I just want to make it clear, we can definitely disagree on the opinions, but we cannot disagree on the facts, which say our offense was #25 last year compared to Detroit's defense in 2020, which was the worst in NFL modern history in points allowed, not just #32 that year. We also cannot disagree on the fact that Detroit traded best player, top QB Stafford in his prime for 1st round picks, while we kept and extended our best players.
My post wasn’t meant to be a literal comparison between our terrible offense last year and the Lions defense that year. The point was that we have a really bad offense and a first time head coach with the first time play caller and a bad quarterback shouldn’t be expected to turn that around. Trading Stafford has absolutely nothing to do with what we’re talking about. Not sure why that’s relevant. This gets back to the root of the issue which is you don’t think we are rebuilding because we kept our best players on each side of the ball. When you sign a glorified journeyman quarterback who will probably finish in the bottom five of the league you aren’t trying to win as much as you are trying to establish a culture and get guys for the future. That’s exactly what we are doing. Just like it didn’t matter in Detroit when Campbell won three games.
This is where I land on this year as well…I think this year is about AG establishing his culture, his philosophy, his toughness, his accountability, etc. It’s about installing his system. AG will give lip service and say they expect to win this year, because what else can a coach say? OF COURSE he wants to win. But he also knows it’s a team in flux and it’s a process. I love that they were smart enough to lock up their young great players. That is a GREAT sign to me. GW and Sauce absolutely deserve to be long term Jets and I’m glad we signed them early. That’s always the best way financially because salaries only ever go up over time, and it’s also the best way to send a message to the team. Perform and you’ll be rewarded. Absolutely the right thing to do in my book. Then the biggest decision was QB, and I absolutely get why we let AR go. An old QB with a huge ego and a new HC with a new system doesn’t match. It doesn’t line up. AG needs to be THE MAN now, and that just wouldn’t happen with an old HOF QB looking for one last year. It would just delay the process. So they made the move. I also get why they went with Fields, because the pickings were slim. I don’t think anyone has any REAL expectations that he becomes a top ten QB, not really. I think they just need him to not fuck up too bad, and make some runs. Unfortunately, I think that this style of heavy running and strong defense, which worked for Rex for a bit, just isn’t a long term sustainable plan for year in year out contention. In order for it to work, you have to be able to consistently put up 10-14 play drives without fucking up, then you need to make stops on D. But if you get behind, it’s hard to catch up. But in there, you also need your QB to make some clutch third down conversions or drives stall. So far in preseason we’ve seen them run the ball on 3rd and 8 (and make it), and we’ve seen Fields throw behind GW in the red zone and fail on third down. Those two plays are pretty telling to me. So I think we are not going to win a ton of games, and I think for sure we are taking a QB next year. It is what it is…so far through camp and pre season, we’ve seen nothing that would indicate that Fields isn’t what he’s been for 3 years. And our defense is not a Top 5 unit like it was a few years ago. I’m sticking to a prediction of 4-6 wins…hope for more, but not really expecting more. And that’s not a knock on AG as a coach…that’s more based on what I feel the roster is and the growing pains that will come with a rookie defensive HC and a rookie OC and a bad to mediocre QB. And yet again, in the long term view (like always for us Jets fans), this is probably a better outcome than winning 8 or 9 games because believe me, we NEED a QB next draft.
I think most of us are on board with this line of thinking. You can lock up your stars and still be rebuilding. Signing Wilson doesn't mean the rest of the WR room is competent... in fact we have the worst room in the league outside of GW. Signing Sauce doesn't mean the DL can stop the run... in fact they're probably going to be terrible at it. And as we've established a million times, it sure doesn't mean your QB is automatically going to be good because you signed your stars to extensions. In fact he's probably going to be bad. We're rebuilding, the entire strategy says so. We passed on higher priced, bigger named free agents for cost-controlled viable options (arguable on the "viable" for some of them). When you already have a lack of talent on the roster, that's a clear cut sign you're looking to rebuild and establish culture. And of course the coach, GM and owner are going to say they want to win. I'm sure they do. But I'm also sure that everyone in that building is on the same page when it comes to win totals this year and how much it actually matters.
Spot on- We would have needed a new QB next year. Neither AR or Fields was/is the long-term answer. If the Defense would have played up to its standard last year, we would have been right in the playoff hunt. If that happened, I'm sure we would have run it back with AR. But that's not what happened. So here we are. I'm happy for GWilson getting his bag. But he better get accustomed to 65-80 catch seasons where he needs to BLOCK 1st.
Total Jets move, give 30M+ a year to a guy who doesn't have a QB that can get him the ball. GW is going to wish he had AR slinging it again by week 5. But at least the man got paid!!!
Well, they did trade for two more veteran DTs as you asked . Now can we agree they are trying to win?
I just don't think having a rookie coach means you need to expect to do WORSE than the shitty season after which previous coach was fired. Even rookie Bob won 4 games with half the roster we have now and more than predecessor with better roster. In fact, since Parcells we only had rookie coaches. And all Groh, Herm, Mangini, Rex, Bowels, Gase, Bob won more games than the predecessor the year before, when they got fired for poor performance. I mean this argument about rookie coach to me makes no sense after we just saw 7 guys do better than preceding season. The problem is these guys could not improve further and sustain, but rookie coach is not an excuse given the history. Unless you are trading your best players to rebuild, which is what Detroit did with Stafford. We are not doing that. And culture argument again falls flat. We won 5 games last year. If you do same or less, while maintaining the core, who is going buy into this argument? What culture are we talking about? Culture of losing. Absolutely not. It worked with Campbell only because they ripped things up. When you trade away HOF QB in his prime it is understandable why you could get worse for a year. But when you are trying to improve roster, kept all key pieces, and still won only 4-5 games, that is NOT a culture builder. That just means we will have a new coach soon enough. IMO you are setting the bar for AG ridiculously low. At the very least do better than the shitty season that caused firing of the old coach, especially when you retained the core. 7 rookie HCs before him managed to do it. It's fair to expect AG will do that as well.
