Why do you think no qualified GM even considered an interview? They saw the writing on the wall, very little control as a GM over the most important things a GM is supposed to have control over. Thankfully it's over now and we have a better FO, I'm not completely sold on TB but I know I have to give it time to play itself out.
In my opinion the combination of Rex as HC and a bookkeeper at the GM position was a formula for a disaster. Add the fact that the talent evaluation team and presumable draft gurus in place at the time were in dire need of purging, (a notion John did not grasp soon enough), and the results were not surprising. We totally hosed the draft. There might be a couple of jewels here and there but by enlarge we squandered a golden opportunity and roughly 16 draft choices. I'll have to add that in my opinion neither Mr. Johnston nor Rex did Idzik any favors, be it in providing a more cohesive approach to the direction the team should go or God forbid a more unified position between the GM and the HC. Whatever the reasons, big Mac and TB are a gift from heaven compared to our prior leaders going back 10 years or more.
A few would be a complete whiff on 4 or 5 of those 19 picks. As of yesterday there are only 6 players left from his two drafts. That's just 31% of his draft picks still on the roster 3 seasons later. Half of whom( Dozier, Winters, Smith) only have a job because the the guys before Idzick, and then Idzick himself, gutted the roster completely enough that even dreck had a chance of sticking. To make his failure even more egregious idzick completely screwed a pair of 2's, a pair of 3's and a trio of 4's at a time when the team seriously needed that depth. The way that 2014 draft was handled was stupid beyond belief. Each pick was worse than the next and required explaining. With all the picks we had he could have traded up in the 2nd or late 1st and gotten Bridgewater or Carr. To an lesser extent he could have moved up at the time just a few spots for Marquise Lee or Jordan Matthews. Or he could have taken Allen Robinson or Jarvis Landry. We needed WR help BADLY at the time. Instead Idzick took a TE that ran some routes and couldn't block at all.... you know just like the TE that could run routes and not block already on the roster. I'm done talking about this mess because it only got worse. If he was trying to undercut Ryan it was being done at the expense of the franchise. If he was just that weak at scouting, drafting, an evaluating personnel and players it was also to the detriment of the franchise. At the end of the day it boils down to the fact Idzick got really cute with his nonsense and that got him canned, deservedly so.
I was pimping us to trade our entire 2014 draft (except Richardson which came via Revis) to the Browns for their entire 2015 draft plus a few more high pics. Wish we had!
Richardson and Pryor are turning into high end starters Enunwa and Winters are starters, and I believe Aboushi is starting in Houston Dozier and Smith are depth He also signed Marcus Williams and traded a 4th for Ivory which was shrewed Compared to the Quentin Coples, Kyle Wilson, and Mark Sanchez drafts it was tremendous Did he make a mistake hanging onto all those picks in 2014? Absolutely! I said it at the time. Did he make a mistake drafting Amaro and Milliner? Sure but hindsight is 20/20 Overall I thought Idzik had a plan that ownership didn't let him follow through with
I'll give you Aboushi, he wasn't horrible here and probably wouldn't have been cut except he liked to run his mouth. The Ivory thing happened but he probably could have pushed for a 5th instead. Dozier is only here because the oline depth is terrible. Winters "might" be a backup is they gave more than passing glances at fixing the line. Enunwa is putting it together but unless he becomes the Tom Brady of WR's there is no way it offsets the way he handled WR's in that draft. They were laying around everywhere and he managed to pick Hell, Enunwa wasn't even taken with a regular 6th, it was one of the comp picks. I honestly don't know if that makes it better or worse. With that draft I could only shrug and hope they knew what they were doing, but one thing annoyed the hell out of me. Jalen Saunders and Shaq Evans in the 4th over Martavis Bryant. It's the 4th and you have two picks. We needed a big outside WR badly and the guy was just sitting there. He played for Clemson so you KNOW Rex had seen a lot of him. I mean, Idzick had to be there enough to think Taj Boyd was a worth a pick, or was that a "special" Rex pick. I don't know but all of that nonsense is in the past and it, and him, need to stay there.
