EDIT Just to be clear this isn't or wasn't directed towards Bowles (only). Probably should have worded it a bit different. More about whoever makes and made these decisions. That's obviously Bowles, Macc, Chan, Kacy, Bobby April, all of them. I think most of us would agree that Bowles has what it takes to be the HC of this team for the next 5+ years. I'm hoping he is that guy. That said, if you're being confronted with questions about certain issues, certain holes in your roster, and you go against all that and decide to ignore these issues, you have to be held accountable for all the bad that comes with it. A few examples that are currently derailing our season: Not addressing the TE Position Yes, Amaro got hurt. That was in camp. Nothing was done from that point on despite reporters keep bringing this issue up. A trade could have been worked out, again nothing happened. This isn't just about Kellen Davis looking braindead at the end of the Bills game when he looked in Fitz' direction for 5 seconds but couldn't find the ball that was close to hitting him in the head. Ignoring Special Teams / Completely Botching the Kick Return Issue You go into the season thinking Owusu is your guy to return kicks? The walking concussion who has never shown the ability to stay healthy, somebody who can be counted on? How could you possibly think this is a good idea? Why waste a roster spot on a useless sack of shit (Bowen) who doesn't contribute, instead of bringing a return specialist in who can handle kick and punt return duties at a high level, not turn the ball over and actually maybe rip off some long returns and gives us way better field position overall? Last night we were stuck Devin Smith, Zac Stacy and Kenbrell Thompkins. Those 3 were taking turns, trying to figure out who the worst out of that bunch is. I think Devin won, closely followed by Stacy and Thompkins. Not ONE of them has any business returning kicks in the NFL. Let alone one team featuring all 3 on KR. It's a joke. Washed up/Bad players continue to get his support, leaving younger (and/or) better players on the bench Cromartie has been the weak link of of this defense since the day he arrived here. Ever since that day Bowles was confronted by reporters about Cro's play, his inconsistency, the many touchdowns and bigplays he has given up in just over a handful of games. What does Bowles do? "There's no issue, everything is fine, he's playing well." At least that's the message we're getting. Is he supposed to panic? No. But you have to adjust and make some changes when you have guys like Marcus Williams sitting on the bench waiting to get some snaps. Why does it take an injury for him to finally be taken out of the lineup? What about Demario Davis? He is proving to everybody on a weekly basis that he can not tackle, that he can not cover, that he's very slow upstairs, taking bad angles, running into blockers. From what we've seen out of Henderson/Lattimore in camp and preseason they are capable of playing at a higher level. Why are they not getting on the field? And then there's Pace. A guy who looks like he's playing in slow motion and yet he's the guy you send after the QB. When you have a natural edge rusher who is MUCH faster and much more explosive in Mauldin coming off a dominant performance against the Jaguars. What do you do? You limit him to a handful of snaps. Good job. Very smart. Paid off big time, Pace was amazing how he harassed Tyrod the entire game. These are just a few examples, I'm sure there are more. This isn't about Bowles seeing injuries coming. This isn't about Bowles failing to address the safety position now that we are so banged up back there. We had Pryor, Gilchrist, JJ, AA before the season started, we were more than deep at that position. If two of those land on IR and then the starter goes down of course you'll be in trouble. That's not what this is about so let's separate these two things. The other stuff that I mentioned however those were conscious decisions Bowles has made and continue to roll with. I'm sure he'll continue to start Demario Davis. I'm sure he'll continue to limit Mauldin to 5 snaps every other week. I'm sure we're not bringing in any TE's (too late now), or a KR. So that's what I have a problem with. If he wants to continue to ignore all that then fingers should be pointed at him. Everything else I like about Bowles. I just wish he would show a little more...urgency? Awareness? Not sure what the right word would be but to me he's completely gullible in thinking that things somehow will turn around if we just stick with everything for long enough.
The special teams are the biggest issue. Our depth players (Kerley, Stacy, Smith, Milliner, etc) should not be forced into special teams roles, just because thats all we have available. Good teams have special teams only players. Thats what was needed and thats not attainable right now.
taking off the fanboy/sunshiner glasses, looking at the remaining schedule: loss at buffalo, loss to pats, loss at giants, loss at dallas ( romo at qb). plus, they will blow another game from at texans, miami, titans. in short, 8-8 at best but most likely 6-10 or 7-9. daballhawk is pretty much on the money. miles seems just as good as pryor. but, cro is done at cb. he is at best a backup at safety, or the punt/kickoff return guy. he does much better at that than anyone else they try back there. i'd rather take my chances with rielly and lattimore or henderson at lb than pace or couples. we have no te who can catch, no rb other than ivory, that is, none with speed. wide receivers drop more passes than they catch. mac can pull an idzik this offseason and get rid of a bunch of guys who do not produce and free up cap space in the process. going into the draft, look out for competition at lt, te, wr, olb, even qb. with at least 6 picks , we should be able to get at least 4 contributors. maybe get lucky with undrafted guys for special teams. and, if you want to change coaches, start with that unit.
Isn't building a roster complete with players able to contribute on special teams the GM's job? And losing Zach Sudfeld hurt both the TE depth and special teams.
