Randall was an athletic freak of nature and a very average QB. He used to stare down the rush ans was gone the first sign of pressure. He was a much better Qb the second phase of his career when he learned how to play from the pocket.
All that shows is that the jury is still out on Sanchez. This year will define him as a QB. I just hope to god he doesn't get injured. The comparison to Eli is valid, because the teams were built very similar. Heavy focus on defense and running game. In Eli's first year the Giants had a rushing game almost as good our ours in 2009. After 2007 they fired their OC, just like we did after Sanchez year 3. A lot of similarities, and obviously it doesn't prove anything, other than the fact that Sanchez COULD still become elite. It doesn't suggest he definitely will.
Three words for you: Schotty. Is. Gone. There are other reasons to be optimistic about Sanchez going into this season (finally some speed/youth at WR, new OL coach, new WR coach, another year of experience under his belt...) but IMO Schotty finally being replaced is by far the biggest reason to expect a major difference in Sanchez's performance this season.
If that is so obvious it must make you wonder why our wonderful FO, owner and the rest of the CS kept him around for six years.
Why Schotty was kept around for 6 seasons despite never being a particularly good offensive coordinator is likely to remain a mystery. I suspect it's due in fairly equal parts to the frequent turnover at the QB position - which was not Schotty's call, the hiring of a defensive head coach in 2009, and the fact that nobody but Schotty could ever figure out wtf exactly was going on with the offensive scheme. Eric Mangini understood what it was that Schotty was trying to do. Maybe Callahan did also. Nobody else had a clue and so the offense was kind of this weird side department of the overall team from 2009 to 2011. If Mangini stays after 2008, which would have been more logical than his departure with Schotty remaining, the odds are really good Schotty gets fired at some point earlier than he did.
The 800 pound gorilla of reasons why that Schotty Haters refuse to acknowledge as to why he was with the Jets for 6 years is a combination of two things. The first is that Schotty was involved with a team that did have successes over that period, and he was (imo rightly) given some of the credit for that. After a horrid 05, he came in and coached Chad, who was still getting over his injuries and surgeries, to the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year, and the Jets made the playoffs. Chad's injury in 07 was hardly on Schotty, and Clemens, for a number of reasons you can't blame Schotty for, not able to take up the slack. Kendall's departure and the lack of a Plan B to replace him was a FO deal all the way. Woody may well have approved of it, but it sank the season. Clarke and Bender indeed. In 08 the Jets got Favre at the last minute, as it were, and yet were still able to get to 8-3 with arguably the best team in the league. At that point Favre's injury sank the season, and while the Jets still finished with a winning record, did not make the playoffs, and Favre was gone. Ryan came in, the Jets decided to trade up in the draft to get a rookie Qb to be the starter, and yet, despite the expected shaky play of Sanchez, the Jets still made it to the Champ Game two years in a row. Last year's problems were a combination of a lack of development by Sanchez, poor play by Wayne Hunter, VD not being an option, and of course the one two hit of Turner going down and not being replaced in the pre-season, and then Mangold's injury. I would also add that LT's 10 production dropped off precipitously and was not replaced by Greene, and of course that Burress did not fill Edwards's shoes. But it was mostly on Sanchez. Which is the second reason - the FO recognizes that most if not all of the problems with the O are and have been due to shortcomings in the quality of players on the offensive roster. In short, the limitations we all know about with the O are mostly attributable to FO roster moves, not the offense's coaching staff. Schotty became the fall guy, the one particularly the Sanchez Fans in the fanbase turned their wrath on (as if this was the first time ever that the OC took the blame for shortcomings in the O no matter what was really going on), and because Woody was not willing to blame Tanny and his FO people, and Ryan was not going to be fired, either (despite admitting he lost the team last season), Schotty left, and along with him Callahan. Even as between Schotty and Callahan, Schotty Haters do not know what the view was of the one compared to the other by Ryan and the FO. We know that Cavanaugh was retained, but the reasons why are not clear, either. And of course we know that Schotty has been hired by one of the better head coaches in the league, so the hatred of him by many in the Jet fanbase is not shared elsewhere. Since Schotty left the FO has done a number of things that suggest they do not think all of Sanchez's problems were the fault of Schotty, most significantly being the trade for Tebow. That about covers it, no matter how much Schotty Haters may disagree.
