I agree. However the thought of the Jets' version of the GnP, given that this is a passing league now, just does not give me the warm and fuzzies regarding Sparano's offense. Things may have been a bit haphazard with Schotty, but now what do we have? A nice, steady, boring, paleostyle offense more suited to 1953. I wonder how many stacked boxes Sanchez and the Preacher will see this year. If Rex thinks that a power running is all it takes to win, we're in trouble before this season even begins. While I realize Rex's core strength is on Defense, did he really have to castrate the Jets passing game because Schotty was too complicated? He couldn't find an OC with some comprehension of the modern NFL style offense but instead, bring in yet another gimmicky system run by a guy that just got fired by a major rival while he was still working? Good thing I cancelled my ST. No way in hell is watching the GnP gonna be worth extra when I can see it on the NFL network. If I want boring football, I'll watch it for free.
I honestly don't think Sparano is going to run the ball more than we did in 2010. See the thing is, in 2010 we had the most success, and that was when we had a virtually even run plays to pass plays. I think that's pretty much the goal and if Sanchez plays well he will get more pass attempts. It really is that simple. Everyone acts like Sanchez is going to be put on the back burner, I highly doubt it. Our run game was very inconsistant last year, but yeah a large part of it was stupid Schotty. 3rd and longs were always run plays or screen plays with him. LT being sent on runs up the middle with Greene in the passing game when their strengths are the exact opposite. I wanted to kill Schotty when he got LT injured in garbage time like that. If we had a healthy LT we probably win the Broncos game. Schotty was a curse and he's the main reason Holmes was disgruntled at the end of the year. The guy seemed like he was trying to save his job by intentionally calling plays that Sanchez has difficulty executing with our thin offensive line. Calling that pass heavy game against the Giants was retarded. I'm glad he's gone.
I blamed this on the Jets front office for not letting Rex hire a coordinator 3 years ago. They forced Schotty on him which was basically putting oil and water together. Rex and Schotty basically worked together to destroy Sanchez confidence. Rex wants to run the ball, never turn it over and limit penalties Schotty wanted to pass the ball with a wierd overly complicated passing game that none of the qb's in six seasons seemed to excel in. Rex didn't even understand the offense. What was Callahan's role? Was he in charge of the running game? Did Rex understand anything that had to do with the offense? The front office basically crapped the bed when it came to Sanchez. If they were going to hire Rex and have an old school defense/run the ball/possession team they never should have traded up for a QB. Putting Sanchez in the middle of a HC and OC who were not on the same page was just idiotic. They finally have an offensive coordinator who has Rex's mentality: 1) never turn the ball over 2) no mental mistakes (turnovers, dumb crap) 3) Protect the QB at all costs 4) Throw the ball down the field to extend the field and keep the defense honest 5) Line up and run the ball down the other teams throat I can only imagine how much better the Jets would have been in the regular season if Sanchez didn't have almost 70 turnovers. It's almost shocking that they were a competitive team with that many turnovers.
I tended last year more to the view that the problems on O were mostly in execution. Sanchez ranked 23rd in passing. LT dropped off, and Greene did not step it up enough. There were real problems on the OL. Steve Jackson doesn't drop that pass and the Jets failed to convert some of their circus catches, and they would have been worse than 8-8. How much of that was on the OC? Well, that is a matter of opinion. But what is not a matter of opinion is what you say about the NFL today and how what Ryan has said he wants is to at least some extent counter to what we see around the league. Sparano? I have thought about it, and thought about it. The bottom line is he gives me no feeling of confidence that he will be able to put a productive offense out there. It would take one of the best OC's in the league to do that, and I don't see him in that category. The Jets have perhaps the best center in the league. I unlike many here am high on Holmes. The Hill pick will probably work out, medium to long term. Kerley was one of the better draft picks in the last few years. After that? Ferguson, one who has been one of the core of solid players, had a pretty rough year last year. Does he bounce back? Moore, not as good as Ferguson but still solid in years' past, is showing his age. Hopefully he has a good season but that's no certainty. Slauson is okay at best. Hunter is still going to be the starter??? Not good. Keller just plain does not fit the type of O the Jets say they want to run, and is in his contract year. This is not a good situation. Greene to me is just not up to being an every down back. Expecting him to carry a Ground and Pound O is too much for me to be optimistic about. As of yet the Jets do not have a change of pace back to help Greene, either. And fans should really feel great about the Sanchez v. Tebow situation? I doubt even the total homers here really feel good about that. On top of all that the Jets will be bringing in a new offense under Sparano, and one that will be complicated by adding plays for Tebow. And people thought it was too complicated for the players to deal with Schotty's system. It's hard to see where even a mid pack scoring stat comes out of this situation.
