Seriously? I understand saying something ridiculous yesterday out of frustration, as I do it all the time, but by today you should have calmed down enough to realize what an absurd statement that is saying that not a single player on the roster has shown that he can play in the NFL.
He wanted adversity, and now he has it in abundance. Let's see if he can squirm his way out of the mess that he has created. I hear you about constantly firing HCs and all the turmoil and instability it brings, but there has to be some sign that the HC is learning to give one hope that things will get any better if he is given another year. The Jets gave Gase another year, and look at what happened. What we saw his first year is what we got his second year. Sometimes one just has to realize that one has made a mistake and cut one's losses ASAP. I thought that surely Saleh would make some serious changes during the bye. Instead, nothing changed. At this point, he looks totally lost, in over his head and clueless as to what is wrong and/or how to fix it. I'm giving him until the end of the year to show that he has learned from his mistakes, and the team is making some progress. The rookie excuse doesn't hold much water any more. Other teams have lots of young players and have had rookie HCs and OCs and not looked this abysmal. This franchise needs to show some urgency. They cannot keep expecting the fans to wait for forever to see a winning team. JD has added a lot of talent to this team, and it should be playing at much higher level than it is. We have one of the top DLs in the NFL. Our secondary has played very well. We have one of the most talented WR corps in the NFL and adequate talent at RB. The OL has improved. Overall, the team appears to be regressing rather than improving. They aren't prepared to play, the game plans are crap, it takes too long for adjustments to happen (if they happen), the play calling is predictable, as you said their fundamentals are crap, and they are undisciplined. The HC and OC appear to be rigid and can't even understand that they aren't even abiding by their own principles of being flexible and adapting systems to the talent at hand. If they can't realize something that basic, how are we supposed to believe or have any hope that they will learn more difficult things? IMO a young team needs a strong, disciplined HC to get them playing in a disciplined fashion with solid fundamentals and not beating themselves. Initially, I thought Saleh was that kind of coach, but it's becoming glaringly apparent that he isn't.
I want to make something clear. My opinion on this whole thing does not absolve Saleh for his absolute failure on Sunday. The coaching performance we witnessed was absolutely horrendous. Having said that, I don't think the answer is to fire him or let him go. I do think the problem lays at the feet of Lafleur, who I have said for weeks, needs to be fired. This offense has been horrible and Lafleur is to blame. Saleh deserves blame considering this is his staff, but I do think the pain of having Lafleur run the offense is the stem of our problems. Until Lafleur is gone, Saleh will not see a difference in performance
Yes, the players have to play, but it's the coach's job to ensure that the players play in the way that he is teaching them, and if they don't taking steps to correct that situation. The buck stops with the HC. I'm not ready to fire him now, although I have little or no hope that he will learn or that the team will improve any the rest of this season. I'm only giving him the rest of this season however. Yes, everyone could have been wrong about him. It's happened before in the NFL about coaches and players. If the team wasn't a total embarrassment and joke right now, I would think differently, but imo there's little or no reason to expect things to get better just "because." If he was truly worthy of being considered the top HC candidate, then it's way past time for him to show it. He has to show that he gets it. He has to make changes to the way the team practices, to the way he interacts with the players, and he needs to put his friend LaFleur on notice that if the offense doesn't get its act together that he will fire him to save his own ass. Many thought things would be better Gase's 2nd year after the team won 5 of its last 7 games (or whatever it was). It wasn't. It was more of the same, except things got much worse. Saleh seems to expect too little from these players or isn't willing to push them and discipline them. It appears that he wants to be their friend. That will not cut it with a rookie team. At this point, I think you're going to be the one who is greatly disappointed if Saleh is back next year. I've seen nothing that suggests that things are getting better and the team is about to turn the corner. Yes, there are lots of young players, but they seemingly all bought in and love Saleh, and he keeps saying how hard their trying and busting their asses. Yet the team's play doesn't reflect that. They are much more talented than the way the playing, so the only reasonable person to blame is the HC, because he is the one who is ultimately responsible. If the team shows little or no improvement and Saleh is still doing things the same way, I won't care if he's back, because I'll be done with this joke of a team and you can make book on that. Life is too short. I don't owe the Jets anything. I chose to become a fan and I can choose to no longer follow the team, be a fan, or care what happens to them. There are many worthwhile things and activities in life that I can do with my time. I will not continue to waste my time on a franchise that is too stupid to get it right.