Good post, but I would add in that Schotty was the fall guy with the fans before this year. A lot of posters wanted him gone after 2010-2011 season but realized that there was basically a 0% chance of firing an OC coming off of a good playoff run. I think a good amount of fans were hoping Schotty would go to BUF for the HC job there. The dislike for Schotty was there before the 8-8 season, but it magnified under the poor results from 2011-2012 season. I mean I think the start of the Schotty dislike was down the stretch of the Favre season with some interesting gameplans. He has been the fall guy with fans before Sanchez even got here, it just became more apparent this year because of the high expectations and the poor results
Oh yes, I am aware of your point, and agree. Of course part of the problem in 08 was that the fan's common perception of problems on O down the stretch was affected by the LACK of public knowledge, at the time, concerning Favre's injury. The Jets did not speak about it, of course, and Mangini was particularly close lipped as we all remember. So, at the point we had this future HOF Qb, who had taken the team to 8-3, all of sudden looking bad, the WTF factor most easily pointed to Schotty. But of course we later learned that it was much more about Favre being hurt. And yes, even playoff run teams that do not win the SB will be scrutinized by fans. Why did they fall short? It simply has to be somewhere on the spectrum of roster talent moving over to how the talent was used. All fans have their favorite players on the roster, even if it's just a factor of having an assessment of a player's talent level, and what we expect from him. If that player falls short of expectations, the question of why will certainly involve at some point the question of how he was used. But of course sometimes it really is the player's fault. Mark Sanchez came to the Jets with a lot of hype. It was compounded by Ryan's arrival, and the many pronouncements that Mark was Rex's guy. Mark became the face of the franchise. His jersey was a huge seller. His sex life was reported on Page Six. Sanchez's early problems were, for the most part rightly, seen as developmental hiccups to be expected. I felt the same way. But over time, gradually but surely, the doubts about Sanchez's real talent level haev increased. It has been harder for some than others to accept that maybe he's not really as good as was expected, let alone hoped for. There's a certain amount of cognitive dissonance going on. And some people have more trouble with that than others. Oh well..
Oh yeah the Favre injury had much to do about. It just seemed at times that the CS forgot Favre was injured also and decided heavy throwing gameplans in poor weather was a good recipe for success. I don't remember specifics of those games anymore so maybe throwing was necessary, but I remember at the time thinking Favre's play has deteriorated and the CS didn't seem to adjust. Thankfully Buffalo decided to roll out and fumble late in the 4th quarter so we didn't end the season on a 5 game slide. Yeah, definitely after last year the doubts of Sanchez increased. His 2010-2011 was cause for some excitement. Multiple comebacks, the big playoff wins, and the 11-5 season felt nice. One Baltimore win away from hosting the afc championship game too. Last year we saw no big jump but I think we saw some improvements just not the one big improvement Sanchez needed, consistency. Instead we got inconsistent Sanchez with inconsistent OL, inconsistent WR, inconsistent playcalling, inconsistent execution which led to a frustrating offense to watch.
Favre got hurt in October and played his best football in November, don't buy the Favre injury excuse. Favre was awful the last month making poor decisions and favre dictated the gameplans. He sabotaged our season but uit worked out great in the end b/c we got Rex and sanchez out of it.
This is from Wikipedia "In September 2009, Favre again made Jets news, as the NFL learned that the Jets were aware that Favre injured his arm in the eleventh game of the 2008 season" This is from a Newsday article: "after Favre told reporters in Minnesota that he was injured for "about the final four or five games" in 2008." http://www.newsday.com/sports/footb...-000-for-not-listing-favre-s-injury-1.1454530
Favre supposedly hurt it in the KC or Cincy game earlier http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2008/12/does_brett_favres_bruised_arm.html
Did you link the wrong article? This article doesn't say that and it was published at the end of December.
Chad had his worst season as an NFL QB in 2006 under Brian Schottenheimer. He had his second worst season in 2007 under Brian Schottenheimer. The Comeback player of the year was because he started 16 games and the Jets made the playoffs. Period. Brian Schottenheimer ran Chad Pennington out of town. Chad wasn't done yet and he ran right into the arms of Bill Parcells and company who used him to facilitate the Dolphins only playoff spot in recent history. Chad was like an egg back there. Schotty was like a clueless egghead on the sidelines. Between the two of them the Jets had a lot of broken eggs. The Jets got Favre at the last minute because Schotty had already run through his first two options at QB and the team was in trouble. Favre was his third option. No help there for Schotty. Sanchez was his fourth. That Schotty got 4 starting QB's to work with is an indictment of his inability to get good results out of any of them. They made the playoffs despite Schotty not with his help. It took Callahan's Ground and Pound to get there in 2009. In 2010 the Jets were flying high with a conservative offense through 4 games. Santonio Holmes came back from his suspension and Schotty opened things up and let rip on that side of the ball and suddenly things started going south on offense. The more Brian Schottenheimer's offenses threw the worse they were and this was true for his entire tenure with the Jets including most of the Favre season. The man just did not do the thing he set out to do very well. Last year's biggest problem was that the Jets decided to let Brain Schottenheimer have his big day in the sun with a high-flying offense. they completely neglected to take into account the lack of personnel for that scheme, the lack of preparation time for that scheme and the inadequacies of the offensive coordinator in ever making a scheme like that work. You're just clueless on this point. You just got to see a 3rd year QB throw 26 TD's depsite having a turnstile at RT and a near turnstile at LG. He had a three-toed sloth at one WR position, an aging guy at 37in the slot and a prima donna "give me the damn ball" guy on the other side. He had a street football player playing center for his for 2 games. The Jets haven't had a QB since the 80's who would have had a shot at doing what Sanchez actually did last year. Schotty became the fall guy because he's a mediocre offensive coordinator and teams tend to fire the OC after they've fired a few QB's instead of him.
