FWIW, this is how I see it... OWNER - Woody Johnson: #1 - IMO, the Favre-Pennington deal was his decision. He wanted to jumpstart the organization after spending $130 million and like it or not, Pennington was not the QB of the future. With Penny struggling to beat out Clemens, this was a no-brainer. Many around here question Woody's motivations. The fact of the matter is that it is immaterial whether he brought Favre in to schill PSLs or not. When this team was 8-3, the trade looked great and everyone was happy...at 9-7 and no playoffs, not so much. However, the overwhelming majority of Jets fans had seen Penny's noodle arm as a hinderance and bringing in Favre would elminate teams from stacking the box and jumping the outs. #2 - Firing Mangini. Like it or not, we have been complaining for years that this organization held no one accountable. Well guess what? Woody learned from the Herm fiasco and ended this one quickly. Some may say too quickly and that Mangini may go on to be a better coach somewhere else. That being said, I am confident based upon the Jets track record that only three coaches can claim that - Parcells, Belichicken and Pete Carroll. Additionally it is once again immaterial what Mangini may or may not accomplish in future years. At the end of the day he was 23-25 in 3 years, 0-1 in the playoffs, and choked away an 8-3 start this year with abysmal losses to Seattle and San Fran. GM - Mike Tannenbaum: Some may be calling for his head but that isn't fair. The guy brings the people in, he doesn't coach them. The fact of the matter is that he has drafted well (Revis, Harris, DBrick, Mangold, Leon, etc) and signed/traded for some pretty good guys (Jones via trade, Faneca, Pace, Jenkins etc). He trades alot but he gets pretty good value in picking up DPs. Additionally he has no problem cutting his losses when making moves such as with D-Rob, etc. You can bang him on the Favre trade, but at the end of the day, we gave up a third rd pick and will get back a 7th in 2010 if Favre retires. We all know that Favre was a 1-2 year rental, so you can't bang Tannenbaum on this one. Coaching Staff: HC - Eric Mangini ~ Fired. {filler} *Note - I don't think this guy was ever the same after Spygate. He lost all the creativity he had shown in 2006 and became ultra-conservative. Offensive Coordinater - Brian Schottenheimer ~ Maybe fired??? Favre transition admittedly tough. Called some great games and some real bombs. IMO never ran the ball enough or got away from the run too soon. Defensive Coordinater - Bob Sutton ~ Maybe fired??? Sutton is probably ok as an LB coach, but having a 4-3 read & react defensive guy coach what is supposed to be a 3-4 aggressive defense makes no difference. How is this any different than Herm hiring Ted Cottrell (3-4 guy) to coach a 4-3 Cover 2? In addition to that, what is up with no creative d schemes, blitzing, etc? Special Teams - Mike Westoff ~ IMO, down year for Mike. Kicking was erratic except for a long stretch in the middle of the year when Feeley finally settled down. Punting was horrible. We got burned a couple of times on fake punts, gave up a KR and had one called back. Maybe it was because Westoff wasn't in TC this year? PLAYERS: QBs ~ Favre is/was a 1-2 year rental. After that, they better get a franchise QB in here fast. As the saying goes, when you have 3 QBs on the roster (Ainge, Clemens, Ratliff), you have none. RBs ~ Nothing bad can be said about the TJ and Leon duo. Jets do need to consider drafting/developing an every down back this year. WRs ~ They need a gamebreaking WR (Anquan Boldin anyone???) as Coles isn't one. Cotchery is fine as a #2 and Stuckey played well in the slot. The Brad Smith error should be over and they need to get a speed guy in there if Clowney isn't the answer. TEs ~ Chris Baker and Bubba Franks were non-factors this year. Keller had a great strech and dissappeared. Jets need to get a big blocking TE in the draft to compliement Keller. O-LINE ~ For the most part, they played well after taking some time to jell. They need more depth. I would have no problem with them drafting another guard and RT to develop to replace Moore and eventually Woody. The left side is set for the next 2-3 years. D-LINE ~ Where's the beef??? Jenkins was a good start but he needs help - and Pouha isn't the answer. Too me the biggest dissappointment was Kenyon Coleman. I thought he played well last year, but this year he was a ghost. Definitely need to draft big uglies for the line this year with Ellis getting old and smoking up too much. LBs ~ Pace was worth his money this year - if he only had some help he may have played even better. Thomas was better this year but it is hard to tell if it is him or the scheme. How the heck did the Jets rack up 30 + sacks in the first 8 games and only 10 the rest of the way. Barton will be a salary cap hit and Harris better get his head in the game after reading too many headlines in the off-season. As for Gholston, I think his development was seriously hindered by Mangini. They should have simply concentrated on getting this guy in to rush the passer and allow him to develop the other LB skills throughout the rest of the year and this upcoming off-season. DBs~ Revis is the man. Rhodes dissappeared - but that maybe a by product of the scheme having him sit back 25 yards. Elam is an upgrade over the horrible Eric Smith but needs to be replaced. The Jets need to sign a CB this off-season unless they think Lowery can continue to develop. WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN 2009??? Woody needs to sell PSLs, so I am hoping he breaks the bank and gets Cowher in here for 10 years. The coaching hire will be the best indicator as to which way the Jets go this offseason. IF it is Cowher, you will see the Jets make a decision quickly on the QB position (i.e. if need be address it in the draft bigtime if a "Franchise" guy is available in the draft) and follow-up on the defensive side of the ball with some big uglies on the D-line and DB help. IMO, Matt Cassell will not be a NYJ or anywell else next year but New England. I doubt Brady will be ready to play if the reports are true and NE will be basically held hostage to resign Cassell. As for Cassell, I think he is a good system QB who excelled in NE because of coaching and tremendous weapons (Moss, Welker, Gaffney, the TEs). Give him a running game and he will improve. HOWEVER, the Jets are NOT NE and do NOT have the weapons they do. He would be exposed here big time as he doesn't have that great of a downfield arm - basically you would be getting Pennington light again.
All good points ...and your effort to break down the Jets in all it's gorey details is commendable. I do disagre with you on #1, though. Woody has been known to be a hands off owner while allowing his front office people and HC to make all the player moves. It would deffinitley be of a shock to picture Woody insisting that Favre be signed - rid CP, and then ignoring the poor play of the QB, fire the Head Coach and keeping a straight face. I would give Mr Johnson the benefit of the doubt on this. Mangini didn't throw those 22 INT's, so if in fact as you say, if Woody was behind the Favre signing, would he stab Mangini in the back? For point #2, don't agree either. Jets have always held coaches accountable. After the firing of Joe Walton, what former Jets coach can claim a tenure of more than 4 years except Herm? This franchicse has, for the most part, been a den of inequity - for coaches anyway. Brice Coslet, Pete Carrol, Rich Kotite, Bill Parcells, Al Grogh, Herm Edwards, and now Mangini. Last good coach, IMO, Walt Michaels. Long Time ago.
Good post but there is a huge disconnect between firing Mangini for going 1-4 down the stretch and KEEPING Favre, who SUCKED BALLS over the past five games. It is insane that Tanny and Woody want to bring him back after his awful performance over the past month. Favre has sucked since the Titans game, and that is a fact. Furthermore, Favre's choke job during our playoff "run" more than anything else (I know there are other factors, such as playcalling and poor defense that let to Mangini's firing) got Mangini shown the door.
I don't know if you can pin Westhoff on this regard - Kevin O'Dea is the ST coach too, and was the lone ST coach earlier in the season, where Jets ST stunk up to the high heavens.
Nice post.. Sutton Gone. Schott Gone. The whole DL except Jenkins.. Coleman lost his Job to Devito... Golhston should have been use like John Abraham when he was a rookie.. Coles and Smith are goners... Another CB and back up Safety... To imagine we passed on Ed Reed years ago... I think Woodburn who led the NCAA II in rushing last year will be a good 3rd RB... He might be able to take Jones's job later... Dude is fast..
The DL is fine. Jenkins needs to get healthy and they need to add one more body. Coles isn't going anywhere unless someone offers a pick for him. Brad Smith is a huge player on special teams and very valuable to the team.
But no one on the DL scares except Jenkins scares other teams... Coles needs to move down the Depth Chart if he stays... Maybe a Slot guy... Smith.. I am torn on him...
