Around the AFC East, Pt. I - New York Jets

NY Landing Strip: SB Nation's Jets blog

This Friday marks the first-ever installment of what shall be called "Around the AFC East". All four of SB Nation's AFC East bloggers (tommasse of Pats Pulpit, Jetfighter of NY Landing Strip, Phinatic of The Phinsider and myself) will be exchanging questions with each other once a week. Every Friday, you will see our responses. This is a great way for Bills fans to get a good read on the Pats, Phins and Jets.

If any of you have questions that you'd like asked of the three other bloggers, email me at buffalorumblings@gmail.com and I will choose the best to ask each week. Now without further ado, here is our first installment of the day, and it comes via the New York Jets:

Buffalo Rumblings: Is there any sort of pressure for Chad Pennington to succeed with Kellen Clemens waiting in the wings?

Jetfighter, NY Landing Strip: I feel that there is a tremendous amount of pressure riding on Pennington. In case you forgot, Kellen Clemens was the first brain child of (Eric) Mangini and (offensive coordinator Brian) Schottenheimer. While most people thought they were going to take Leinart, they knew they were going to take D-Brick and then did the scouting on Clemens. They even flew out to Oregon multiple times and threw him through a slander of tests to see if he could comprehend the complex offense and he came away with flying colors. The only reason Pennington is still around is because he took a severe pay cut to stay with the team, he is the current best QB on the roster, and every year he has played a healthy season he has taken the Jets to the playoffs. If he starts off slow and can't make the necessary throws (or gets hurt), expect Clemens to get thrown right in and Pennington to play somewhere else in the 08-09 campaign.

Interesting stuff from Jetfighter. The Jets have a tough road ahead of them through the first five games, playing the Patriots at home, at Baltimore, home against the Dolphins, at Buffalo and at the NY Giants. They must also play the Eagles at home, at Cincinnati, and at Dallas this season, so they definitely don't have the cupcake schedule they enjoyed last year. If Pennington struggles against the strong competition, it wouldn't surprise me or Jetfigher if Kellen Clemens was plugged in as the starter sooner rather than later.

Stay tuned for the Patriots and Dolphins installments, which will be up a bit later on today. To see some of my responses as well as many other AFC East-related questions, be sure to check out my fellow bloggers at NY Landing Strip, Pats Pulpit and The Phinsider throughout the day.