Really well said Post...Best one on TGG this month. +100 on everything A lot of these problems are also resp of our GM who I still like very much. We are not privy if HE had a talking with Bowles but THAT relationship is key here. Mac seems pretty proactive so he might take matters into his own hands since Bowles is too busy eating the Chips Ahoy Boomer gave him. IMO Bowles needs to mix that stoicism of his with some Bellicheat/Parcells toughness and wake up players to earn a living from the First Qtr on!
Yes, totally agree. Should have mentioned Macc as well. Also, doesn't look like there will be changes anytime soon. Get ready for Cro next week back in the starting lineup.
thats not true at all. like thats completely false. Good teams have depth enough so normal players like their 3rd WR, 3rd RB, 4th CB, etc. DO play special teams ours are just playing poorly at it because they aren't good players overall. Nobody has special teams only players (other than K, P, LS) Hell some good teams play their starters on special teams (NE) which might not be a bad option. We saw what it was like playing Cromartie at KR. You want to improve special teams put Marshall and Decker out there to cover kicks, Revis to return punts, Cromartie to return kicks, etc. You don't want that? thats fine- I understand why you wouldn't. Then you have to have players like Kerley, Stacy, Smith and Milliner play special teams. You can only dress 45 people a game! our special teams sucks because our backup players suck ass. Our backup players suck ass because of a decade of Tannenbaum trading away low round picks and 2 years of Idzik drafting shitty players. Improve the roster and the special teams will get better automatically
You make some valid points, but for some of these, the finger could just as easily have been pointed at Mac rather than Bowles. In one sense, Bowles is merely trying to make do with the roster he was provided. He could ask for players until the cows come home, but if no team is willing to trade or if Mac isn't willing to pay the price to make a trade happen, then Bowles is stuck. With regards to the TE position, that could totally be on Gailey. Gailey could have told Bowles not to worry about the TE position, that he rarely used it, and that it was unimportant in his scheme. Mac could have investigated some trades and been turned down, the other teams could have asked for too much in return, or perhaps the decision was made not to try to overreach this season. They'd go with what they had and do as well as they could. I think the point could be made that Mac and Bowles would have been panicking or being premature in going all in for this season, when they knew there were still too many holes on this roster and that the team is probably another year or two away from truly being a topflight contender. I think STs are your strongest point. Quigley was not that good to begin with, and the Jets really didn't seem to look that hard for a better punter. Again, Mac could and perhaps should take the blame here. It's his primary job to ascertain the talent level of the team and to upgrade and/or fix the weak spots. He could have easily taken Lockett over Devin Smith and not only would both the KR and PR positions been taken care of, but the WR to stretch opposing defenses as well. I'm puzzled as to why Bowen is still on the roster. Maybe he is a good friend of Bowles or maybe he has pictures of Bowles in a compromising position. I definitely agree that Bowles should be called into question on keeping Bowen. Cromartie played pretty well for Bowles last year. Maybe he thought Cro's play would improve once the season started. Maybe there are some flaws in Williams play that we haven't seen. I can't begin to understand why he stuck with Cro for so long, but I think there's probably some logical reason for it other than Bowles just being blind. Other than the raw Mauldin, Davis is the Jets only LB with speed. He's also a team leader . I imagine that's why he has remained in the lineup. Still, I agree that Henderson or Lattimore should be seeing at least some snaps by now, if not more than Davis. That is puzzling. As far as Mauldin, don't forget that he was injured for a while and was considered somewhat raw coming in anyway. It does look like he would be used more as a situational pass rusher, but I can understand why he's probably not playing more. We may have bought into the great story aspect regarding Mauldin too. He may not be as good as we think he is or want him to be. We know Bowles was going to make some rookie mistakes. Whatever his part is in not resolving or creating the above issues, we can only hope that he will learn, do better the rest of this season and in future seasons.
we had a guy just like that, woodhead. rex cut him to make room for some over-the-hill ravens cast off!
very well written post--for some reason the jets can never get past playing the washed up old grizzled vets--They hang on to Pace like they hung onto Bryan Thomas for years and they both suck(ed). Cromartie has been torched all year and Bowles seems oblivious--I agree with you that Bowles needs to SHOW more urgency with/to his players. He looks about as interested in the game as a guy watching grass grow.
Thanks for mentioning Sudfeld. He could be starting at TE right now, heh. But seriously he was a solid special teamer, and him being out for the season is a factor.
Ftr while I was dumping on Davis in another thread, I realize it's going to be a complicated picture for the CS when looking at roster decisions. Henderson may not be impressing enough in practice. But having said that I expect to see more of him, and in the meantime Davis is a net negative out there, imo. The CS is probably bringing Mauldin along, too, and doesn't want to rush his coming back from injury. But here I am more optimistic than to say he may not be all that good.
Well yeah that is the overall sentiment. And I wasnt talking about every single member of the special teams. Im talking about the important ones. Like the gunner specifically. As well as the return men. Has Kerley returned punts since college? I doubt it. I also doubt that Stacy ever returned kicks before this year. Its one big clusterfuck. A gunner would solve a lot of issues though cause the guys they have in that spot now arent doing a good job.
