I'm surprised to see this thread take such a reasonable turn in the past few posts. No doubt more people will be coming in soon to castigate others for being the kinds of fans they hate. Can I summarize what seem to me to be facts? (1) The Jets making the playoffs this year is totally unexpected, and loads of fun. Pennington gets plenty of credit for it. (2) Pennington has a below average NFL arm, but has a history of winning games. (3) Pennington is wildly inconsistent, not only game to game, but even pass to pass. Now come what I guess are opinions, but seem pretty clear to me: (1) The only way a QB like Pennington could get to / win the SB is as a game manager; he does not have the physical skills to carry a team on his shoulders against the kinds of teams that the Jets would play in the playoffs. (2) The problem with that model is that the previous teams that won the SB that way had QBs making very little money, leaving lots of money for killer defenses and/or running backs. Pennington makes too much money for that, unless he renegotiates down again, in pretty dramatic fashion. (3) Building a dominant defense takes time, especially when you're drafting too low to get a stud defensive lineman in the draft (and how many defensive linemen walk into the NFL and get 10+ sacks their rookie year anyway?). How many years does Pennington have left? If you take all of these points together, a very reasonable attitude is to root for the Jets on Sunday, (hopefully) root for them in the playoffs, yet be quite amenable to Pennington not being the QB next year. To me, that is not being a bad fan, or even a negative one; it's just looking ahead at the same time you're happy about the moment. Let the bashing begin.
I'm going to make what on the surface may appear like a pretty weird comparison at the QB position. Peyton Manning and Chad Pennington. Obviously in terms of physical talent they are on opposite ends of the spectrum but from the "cerebral" perspective they are probably the 2 most similar QBs in the league. Leaving the arm strength out for a minute, many of the same criticisms are leveled at both QBs. They can't win the big game, they collapse under pressure from the defense and they run up their numbers on inferior opponents. Because of the nature of they NFL, they both win more then they lose and are seen as regular season successes. Peyton's raw talent makes him more successful in the regular season, of course and better able to come back from a mistake but the Achilles heel is there nonetheless. While Chad falters at the level of top defense Peyton's talent is able to carry him past most of these teams but again, he falters when he faces the cream of the crop in the playoffs. I believe the coaches put too much on their QB asking them to run this type of offense against a defense that isn't going to be tricked or fooled or wear out from it. Mistakes compound other mistakes and all of a sudden you're in a big hole. For Pennington this is probably the best option as there's really no way for him to have success as a drop back QB but this is also why I believe he isn't capable of leading the Jets to a SB.
I hear what you are saying here. It is a big game of chess in reality. What looks right on paper doesn't always translate to success and vice versa. Manning is an interesting example, and I believe we will know more in a year or two whether it was bust or boon for them where he is concerned. I will also admit while I leaned toward Herm while he was here, after seeing what this CS/FO has done this year, I would prefer Mangini hands down everytime. I believe it is really working out for the better. Sometimes change is necessary, and sometimes it is difficult to see that when you are still being competitive. I think that the best case scenario for the Jets is to see what Clemens has in the next year or two and go from there. By this time we should know if he is beating down the door to start, or if he will become a glorified backup. At this point much of the rest of our team should be developing well and we can tell if we need a change at QB. Chad is a good QB, but anyone expecting him to carry this team is being unrealistic, but if you give him some more tools he can do some great things for us. Only time will tell though.
Interesting to note as well, that Peyton Manning-son, or PMS, lost all three road division games this year. And Barely eked out a win at home against Tenn, early in the season.
I don't think the Jets beat Miami necessarily BEACAUSE of Chad Pennington. However, as I have stated before, when weather conditions are that bad, you win by any means possible, and move on. EVERYONE is excused from their performance in those conditions.
I don't think that's being a "bad fan" at all, I just think it's a little unrealistic. You'd be swapping a known commodity, a winning QB (albeit one with a sub-par arm), for an unknown with potential only (and not Leinart or Cutler potential, either). That's not to say that Clemens won't be spectacular in time, it's just that we don't know. Unless he had a ridiculously positive camp and Chad is downright awful (or injured) I just can't see how you switch QBs next season. Having said that, I do, however, see the similarity to the San Diego situation which is why this is obviously a debatable subject.
