What's Next For The Jets? Brandon Contes. 13th January, 2009 "We all know the story, or nightmare as it turned out. After week 11 the Jets were riding high. They had won their 5th game in a row in excellent fashion. Coming back from what could have been disaster against the Chiefs, beating the division leading Bills in Buffalo, dominating the Rams by over 40 points, beating the Pats in NE in OT, and for their grand finally, they crushed the undefeated Titans. Brett Favre was playing great with 20 touchdown passes and looked as if he could play for another five seasons. The Jets were just hitting their stride and who knew how far the darling of the NFL, Brett Favre, could take the Jets this year. Everyone was talking about the prospects of a Jets vs Giants Super bowl. Little did they know that the Jets would perform one of the worst collapses the NFL has ever seen, and one of the worst collapses that even Jets fans had ever experienced. Even most Jet fans who are used to something going wrong, and are used to having their hearts broken, could not have guessed that this 8-3 Super bowl contending team would fall as dramatically as they did and finish just 9-7 watching the playoffs from home. Living in New York being a Jet fan myself, I hear all of the opinions. In 2006 Eric ?Mangenius? could do no wrong. Bringing a team that was projected 4 or 5 wins to the playoffs, fans were expecting him to be around for the next 10-15 years. How quickly his nickname disappeared after a dismal season of coaching. Whether it was week 2 running the ball from the 2-yard line and being stopped three straight times settling for a field goal while you have the all time leading Quarterback in touchdown passes sitting behind center, or in week 16 when he chose to go for it on 4th down from their own 20 instead of being logical and punting. This entire season Mangini showed New York that he can prepare as much and as hard as he wants, when it comes to making in game decisions he does not have a clue. Good luck to those fans in Cleveland who are one of the only other cities who know suffering like the Jets fans do. Who should coach? Cowher is out, and don?t kid yourself to think that had the owner shown and interest and held off on his vacation to meet with him that Cowher may have came to New York. He never had any interest in coaching this year and Woody being on vacation was irrelevant. Since Parcells we have had Al Groh, Herman Edwards, and Eric Mangini, its time we go a different route and bring in a guy with experience. Try to lure Shanahan, or at least interview Marty Schottenheimer. But the Jets will probably drop the ball again and choose a first time coach who will give Jet fans nothing more than 3 years of pain. Who should quarterback? Forget about Kellen Clemens, he showed us 2007 that he is not capable of running an offense as he had a QB rating of 60 in his 8 starts. Stop telling me how Brett Ratliff was so great in the preseason and deserves to be the quarterback, yes he put up great numbers but do you remember how Matt Cassel was awful this past preseason? Or how about the fact that the Detroit Lions the team that went 0-16 this year went 4-0 in the preseason! The preseason tells you absolutely nothing; Brett Ratliff is not the answer. Stop mentioning Matt Cassel, no team is dumb enough to let a very good quarterback walk right to their division rival, wait a second I believe the Jets actually did that last year with Pennington. You can try to draft a quarterback, but don?t start to think that the Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan stories are the norm. Drafting and developing a quarterback takes patience which is something New York does not have as we saw last season when Giant fans were ready to toss Eli to the side and bring in Jared Lorenzon. The best option is for Brett Favre to come back. Yes the man who threw 2 touchdown passes and 9 interceptions over the final 5 weeks of the season is the man that would be best fit for the job. He showed a span of greatness this season too, lets not forget his 6 tds against Arizona, and his phenomenal play during their 5 game win streak. Favre?s arm strength is still there. Its not the best in the league but it is certainly in the top 5. With one season under his belt along with a training camp and full preseason, Favre would be much more in tune with the Jets and much more consistent. Getting him a speed receiver would be crucial. The team has talent and could still make a run next year. What is more likely to happen however is that Favre retires, the Jets bring in a dud of a coach, and they go the next decade without making the playoffs struggling to find a franchise quarterback. Hope for a miracle, but expect the usual pain as a Jets fan"
We don't have the talent to make a run and our owner will have to stand up and say we are going to get and develop a Qb and a team the right way. When woody realizes winning gets PSL's then the mess will get fixed.
ohh so 8-3 was all mirrors? We can't expect the offensive line to be more cohesive. The defense atleast to put in better position to succeed. If favre comes back we have talent to make run.