I agree that LaFleur is the major part of the problem, but do you really think that Saleh will fire him? They're good friends, and LaFleur's older brother is Saleh's best friend. If LaFleur makes no changes and shows no improvement, and Saleh doesn't fire him at the end of the season, would you still want Saleh back? We seem to agree that LaFleur deserves to be fired now, but with whom would they replace him in the middle of a season? Also, wouldn't that be just as bad an optic as firing Saleh after a year or two? If not, and LaFleur is going to be back as OC next season, then there's no reason not to fire Saleh if things don't show marked improvement at the end of the season, and I hope that JD will do it, if not of his own accord, at the insistance of the Johnsons. They need to show some urgency and make it clear that this kind of crap is not acceptable and will not continue any longer.
I agree with most of what you say in this post with the exception of the talent issue. Yes, we still have some holes, but this team is no longer barren of talent. There is a lot of talent on this team. Showing up to play unprepared and being undisciplined is not a lack of talent. It's a lack of good coaching and a lack of the HC demanding excellence and accountability. I think he is too much of a "player's coach" and don't think that will work with a young rookie team. That needs discipline. He wanted adversity to see how his team would handle it, and now he has tons of it. My question is what is HE doing to handle the adversity? It obviously isn't enough or the right things. The buck stops with the HC. I don't fault the players. I think they are trying. I think they are not being given a chance to succeed because they aren't being adequately prepared, coached, disciplined, the game plans suck, the offense is too predictable, and the HC and OC too rigid and refuse to adapt to the talent they have on hand.
Exactly! Going all out recklessly accomplishes nothing except frenzied chaos. I believe the players are working hard, but they aren't working smart and that's on the CS.
Spot on. If the CS isn't competent, then it will ruin all these young talented players or at a minimum waste a year of their careers and frustrate them such that they may no longer want to play for the Jets. Stability and continuity only comes with a winning team and a CS that has a clue what they're doing. So far, ours doesn't appear to know what it's doing except with the CBs and maybe the DL.
You make a point. You play an overly aggressive team you run up the gut and throw screens. That is exactly what NE did.
You don't need to fire La Fleur, he just needs to be reassigned. He seems to be incapable of putting together a game plan that the people on the field can perform. This is actually very Gase-like because he too had the perfect scheme and it was everybody else's fault for it not working. LaFleur is not getting any better, even after an extra week off when the last thing anyone wanted to see yesterday was two runs into the middle of the line to start the game. Demoting LaFleur sends the message to everyone in the organization that progress is a requirement of everyone's job. If Saleh gives two thoughts to the idea that he has a personal relationship with anyone or his brother and that keeps him from making a single necessary decision, he proves he is not up to the job of running a football team - this is business, nobody gets a pass! It's business that should have been taken care of two weeks ago when the extra time was available to transition. Replacing someone midstream almost demands someone on the inside so the logical choice, maybe the only choice, to finish out the year is Matt Cavanaugh with ten years experience as a coordinator and forty in the NFL.
