad Pennington, Brett Favre and Mark Sanchez as the next quarterback to possibly lead the franchise to it's first Super Bowl since Broadway Joe did it in 1969. According to his scouting report, Smith is a work-horse in the gym and in the film room, with a decently strong arm, but he needs to improve his accuracy. I don't think he should start this year, instead let him learn on the sidelines for a couple years behind David Garrard and Mark Sanchez. 

News broke this morning that Tim Tebow was the first casualty of this draft, after the Jets realized no other franchise wanted the Cinderella story of 2011 (except for a few teams that wanted him as a tight end). This ends the Jets career of the most publicized and popular punt protector in NFL history. However you slice it, the Tebow trade was a monumental disaster for all parties involved. Woody Johnson looks like a fool, Mike Tannenbaum and Tony Sparano have been fired, Rex Ryan is a lame duck head coach, Mark Sanchez's career took a hit, and Tim Tebow may not even find a job in the NFL next season. HIT THE BRICKS TIMMY!!!!

Geno Smith overshadowed the Jets' two first round picks of Dee Milliner and Sheldon Richardson. Dee Milliner has big shoes to fill, stepping in for Revis Island, but he's used to the pressure at Alabama. Jets doctors were convinced that his shoulder injury won't be a problem. Milliner was at the top of my wish list, and I was happy he was still available when we picked. On the other hand, I wasn't so happy with the Sheldon Richardson pick. Nose tackle was one of our needs this season, after releasing Pouha, but this pick stinks of Rex Ryan, and not what would have been better for our team. Richardson may be a good pro, but the scouts say he is a better fit in a 4-3, as opposed to nose tackle in a 3-4, Ryan's base defense. If Richardson does turn out to be a good player, than we have the makings of a good young defensive line with him, Quinton Coples and Mo Wilkerson.  

You can't really tell if the draft is a success for at least 3 years, but I feel like the Jets have two very good prospects in Geno Smith and Dee Milliner and a project in Sheldon Richardson. In addition to those picks, the Jets traded their fourth round pick to the Saints for Chris Ivory, who will probably be our starting running back this season. Ivory was never given a chance in New Orleans, and saw his production drop every year. Ivory has the size and speed to be a good running back, and I'm anxious to see how he plays now that he will be given a chance.

UFC 159

UFC 159 from the Prudential Center in Newark may go down as the most cursed/strangest pay-per views ever, with 2 fight endings due to an eye poke, one fight stopped from a broken thumb, and a title almost switching hands because of a broken toe. Before we get into that though, I want to go back to the day before, when I attended the weigh-ins.

Thanks to popular MMA message board, the UG, I was able to attend a special meet and greet with Dana White following the UFC 159 weigh-ins. The UFC set us up with kick-ass seats to see the Fight Club Q and A with Middleweight #1 Contender Chris Weidman. The Long Island native seemed confident going into his July fight with Anderson Silva. After the Q&A ended, I got to experience the UFC weigh-ins for the first time. They were alright, but not really anything I would care about seeing in person again. They just call each fighter up, they step on a scale and face off with their opponent. After the weigh-ins were over, we waited patiently for Dana White. (Ariel Helwani even stopped by and visited us for a few minutes as we waited)

I doubt he is ever going to see this blog, but I can't thank Dana White enough for everything he does for the fans of the UFC. He spent over an hour answering questions and telling stories. He covered everything from what type of razor he uses to shave his head, to his thoughts on the relationship with Fox, to a behind-the-scenes recap of a proposed boxing fight with Tito Ortiz. After that, we were all able to come down and get a picture and/or autograph with the UFC President. It was an awesome experience overall, and one I'll never forget.

UFC 159 the next night was a whole other story. The undercard was underwhelming, with one-sided fights and some strange stoppages. However, the main event could have been a possible disaster for the UFC. Jon Jones dominated Chael Sonnen like most people thought, finishing him with a flurry of punches at 4:33 of the first round. Then, when Jones went for his post-fight interview he saw blood leaking onto the canvas. That was when he noticed that his toe was broken, and the bone had punctured his skin. 

If the referee had let the fight continue, which was arguably the right call since Sonnen was intelligently defending himself, and the first round ended, Jones would not have been able to continue. Since the fight wouldn't have been stopped because of an accidental foul, like the Bisping-Belcher co-main event, but because of an injury, then Chael Sonnen would have been awarded the victory and the Light-Heavyweight Championship, in what would be another asterisk on Jones' career record. Could you have imagined the trash talk Sonnen would have spewed if he had 20 pounds of gold around his waist?