I think we have really short memories. Let's let Sparano and his single minded system (as opposed to Schotty's frankenstein Offense) get to work and develop a little bit. There's nothing wrong with power running AND moving up for a better QB. The Jets would not have had the success they had over the last 3 years with a 2nd or 3rd tier QB. A couple of down-field passes from Sanchez to Hill or Holmes over the middle, and an occasional pass caught by Tebow out of the TE position will work wonders for our running game. There's no reason we can't be the #1 rushing team and still have a top 15 qb.
I hate all systems that rely on two people making the same split second decision in the heat of battle, fifteen yards apart. Sure that works between a star QB and his #1 target most of the time, but to ask an entire offense to hinge on that, no way. And let's not forget the fact that when Schotty was forced to scale back his offense (Sanchez years one and two) he did the best. In spite of himself.
Of course you could say the same thing about the Giants of the last 8 seasons and they only have two Super Bowl titles to show for it. Your post by the way was excellent, highlighting the disconnect between bringing in a very raw QB and then watching him struggle to deal with a three-headed hydra of an offense. It's not all about the turnovers though. The 3-and-outs that Schotty's offense has produced with regularity over the years were just as damaging to the Jets chances.
The Dallas Cowboys of the early 90's were a power running team with a top pick QB who actually performed as a 2nd tier QB for much of his career. They win nothing over that span without Emmitt Smith being the workhorse of all time. The salary cap mitigates against that at this point if the Jets are also going to maintain a top 5 defense in the process. There's only so much you can do with limited cap space and the Jets moves this off-season suggest they are all-in on defense and let the gimmicks reign on the other side of the ball because there isn't going to be money there to do otherwise for awhile.
I know, I'm the eternal optimist, but I need to comment anyway. Moore is better than Solid. Even SuperDouche Peter King has consistently rated BMoore the move underrated RG in the league. Is he a top 5 guard? Probably not, but for a guy who hardly gets recognition, he plays pretty damn good. I agree with you that it is time to start grooming his replacement. This will be Slaw's 3rd year as a starter. He's not spectacular. But I would say he's in the top 16 rather than the bottom 16 of the league. Mark vs Tebow shouldn't be an issue. Its the idiot fans that will be calling for Tebow at the games. These are the same people that wanted Chad P pulled in favor of Kellen. Tebow has a way to go in terms of developing as a pocket passer. Sparano's simplified offense should be able to be picked up a lot faster than the grafted WC-Air Croyell-GnP patchwork offensive system Schotty was using. I think this should be less of a concern than people are making it out to be. Yes, its a brand new system, but its simplified and Tony has already shown he can get a half decent QB to look pretty good.
Why - if we have a solid stable of RBs, and Sparano's system works in favor of Mark's skills and his WRs, there's no reason the holes opening at the LOS can't be exploited by Greene, Ganaway, and change of pace McKnight. Throw in TebowChrist and the running game becomes pretty potent. While we don't have a Chris Johnson on our team, if the plays are executed and the OLine bounces back, our current stable of RBs should be able to exploit the holes in the defense.
Why? Because it takes dollars on the cap to create a good offense. The Bills aren't the exception to this rule either. They did get up to 14 overall last year but with an overhanging obligation to begin paying players on that side of the ball which they immediately did with Fitzpatrick and are going to have to do elsewhere also. If you look at the top tier offensive teams of the last few years most of them have more money on the offensive side of the ball. The Jets have made the strategic decision to pay the defense, the QB, a WR and 2 offensive linemen. They have multiple defensive linemen who will be very expensive on the next contract if they turn out to be good players. They have one of the highest paid linebackers in the game. They have a trio of cornerbacks that are heavy on the cap. That's where the money is going to be under a relatively flat cap. I'm resigned at this point to watching a fairly boring and predictable offense next year and probably for the next few years going forward. the flipside is we should get to watch an exciting attacking defense in exchange. It's a good trade-off. The Jets aren't going to get anywhere plugging in players and trying to be the Pats, Saints, Packers, Manning-Colts, etc. You have to get very lucky to find the QB's that trigger those offenses. I'd rather watch a great defense upset the status quo than try to join it on an expensive roll of the dice that is 50/50 to fail anyway and only about 25% likely to produce what we need.
Last I checked Sparano coached himself out of a job. I wonder what people are thinking when they talk about his "success". The fact is you don't yet know what offense Sparano is going to put in since he's never been an OC before. What we do know is they traded for Tebow, persumably to use him (or maybe not, but...). So right there the O will be more complicated than otherwise.