I still believe in Zach. I believe in him more than I do Saleh, LaFleur and the rest of the CS. Rex and Bowles are/were good DCs, but in over their head at HC. I disagree that it will take two seasons to know if Saleh is the guy. Not making any major changes during the bye is a HUGE red flag imo. If the team does not show significant improvement over the 2nd half of the season, then there is zero reason to bring back Saleh, especially if he has no plans to fire Lafleur. With all due respect (and I do respect you and your opinion) imo you are wrong about the talent on this team. Yes, some positions are in need of upgrade, and there are still some holes (TE, FB, S, LB) but there is a lot of talent here, and no acceptable excuse for the embarrassing way in which the team has played. With the exception of 1-2 games, they haven't been competitive at all because they weren't prepared, the game plans sucked, the adjustments came too late, the offense has been pathetic due to misuse of personnel and predictability. One would think that Saleh and LaFleur had either never even watched a football game, much less coached a football team before, or never learned anything under the excellent HC for whom they worked.
I think he is the right man for the job, but we really need to figure out our team's staff and personnel on the field. They play absolutely terribly
Can I ask what makes you think that? Our team has been unprepared every single week so far. We commit a ton of penalties and are way overly aggressive on defense which is why we give up so many third and long conversions. Those are just brutal for momentum and morale during games.
I know everyone hates hearing it Agreed. And with all the draft picks we have next year, we will be top 3 youngest again next year. So if you are content with seeing this for another 28 more games because we are "young" then have at it. This franchise is a joke. I have to go into hiding for 15-18 Mondays of every year because I'm too stupid to just give up on this joke of an organization. It's a literal embarrassment to be a Jets fan.
How many screen passes was the defense burned on yesterday? It felt like 10-12. A "defensive guru" needs to figure out a way to stop that. If its the players fault, than the Jets are in huge trouble. I get that the team is young, and to not expect much. My expectations are freakishly low, and the Jets have still somehow disappointed me. I don't think Saleh is only going to get one year, so I think everyone is going to have to deal with the JD/Saleh until after next season. If the Jets don't really improve next season than JD and Saleh will more than likely both be gone.
The biggest mistake JD make was hiring a head coach and coaching staff with no experience. With all the rookies on the team how can you experiment with an unproven commodity. Yeah maybe hiring one of the older coaches may not be the exciting choice but at least your getting a coaching staff that knows all the different schemes and knows how to make half time adjustments. I honestly don't think Lafleur knows anything and was just given the job because of nepotism. The fact that we have not scored a touchdown in the first half and still can't figure it out is on the coaching staff. Also when you have a talent like Moore and Mims totally lost it most probably is the coaching staff. Saleh might be a nice guy but I think he is lost. They need to go out and get someone who knows x's and o's.
It's an interesting question and definitely a unique dynamic between them. Do I think he will fire him? I do. I do believe that Saleh is able to seperate personal with professional. If he does not, then yes, Saleh needs to go with him. It's one thing having issues. It is an entirely different thing having issues and not acknowledging the source of them. Again, I do throw some blame at Saleh, but I have to consider the situation as a whole and right now, Lafleur is a HUGE liability. Saleh can make all the adjustments in the world, but when the offense comes out and does the exact same thing, I blame the offensive coordinator and his inability to run an offense. Again, the blame goes all the way to the top, but I do truly believe that Saleh's ability to coach a winning team is hindered due to Lafleur.
While I do agree with the frustration with our defense, I do also acknowledge the position our defense was in. Not only were we missing our biggest defensive player and the signal caller, but we also had an offense that could not stay on the field for any length of time. The defense got destroyed, I don't think anyone is doubting that, but it's no coincidence that Mosley is out and they look like a totally different unit.
What'd Parcells used to say? Nobody cares about injuries. Mosely isn't a 30 point player. We gave up 30 points more than we've given up all season.
I think people are conflating their belief with facts on the field. Do I think he's also the right man for the job? Yes. But that's my belief based on the man I've read about and the body of work he has had prior to taking this position. Is it arguable based on the results so far? Absolutely and I don't think anyone logically could ignore that. My gripe is with the idea that he needs to go after 6 games. I don't think that's what a winning franchise would do and I don't think that's the right approach when trying to build a new culture. 6 games is not enough to prove one way or the other. Again, it's easy to just want to fire everyone, but a level head could easily argue otherwise right now.