I got to the point where it said, "The best option is for Brett Favre to come back." Thought it made pretty good sense up until then.
Bring back Favre? He says how Clemens sucked last year, but so did Pennington, ya know, that QB for Miami who won the AFC East? Then he says Ratliff has no chance, but then goes on to talk about how good Cassel turned out to be? Please God, no more Favre.
This article is so ridiculous on so many different levels. But how about when he talks about how we'll hire a first year coach, as if that is a bad thing. Seems to me that first year coaches did pretty damn good this year. How many coaches that have won a Super Bowl with one team, have gone on to win a Super Bowl with another. Thats what the author of this piece should look into. I'd rather have a young hungry coach that is gonna work his ass off and is hungry, than one who has done it before and isn't that hungry. End of rant.
brett is the answer?in a word no.i was all for him coming here to begin with but it's over.you know why he sucked the last 5 games?because it was cold.he's 39 going on 40 and all the aches and pains started to act up as the temp. went down.it's time to develope a q.b.let k.c. and b.r. fight it out this year and if need be draft one next year.
Brett Favre is our best option guys, If ratliffe is the guy our team wants to move into the future with then one more year of seasoning won't hurt. I personally don't see it being clemens so I go with Favre for one more if he comes back and then hand off to Ratliffe. If a big QB falls in our lap at 18 we take them.
Very interesting article and it made good points about why the winning streak was a mirage and Mangini was fired. Rookie QBs don't always work out and pre-season doesn't say much, but there are exceptions. Cassel looked terrible in the pre-season and was almost cut but was a top 10 QB in the regular season. We should probably have traded Pennington to a non-rival for draft picks instead of releasing him but things like that happen sometimes and he's not the only reason Miami turned it around so much. I think Favre should retire but accept an offer if the QBs we have next season go down or suck badly to play sometime after the season starts.
The one sort of point that article made that I have to say raises a serious question concerns the Jets' history since Parcells of hiring guys with no HC experience. That has not worked out too well. Shanahan might be available, and he's got a proven history of working well with developing Qb's. He's not always been able to field quality defenses, and some will argue his two SB wins were more about having quality rosters both years. But we know better, just having gone through a ridiculous collapse with all those Pro Bowlers. I haven't forgotten the collapse may have been foreseen in the second half of the Pats game, but what really got it going was the way the team was outcoached in the Denver loss. Seemed to me at the time that Shanny figured out what the weak points on this team were, on both sides of the ball. That is to his credit. I know the guy's a jerk, but so was Parcells before he came to the Jets. I understand the love for Ryan, but he's not a proven commodity at HC. Shanahan is.
You and I may be the only ones left around here that still hold the Shanahan option out there as a viable choice. His name has all but disappeared in most threads, swamped over with calls for Ryan. I'm not opposed to Ryan, but Shanahan still remains high on my list. His overall record is something like 146-91. True, he'd have to lose his dream of total control if he came here, but truth be known, no teams are offering that to anyone anymore. Woody is right on this, no one man can do all those jobs really well. And Shanahan is the proven commodity. I'd be okay with these, in this order: (1) Ryan - aggressive guy with family pedigree. Possibly the safest bet if you're looking to replace the HC job with a man who has never been a HC. Still an unknown and an unproven gamble in the fields of choice, however. (2) Shanahan - a close second to Ryan, if not the frontrunner should he call the FO and decide he really wants the job, is willing to work within the parameters and wants to come in for an immediate interview to present his case in a strong way. Good preparer that's been to the big game and knows how to bring it. Has a reputation as an extremely hard worker. 146-91 lifetime record with many playoff games. (3) Spagnuolo - well-respected, no-nonsense guy. Seems intelligent and a hard worker. May have been the recipient of a shitload of talent (we can say that about Ryan too) but his unit didn't get the job done against the Eagles after a nice rest, plenty of time to prepare, home field advantage and a game they should have (and had to) win. (4) Schottenheimer - enough doubt about him being overridden by Mangini keeps him on my list. Intelligent, motivated guy who has earned several HC job interviews with other clubs, so he's respected enough by others to warrant a second look. The fact that Tannenbaum kept him and then wanted to interview him might speak volumes for the rumor that Mangini may have handcuffed him. Still, he's at the bottom of my list because I'm having trouble believing all of the cockamamie offensive calls came solely from Mangini's lips.