Woody gambled hiring Idzik, and got sold on a total rebuild that cut loose veterans and built through the draft. I supported that direction and still do, but I think Woody underestimated two things. First, he underestimated how intolerant and impatient this fan base is towards a rebuild. NY fans don't tolerate losing teams, and won't show up to watch us get thumped. Given the cost and hassle involved with attending a game, I can't say that I blame anyone for staying home. A five year rebuild was never going to work with this franchise. Many of the roster spots that would've been occupied by young draftees and FAs during the rebuild were taken by veteran FA signings once Mac took over. I think we might've developed a few more starting quality prospects if Idzik's plan was carried out further, but we also had to hit on a hell of a lot more draft picks than we did for him to keep his job. The product on the field was just too bad. Second, I think Woody underestimated just how bad Idzik and his crew were at talent evaluation. Seriously, how did we not take a WR early in the 2014 draft? It was a draft LOADED with WR talent at a position of HUGE need for us. Sure, most of his other picks sucked too, but ignoring the position until the 4th round in that draft and then bombing on two 4th round WRs sealed his fate with me. We also greatly neglected the CB position while he was here in spite of glaring need. His inability and seeming unwillingness to sign a veteran CB killed us as we had nothing there. I think this also undercut Rex (perhaps intentionally), as Rex often said that CB was the most important position in his system, but IMO you can't blame Idzik for Rex's firing. Rex had lots of warts too ("I take responsibility for that error and can guarantee you that were gonna get it fixed before our next game") I think Mac's philosophy has the right balance between hole-filling FAs and drafting new talent, but he will sink or swim depending upon how his draft picks pan out. From 2015, Big Cat, Maudlin, Petty and Simon all look like players. The 2016 class hasn't played a regular season down, but I can say I'm concerned with Lee and Hackenberg. That said, we might've hit on some late rounders and undrafted FAs (Lach, Peake, Marshall, Anderson). The jury is still out but I can't wait to see how it goes. Go Jets!
The good thing about the Idzick experience (much like Kotite) is that it forced the front office and ownership of the franchise to step back and seriously think about what they needed to do to fix their mistakes. They brought in experts that knew the business and methodically picked their new GM and head coach. While the Jury is out on the current staff it would seem that they are off to a good start.
I don't know if someone already said this, but I'll say it anyway With the recent signing of Antonio Allen, the Jets roster now contains as many Tannenbaum picks (Mangold, Revis, Harris, Wilkerson, Powell, Allen) as Idzik picks (Richardson, Smith, Winters, Pryor, Dozier, Enunwa).
exactly. Nothing wrong with rebuilding, but you have to actyally build... with quality draft picks... which he did not do
True enough but the Tanny Picks include four of our best players. The best of the Idzick picks is one screw up away from getting Suspended for a full season (or worse).
Idzick should have been fired immediately after he screwed up that draft. How anyone can defend him after looking at his record in the draft here is beyond reason. 31% of his picks stuck wen he wanted to rebuild through the draft...... sorry he may have had plan but he did not have the skill to pull it off
Coaching and Drafting are the only two categories that separate top teams like NE Patriots from bottom feeders like the Bills. All 32 teams plays with the same pig skin (except Brady), the same fans, same gridiron, same rules (except Brady), and the exact same $'s to buy the groceries. Coaching and Drafting, that's it. But unfortunately, the cost of coaching and the GM with his scouting dept comes right out of the mans wallet. I'll bet that owners who spend the most on top coaches, coordinators, assistants, GMs, and scouting over time have the best teams. We all like to complain that a hard salary cap makes it difficult to field a complete team with tons of stars. Fine. But there is no limit to what an owner can spend on coaching, front office, and scouting. And it's here that teams are made or broken. In the last 2-3 yrs, I think Woody has probably doubled his end of the spending, and it shows.
I I'm extremely pleased with Mac so far, I think we have a very solid roster in place and the future looks even brighter. It was the right move to fire Idzik. However, it Sucks because I do not believe Idzik was the worst GM I've ever seen, I surely don't think he deserves to be bashed as hard as he is on this board. It's not like he didn't so anything for this team. He had some solid draft picks, he made bold moves with the eye on the future and he had a good trade for Ivory. Mac was handed a ton of money and a bright setup towards the future in large part to the work done before him. Mac has been doing some brilliant things IMO so far, so I'm not discrediting him but the Idzik hate confuses me.
When evaluating players, Idzik was wrong much more often than he was right. He cleared out a lot of cap space, but it doesn't take skill to cut veterans for money. And aside from cap space, what bright setup did Mac inherit? There was little talent on the roster, so he needed every dollar he inherited just to make the team respectable. Fortunately, unlike Idzik, he hit on players more often than he missed and in doing so built us a better team.
That's why I stated in my previous post that, it was the chemistry of the everyone involved in that administration. FO, Coaching staff, Scouts...etc It's amazing that the jets have a new administration, made up of people who are new in their respective roles and it looks as if the chemistry is good between all of them. That's what I feel was the biggest problem under Idzik, and it reflected on the field. There is a sense of calm and professionalism with this administration, they will have their bumps as they grow together but it seems like everyone is on the same page with the philosophy of putting together a football team. Not just lip service to the media, but an ideology they all share.