On draft day Clemens was actually being talked about as the best of the class of '06. The only reason he didn't get picked before Young/Cutler/Leinart was because he missed significant time with an injury. The coaching staff must have felt he had something to offer, since they went out of their way to watch him work out just a week before the draft, while they were supposed to be watching Leinart. And let's not forget, they traded back up to get him. The potential is there. The reason Clemens isn't playing now is simply because Chad gives us the best chance to win right now. When camp starts next year, Clemens will have had a full year of classroom work under his belt. Don't be surprised if he wins the job by the end of August.
i've previously stated that chad was somewhat responsible for his own bad luck, injuries, in that he had so much of the cap tied up in his contract that dumbway went dumpster shopping for the o-line, degrading the quality of the guys who protect him. look at the colts: so much money tied up on peyton, and a crappy defense .
I would also say that it's not all that unrealistic, either. You mention Brees/Rivers in San Diego, but there are other cases in recent years where successful (winning) QBs were benched or cut in favor of players with little or no experience as well: Green in St. Louis in 2001; Dilfer in Baltimore in 2001; Kitna in Cincinnati in 2005; Bledsoe in Dallas and Plummer in Denver this year. In the salary cap world of the NFL, teams can't afford to waste all that salary on highly-paid QBs who don't provide a lot more than what is sitting on the bench (or out on the street). I'll probably regret this, but the notion of Pennington as a winning QB, while true, needs to be put in perspective a little bit. Since 2003, he has a winning record as a starter: 22-19. That's fine, but it's 14-4 against teams that ended up under .500, and 8-15 against teams .500 and over (using current records for 2006). And before people say that that is true for all QBs, well no, it isn't, and Mr. Pennington in 2002 provides a fine example: he was 6-3 against teams that finished .500 or more, and 2-2 against teams that finished under .500. If the Chad of 2006 was the Chad of 2002, we wouldn't be having these discussions, but he hasn't been that Chad for quite a while now.
I love Boomer. He is always the most realistic of anyone on NFL broadcasts, save for Simms, but this article is so far off. Umm, when exactly did he have it? Yes, the point is valid that no other QB has done this, but most of us said, if any player was ever capable of doing it, it would be Chad. He then said that before criticizing, the person should line up behind center. Hey Esiason, as much a schmuck as Theismann is, he WAS a NFL QB. Seriously Boomer? Let's see, I can repeat that I said Brees in Miami would murder us, but I won't sit here and dwell. Instead, let's look at their histories. Brees had an off-year, and the world-at-large wrote him off in favor of Rivers. So he came back the next year and tore up the world. For Culpepper, without Randy Moss, what did he ever do? Come on Boomer. If you honestly had more faith in Culpepper than Brees, you may as well just admit the egg on your face is rotten, and clean it off.
That's a great stat, and confirms alot of peoples feelings that while the Jets "snuck" into the playoffs in 02 with only a record of 9-7 there was still alot more optimism about the Jets chances in the playoffs that season.
I agree, and there are other puzzles in there as well. "It has come to my attention ..." - I don't know if he was trying to be funny, or does that mean that he didn't actually watch the game? He wants Romo out of the Pro Bowl because his success is only based on 4 games, and wants Garcia in instead? Uh, Boomer, Garcia has started 6 games for the Eagles, and the team was blown out in the first two of them. Also, Romo has had 6 very good-to-excellent games, not 4.
I would say Chad is playing at a higher level now than the QBs you mentioned above at the time they were removed. Other than that, I see what you're saying but still think Chad would have to be really terrible from here on out and have a dreadful camp next year, which I just don't see happening. Even if he throws 2 picks and loses a playoff game yet has another strong camp next year (let's say he barely beats out Clemens) I say it's still his job to lose next season. Look, anything can happen obviously, I'm just saying I would be surprised if his performance declined from this point, barring injury.