"The fact of the matter is that it is immaterial whether he brought Favre in to schill PSLs or not. When this team was 8-3, the trade looked great and everyone was happy...at 9-7 and no playoffs, not so much." Why is it immaterial? It's not an 11 game season, it's a 16 game season. This move set the team back at least two seasons in their efforts bring along a quality long term QB. So let's go ahead and mortgage the future so we can feed the fans some scraps, so they can spend an unreasonable amount of money on PSLs to watch an inferior product. "However, the overwhelming majority of Jets fans had seen Penny's noodle arm as a hinderance" Yeah, the problem is they hadn't seen Favre's noodle arm as a hinderance.
How did this move set back the franchise two seasons? Penny and Clemens looked awful in camp. Did you want the the Jets, who were coming off a 4-12 season and spent $130 million in free agency, to turn the ball over to an UFA in Brett Ratliff - whose only claim to fame was lighting up the Cleveland Brown defense scrubs in the first pre-season game? If course everyone lit up the Browns D this year so that isn't really saying too much. They traded Vilma, 4-3 MLB - whoever wanted banished because it was painfully obvious he couldn't perform in a 3-4 defense - to the Saints for what will turn out to be a 3rd round pick and flipped their own 3rd rd pick to the Packers for one of the top 5 QBs of the past 20 years. A trade that will result in a 7th rd pick coming back next year if Favre retires - and also immediately clear about $13 million in cap room. They had one of the easiest schedules in recent memory and their division arch rival's all-world starting QB gets knocked out in the first half of the first game. The start 8-3 and then proceeded to lose to a Denver team that gagged worse then the Jets to finish 8-8, lost to the 7-9 49ers with a no-name starting QB, should have lost to the Bills if not for Dick Jauron's stupidity, lost to the Seahags - an abysmal 4-12 team with not only a back-up QB, a WR corps completely wiped out to injury and a patchwork offensive line. Then they lose to the Dolphins in a meaningless home game after the Ravens blew the doors off the helpless Jaguars. I am sorry, the table was set for this team to do big things this year and the Favre trade was well worth the risk IMO. This team would not have been better than 9-7 with Pennington either. Because the MAJOR problem isn't/wasn't the QB play - though Favre's performance the last 5 games didn't help - it was the COACHING. Don't get me wrong, I am no Favre apologist, but he doesn't play special teams which were atrocious the last quarter of the season, he doesn't play LB and miss tackles on RBs, he doesn't sack the QB, he can't gain seperation as a WR and he doesn't play man-to-man or zone DB coverage. SOOOOO PLEEEASSEEE don't tell me this franchise has been set back 2 years because of the Favre trade. Not when Herm Edwards ran this team into the ground for 5 years, not when Rich Kotite drafted a TE in the first round and didn't bother to hire a TE coach, not when Lou Holtz spent more time writing fight songs then coming up with a gameplan. This organization hasn't been set back 2 years - that would actually mean that we were going somewhere. And guess what, we've gone NO WHERE in 40 years.
Hey Klecko, I still cannot believe people are actually looking past the obvious fact...and look no further....THE QB THREW THE BALL TO THE WRONG TEAM 9 TIMES IN 4 GAMES!!!! No team can overcome that, forget coaching, play calling, special teams, whatever. Brett Favre is the single biggest reason this team crapped the bed. End of story, fade to black.
They traded Vilma, 4-3 MLB - whoever wanted banished because it was painfully obvious he couldn't perform in a 3-4 defense - to the Saints for what will turn out to be a 3rd round pick-Not likely now.. He has to resign with the Saints... Ain't going to happen.. So we got ride of Vilma for nothing.. . QUOTE]
The Jets got a 4th rd pick last year from the Saints. Should Vilma re-sign with the Saints than that pick will increase this year - either a 2 or 3 -and we would send back a 4.
I am not looking past this fact act. Favre remains culpable for his play. But everyone around here acts as if his play is the SINGLE reason this TEAM didn't make the playoffs. My point is that Favre is responsible for his screw-ups - which were many. BUT he wasn't playing defense against the Broncos, he was making Shaun Hill look like Joe Montana, he wasn't making the Seahawks scrub offensive line look like the Electric Company. The fact remains that there are several other glaring problems with this team IN ADDITION to Brett Favre's play that ultimately contributed to this failure. The consistent thread with all of them, IMO, has been the coaching staff. That is why Mangini was fired.
