First off, most players don't give their opinions on everything under the sun as it pops up. Most players just hunker down and hope the mic doesn't come their way because it's a very intimidating process dealing with going on the record about how the weather is, let alone whether the franchise QB is good enough or not. So even in a major shitstorm like this one I wouldn't expect more than the usual suspects to pop their heads up and contribute to the conversation. That means people like Mangold, LT, Keller and a few others on that side of the ball. Most of the vocal leaders on offense are gone. They left in the purge last winter and in the preseason. Damien Woody. Tony Richardson, even Jerrico Cotchery in kind of a quiet way would stand up in this kind of situation and say something if they were here, but they're not. Braylon Edwards would definitely have had something to say. You think guys like Plaxico Burress and Jeremy Kerley are going to go loudly on the record one way or the other on something like this? They've barely gotten into the Jets culture at this point and Plaxico is probably going out after one year. I think I've heard D'Brickashaw Ferguson comment on something about twice in his career as a Jet. He just doesn't talk very much. He keeps his head down. On the defensive side not only do most of the guys keep their mouth shut but they also have much less ability to actively comment on something like Sanchez work habits because they don't attend the same meetings as him and they definitely don't do film work with him the way that Brunell and the WR's often will. The idea that this story was going to provoke a verbal sparring match between pros and cons is absurd. Most players just wanted to pack up their locker and get the hell on vacation. The people who did speak up did so because they were inclined to talk about stuff anyway. One of the things that happens when you move out a lot of your veteran leadership at the same time is that the locker room changes character. This Jets locker room has been one of the quietest in a long time. It took an outsider in Derrick Mason to break the peace the first time when he called out the play-calling (although now he says he didn't.) That opened the door for Santonio Holmes to call out the offensive line (although now he says he didn't.) Who exactly called out Mark Sanchez? We'll probably never know because Mehta has absolutely no interest in letting that info out and whoever did it has absolutely no interest in stepping forward. The Jets and Sanchez aren't going to get a resolution out of this until Sanchez steps on the field next season and either performs well or he doesn't. I think Manish Mehta is going to get a resolution sooner than that. It's going to be the "I can't talk to you man, things are crazy around here" type resolution out of a few people he previously could get info from.
A mountain of words spent trying to stitch together a reason for the great absence of disputing voices. Truth be told, with the advent of social networking, these guys DO unload their thoughts quite a bit, and the better explanation is dangling right in front of us. Occam's Razor, my friend.
I don't know if Manish spoke to LT but LT just put it out there with his name on it :sad: No way to sugar coat this ,,,and no green colored glasses are going to make this go away :sad: It's bad in Jetville,,,really bad ! How could things spin out of control this fast--simply amazing . If you are not sure what I am talking about---> go to the thread LT RIPS JETS . This Sux :sad:
None of us knows what that locker room was like. We have to base our tiny mental images of that world on snippets delivered by agenda-driven dickweeds in the press. And then we go on the internet and put on a face and pretend that we know better than the team. And then the teams hire internet focus groups to gauge consumer opinion, and these douchebags help shape future consumer response. Welcome to America. Home of the retards.
Abysmal----I don't claim to know more than anyone regarding this situation. That said LT was in that locker room and in that huddle, yesterday we considered him a leader ,,,today he is not ? I commend him for speaking up and having the balls to put his name on it :sad: We have serious problems in the locker room and with this team.
Lets see we have LT, Woody, Jenkins, Mcelroy, etc.......saying it like it is, at what point does this team bring in a real QB and fix this mess?
Yeah, always good to make decisions based on the opinions of the third string, rookie QB and two guys who weren't even in the locker room.
I'm sure by now that someone has said this, but here goes: how's that theory that this was made up to all newspapers looking now? Utterly disgusted both with the Jets and the people who accused this guy of lying.
There were multiple sources. Holmes was obviously the CAUSE of the unrest, but the reporter apparently went to others to confirm this crap anda bunch of them spoke off the record but spoke the truth.
I never thought that the quotes were made up BUT what I did say (and still feel) is that if you do not see the full transcript (even with the names redacted) and see all the follow up questions then you have to take everything with a pinch of salt because of how easy it is for someone to get the responses that they are looking to get
Yep. When you're going to do the kind of explosive piece that Mehta did you really need to line all your ducks up and find ways to have the information come out that are less mysterious than the ways that he depicted. Saying that Sanchez is considered to be coddled by management given that no competent backup has been in place for the last two seasons is one thing. Then saying that teammates consider him lazy is just completely inappropriate without better attribution than Mehta gave to the comments. The combined weight of coddled and lazy is too much for his flimsy sourcing to support. It's just a bomb thrown at the Jets structure and one that is fairly likely to connect. The entire story was written like that: just enough truth to make you wonder and then padded with inappropriate stuff to try to give it weight. Think how differently the response to this story would have been if the entire weight of the story was behind Sanchez has been coddled and pampered by Rex and the brass? Just leaving out the lazy crap that had no basis in fact?
So, now that LT has put a face and a voice to quite a bit of what Manish Mehta was reporting, are we allowed to give it more credence if there isn't a parade of players jumping up to dispute LT?
The biggest point that LT has made is that there was a huge rift between Sanchez and Holmes beginning about the point of the Ravens debacle. That the rift grew all season and became such a threat to the locker room that the veteran players did not know how to defuse it. That means there were knives out waiting for the press to come along and sharpen then. Given that we don't have a lot of anonymous sourcing about how Holmes sucked this year, despite the fact that he clearly did, and we do have a lot of anonymous crap about Sanchez play I think it is pretty clear who Mehta glommed onto as his source. One captain kept his mouth shut in the press which is why the locker room drama went unreported. The other apparently spewed to anybody who would listen, off the record of course...
Can you explain yourself here? I have no idea what you are talking about. Other than the Philly game I thought Holmes played well considering that he was constantly double teamed and Sanchez rarely got him the ball. If you mean their completion percentage as a tandem, is this merely another case of a Sanchez Fan blaming everyone other than Mark? Holmes is a Super Bowl MVP.
Holmes was a Super Bowl MVP and was subsequently discarded by the same team. Possibly to send a message after the Big Ben fiasco but discarded all the same.
Holmes was let go because of his off the field shenanigans, and because of the risk of his failing a drug test going forward, and yes, partly due to the Big Ben fiasco. I do not recall ever hearing him called a locker room problem for Pitt.
Holmes didn't perform well for most of the year. He dropped his fair share of balls and on several occasions was directly responsible for turnovers that cost the Jets dearly. He ran sloppy routes often enough that you could see the results in the normal TV reference, you didn't need all-22 film to see him breakoff routes prematurely or take them upfield when Sanchez was under pressure. WR's are value added. They don't trigger an offense and they can't do much when the QB or line is not effective. They do however have to contribute the value at the end of the play and Holmes inconsistency this season produced much less value than was required for the Jets to succeed on offense. A WR who can be shut down routinely is by definition not a #1 WR. Holmes wasn't shut down by great pass defenses this season. He was randomly shut down by whoever tried to do it.
