When the Jets threw more than $140 million at free agents this offseason, their expectations seemed clear: Another four-win season, as they had in 2007, would be intolerable. The Jets did not sit on their money during the free agency signing period, and they also dealt for a defensive lineman. Their additions this offseason: Yet the front office has made it clear it has no intention of operating under a win-now mentality in 2008 after owner Woody Johnson said Sunday coach Eric Mangini and general manager Mike Tannenbaum would "absolutely" keep their jobs for 2009 regardless of how the coming season pans out. "I really think it takes time to build," Johnson told the New York Daily News for Monday's editions. "You can't do it in one season." The Jets were one of the most active teams in the NFL's free-agency period, signing left guard Alan Faneca, defensive end/linebacker Calvin Pace and right tackle Damien Woody to big-money contracts. Among other moves, New York acquired defensive tackle Kris Jenkins from the Carolina Panthers for draft picks and signed tight end Bubba Franks after he was cut by the Green Bay Packers. After trading for Jenkins, the Jets came to terms with him on a new five-year contract worth $35 million, including $20 million in guaranteed money. The Jets last week also struck a compromise with receiver Laveranues Coles by guaranteeing the $11 million remaining on the final two years of his contract, a league source said. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3321928
Its good to know that the long term is what is being looked at by this organization for once. My confidence increases with Woody and the FO/CS each time they make a smart move. Teams are built over 3-6 year period, and then make playoff runs or sustain consecutive playoff appearances. Thats what the Jets are finally doing. Good move Woody- you're getting better as an owner.
How is it that ESPN still has the guaranteed money in Jenkins contract wrong? According to the Daily News, Jenkins got $4.5mm to sign with another $5mm in 2008 salary guaranteed for a total of $9.5mm guaranteed. Not $20mm
As long as the season ticket backlog is years long, merchandise is selling and PSL's are on the horizon, there's no pressure to win anytime soon. We can take another 38 years for all the difference it will make.
I agree with this also... good post NDmick. Personally, I'm getting a little tired of the anti-Woody posts. Enough already. The man is running a business for a profit... of course he is! WTF else do you think he had in mind when he spent $600+ Million? But he's also exhibiting the qualities I want in a guy who wants to win. It's so easy to be cynical and critisize Woody, but some of the moves he's made in recent years are terrific ones. Herm is gone and in his place he made the ballsy move of bringing in youngsters in Mangini and promoting Tannenbaum and reaching out for other sub-level coaches. And no one can argue about this offseason... the leadership Woody exhibited by giving Tanny his checkbook is excellent and will pay us big dividends, hopefully soon. Right now, there isn't much I'd change even if I had the power to change it.
Well, so we have been building ours for 40 years. What happened? The rhetoric is amazing around here. Parcells has taken the worst garbage in the league and built them into super bowl teams in 2 years and he has done it 2.9+ times. How many years did it take Bellishit in NE? There is no model for how long it takes to build a team in the NFL.
and throughout those 40 years quick turnover with the coaching staff has been a constant. stability in any organization is a plus. you know what you are getting with Parcells - a return to credibility with some damaging cap implications down the line. Usually followed by a period of unstability as teams try to find someone to follow the tuna. There is something to be said for stepping in shit and winding up with a future HOF at QB with a 6th round draft pick. What was Beli's record before the emergence of Brady? This is 100% true - but don't fall into the trap of wanting fool's gold where a team is successful for a season or two and then falls back to mediocrity or worse. As much as we talk about the Jets following the Patties model I think it would be a better idea to follow the Steelers.
I agree with most of what you said up to there. BB, Weis, and that system they put in has just as much to do with Brady's greatness as Brady does. I'm not saying he's not a special QB, because he is. It just speaks to my belief that QB's tend to get overrated by fans in alot of ways. The Pats and Steelers really don't differ that much. Both rely heavily on their systems and the draft to build long and short term success.
If this was true then you'd expect to see teams that become dominant after being bad follow a progression that looked something like this: 3-13, 6-10, 8-8, 10-6, 13-3. Instead you tend to see teams go 3-13, 9-7, 13-3. It's not always that extreme but it virtually never takes longer than 3 years for a new regime that will ultimately be successful to have their first extremely good season. 5 or 6 years just does not happen. This has been true since the merger and it has been true since the beginning of the free agent/salary cap era. Look at the dynasties that the NFL has produced since the merger and you never see a 5 year process building the team up. You see new coach come in and two years later the team is headed to a championship game followed very closely by a super bowl.
Notice how I said "consecutive playoff appearances"-- i can see how the "and then" part screws it up. Yes, it takes 3-4 yrs to become a power in the NFL- and then 5-6 years into the new regime, you sustain consecutive playoff appearances. I know.
Actually I misread what you said originally. You're right that teams that are going to top out below the top level can build for 3 to 6 years. That would be where the Jets went in the early to mid 80's and after the Parcells spurt. I'm hoping that Woody knows that if this regime is going to move the Jets to a dominant position it will likely happen in 2008 or 2009 or not at all. I could definitely see Mangini taking 5 years to get everything set and then have the set part being 10-6 and 2nd round exits for a few years in a row. What I'd like to see is something more like the rise of the 49ers in 1981, the Cowboys in 1991 or the Patriots in 2001. The formula in each of those cases was very similar: find your QB, beef the trenches big time and start blowing the league out. Of course the 3 head coaches involved there all had a ton of prior experience and were putting it all together with foreknowledge of the pitfalls and traps. We're giving Mangini and Tannenbaum almost unparalleled on the job training and hoping they're not going to put it all together in 5 years on their second go round with another team.
No one ever brings this up. Its about time someone recognizes that we did have runs at the playoffs but we came up short. I pray that for once we come all the way through That scares me too, because some coaches needed that 2nd team to do it with (Dungy,Shula), or to come in to a team primed to go to the SB(Gruden,Callahan). Hopefully, Mangini is a Madden or Cowher.
I think its a bad move on Woody's behalf. Committing to the brain trust for another year may be foolish, because it allows no one to be accountable the following year for if we go 3-13. Another season like that and the system is clearly failing. If that happens, who gets the blame? Bob Sutton? He should've been fired this year!
