Scheduling Conflicts

Webster defines a conflict as a “fight; battle;war” and a “competitive or opposing action of incompatibles.” Well one of the most anticipated days of the year was yesterday and it wasn’t because it was tax day. It was the day the NFL releases it’s 2008 regular season schedule and scheduling conflicts is what the NFL is all about.

The New York Jets had one of the tougher schedules last season coming off their 2006 playoff capped 10-win season and it showed. This year, not so much. The Daily News Rich Cimini will of course dramatize everything and his description of the schedule as “brutal” is somewhat deceptive. A more rational analysis of the schedule can be found on the Newark Star Ledger here. The schedule can easily be interpreted to produce a 9 or 10 win season what with the upgrade through free agency and the impact players still to come via the 2008 NFL Draft in ten days. After all the Jets will only compete in opposing action against 4 teams that had winning records last year. Two of them will be in the form of very good prime time match-ups with the New England Patriots and the San Diego Chargers. While I am not a firm believer in strength of schedule – in the NFL all the games are hard – but the schedule does shape up well for Eric Mangini to morph into Mangenius once again.

He could be our guy…

There is a very good profile on what could be the impact offensive player the Jets have been looking for years: Darren McFadden. It will shine some light on what i think are overblown “character issues” and might even sway some folks who are on the fence on just how good a football player McFadden really is. You don’t wind up as the runner up to the Heisman Trophy two years in a row for nothing. He should be the pick if he is there when Jets select at sixth overall. No conflict here.