I think Sparano wants to pass more than you think at first. Go check out the Dolphins stats the last few years.
Last year alone, the split is like this: Jets: 34 pass/27 rush Dolphins: 29 pass/29 rush Is it that much of a shift? (I like the balance in Dolphins stats actually but that aside) If this doesn't sink in, consider this: Even though the dolphags had a down year last year, they still posted 5.1 yards per offensive play. Jets? 4.8. Rushing average: Dolphins on a down year: 4.2 yards/carry Jets on 8-8: 3.8 yards/carry Nice job, Schotty. Dolphins achieved 4.2 with Reggie Bush, of all RBs, running between tackles. Passing average gets more ridiculous: Dolphins on a down year: 7.3 yard/attempt Jets on 8-8: 6.5 yard/attempt And they achieved this while playing musical chair on QBs with a number of backups throwing the ball for the phags. And don't even think Dolphins didn't have that "Execution" problem either. That can't be further from the truth. In fact, Dolphins gave up whopping 52 sacks. (Jets, 40). And even with that, Dolphins outperformed the Jets in every possible category with the exception of scoring. (But then, Jets had 40 more offensive snaps as well - remember that.) Now, what if the backups were just airing it out in desperation? Wouldn't one or two lucky strikes skewer the average somewhat? Completion ratio says otherwise. Dolphins QBs collectively completed 59.7% (close to 60%) while Jets completed 56.7%. The stats say Jets offense was much worse than the Dolphins offense, play per play. Seriously, if Jets had that full yard on every pass attempt, and half yard on every rushing attempt, (in other words, Dolphins-level-competent, which is not much to speak of) Jets don't end up 8-8. 3800 total yards on air is equivalent to 12th in the league - which I think is plenty respectable, and 1880 yards on the ground would also be at 16th in the league as well - in short, this offense even failed to reach the mediocrity. Defend Schottenheimer all you will, but the stats say even the dolphags on a down year had better offensive season than the one conjured up by that moron. P.S. And this is a disclaimer too. I am NOT saying Sparano is the panacea for the offense. No. I am not. I am just saying that, Schottenheimer is so incompetent that the offense has underperformed in a huge way. Getting the offense to play competently, (- doesn't have to be lights-out. Just competent will do.) with fierce top-3 level defense, will surely bring the franchise to the respectability.
Very unfair argument. First - Sparano coached himself out of a head coaching job, which is much more complicated than being a coordinator and does not entail parallel duties. By your implication the Dick LeBeau's of the world have no place once they've been fired as a head coach. Everyone eventually reaches their ceiling of incompetence - Sparano's was head coach. Sparano was never an official offensive coordinator however he was the play caller on a very good Dallas offense that saw Tony Romo break out. It was his success that landed him the job as a head coach to begin with. Further, he calls from the Parcells tree which has been very successful around the league. I can accept an argument that the Dolphins hired him too soon to which I would agree (no different than us hiring Mangini after one year as a DC) however I won't accept the argument that his lack of head coaching success means he will also fail as a coordinator.
First of all, I am always fair. I did not say his failure as an HC means he cannot perform as an OC. I merely questioned what success he has had lately when he just got fired. What got him a job in Miami was that Parcells hired him. I would hardly say Sparano accomplished nothing in Dallas. I really don't know enough about what went on there to speak to the subject. I do know he was not the OC there, either. So, all we've got here is that Parcells liked him enough to make him the HC in Miami, but that Sparano just got fired from that job, has never been an OC, and it is also probably fair to say he currently would not be considered by many to be one of the top OC's in the league. Perhaps you misread my posts.
Again, his "lately" success does not draw an accurate parallel as to what he can accomplish as an offensive coordinator. The Dolphins were a ticking time bomb that Parcells got away from first chance he had. Their problems went deeper than coaching - the entire organization is poisoned. Their ownership makes Woody Johnson look like a genius. This doesn't justify Sparano's failures by a long shot - but it certainly doesn't take away from his coaching ability or the respect that players afforded him there. Sparano wasn't an OC in title however he executed the play calling function which was one of the biggest problems Schottenheimer had here. Sparano's play calling was good enough to land Tony Romo (arguably inferior to Mark Sanchez) in the Pro Bowl and help lead the Cowboys to a playoff game. To say that he won't be considered by many to be a top OC is speculation. There's absolutely no proof whatsoever to support that claim.
For everyone think that Spo doesn't take shots down the field IMO is a duck. His Team was at least in the top half if not top 10 for Attempts 20 yrds or more and completions... It's all predicated on the Play action we can devolop from moving the ball
