...you know, the one guy you had REALLY HIGH HOPES FOR when he was hired, only to have those high hopes dashed by his performance as head coach? For me, it was Bruce Coslet. I know many of you are probably too young to remember the Bruce Coslet/Browning Nagle era in Jets football, but I'm not! > I remember when we hired Coslet away from the Bengals, he was credited as being the offensive mastermind and architect of the Bengals high-powered, no-huddle attack that took them to the Super Bowl in 1988. Then we drafted a young, strong-armed good-looking QB in Nagle for him to tutor, and a lot of old-timers thought that Coslet and Nagle were going to lead the Jets to the glory land.....boy were we fooled! >:O
Mangini...I thought the guy was going to take us to the Super Bowl. He certainly built a near Super Bowl caliber team, but like all other Belichick disciples he was a disciplinarian. It hasn't once worked yet teams still hire Beli's assistants all the time.
So many Jets HCs have been disappointing that's a hard question to answer. Coslet was definitely disappointing. So was Rex. So was Mangini, and Pete Carroll. Carroll had been a very good DC for the Jets. I was so excited when he was named HC, and then he just wanted to be one of the boys, instead of the boss. Rex was probably the most disappointing. His dad had been DC here. Rex had grown up around the Jets. He was fun and fiery at first, but then quickly showed himself to be a bloviating buffoon and jerk.
Each new coach gets my hopes up, so when they fail, I'm disappointed, so I guess my answer would be "All The Above". As I think back upon all the different coaches, each with their own way of doing things that at the time seemed like Oh, this is the ONE!", and each and every one failed. It really is like some kind of curse has been placed on the Jets, although I'm not superstitious. I guess if I had to pick one coach that really disappointed me it was Parcells because I expected him to do for the Jets what he did with the Giants, and while he had some success, he fell short. And more than falling short, by the time he came to the Jets I think he really believed in his own Press clippings and that if he simply said this guy will be great, it would come true. In the end, I think his heart wasn't in it, and that he couldn't bring himself to make the Jets as good as the Giants. I could be full of shit, but that's my impression of the Parcells Era.
I could see people saying the Tuna considering his HOF status and the fact they missed out on a superbowl and had a mediocre following year ultimately leading to the Belichick era in NE. However, I honestly will go Todd Bowles. Rex, I had low expectations for. Same with Mangini, Herm so I wasn't really "disappointed" by any of them. Bowles was touted as a Parcells disciple and drew praise from some of the greatest coaches around. It's not even like he is mediocre. He makes boneheaded decisions like kicking FGs down 22 points in the 4th quarter, and punting when the team is down 13 points with 4 minutes left. That's completely opposite of what I consider to be great head coaching. I honestly couldn't care less about his lack of personality amongst the media. That's not what makes him a bad coach. It's the in-game decisions.
I'd have to say that due to his family ties to success and anticipated continuity (there's that word again!) it had to be Charley Winner - because he wasn't.
Kotite. His name has become a joke with Jets fans but he was a good OC - we've pretty much stuck with ex-DC Head Coach hires ever since.
Well I am depressed already...but here goes I would say a 3 way tie between the muy stupido we have now , Kotite and Herm Edwards
I was hopeful that Pete Carroll was going to be THE GUY. Things started off well but completely unraveled after the blown 18 point lead against Miami in the fake spike game. Hess was quick to pull the trigger at the end of the year letting Carroll go after only 1 season. Unfortunately, we all know what happened next!
Parcells. He had the rings and the gravitas. He had turned around the Giants and New England. At the time, none of us realized the guy had a fatal flaw: wanderlust. He couldn't stay put in a place. I don't know if it was greed or if he burned out or if he got bored. It was probably just a case of me (and a lot of others) overrating the guy.
There's a valid argument that it was too early in his career for Carroll. Even after doing well as DC of the 49ers after being fired by the Jets he had problems in being a head coach in New England, where the players didn't take him seriously after having Parcells as coach. He really needed to grow into being a head coach at USC (people forget how tremendously controversial his hiring at USC was at the time). The big disappointment with Carroll is that he could have become the right guy, but probably not then. Remarkably, the Jets are a good example of how the lack of continuity doesn't necessarily hurt a team, even though you might think it's the opposite. If the Jets were firing coaches too quickly you'd expect to see those coaches be successful in their next NFL head coaching jobs, but that hasn't happened - other than Carroll (27-21 with the Pats), every Jet coach that has been fired that got another NFL head coaching job had a record below .500 with that team, with a cumulative record of 65-120. The Jets weren't wrong to fire those guys; they were wrong to hire them.
Fat Bill the Quitter. Rrrrrrr! If I ever see that guy, I'm gonna pin him up against the side of my garage with a dump truck. He gave me nothing except being forced into pre-season games, pre-paid parking passes, and tripling my season ticket price. Waiting for the but but uniform change, but but respectability, but but culture change! Tick-tock. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any means and call me crazy (everyone else does in general, why not you), but I still think there is a lot more behind Belifraud defecting like a Russian gymnast from Commie Russia in the middle of the night. I find it really hard to believe that Fat Parcells was completely in the dark about it. I just don't buy it. Anyway, I shrieked like hell in my hotel room when Tony Romo flubbed that hold vs. Seattle in Jan, 2006 in the WC game. The look on that slob's face was priceless.
Funny you should mention that. I've always wonder what really happened. Both Bills left when an ownership change was pending. I think Belichick left before Woody took over (although Woody was definitely in the picture as a possible owner), but Parcells left after Woody bought the team. Did either leave because they didn't want to work for Woody? I've wondered if there was something about Woody and his reputation that caused either or both Bills to head for the hills.
Easily Bowles since I’ve been really following the team (Around the Herm era was too young during Parcells to have expectations) He was considered a coordinator that would make a great head coach for a few years by all accounts plus the Parcells connection He also was known for being super aggressive as the Arizona D-Co...I was pretty excited that he would be this way as a head coach in all aspects, but obviously he has been the complete opposite
It's gotta be Todd Bowles. Note: I became a fan watching the '98 season so i don't have the history with this team many do. But Bowles has failed at pretty much everything, game management, discipline and developing young players just to name a few. Rex bombed his second half but at least gave us those incredible AFCC runs. Mangini i feel did a better job then he was given credit for, i still believe a healthy Favre takes him to the Super Bowl. Herm i just love the dude and admit i'm probably giving him more leeway then he deserves. I'm completely indifferent to Groh. I don't consider BB as an official head coach of the Jets and the Parcells teams lead by Martin legit made me a fan. Bowles is still making mistakes he should have been learning from in year 1. The time for a young offensive HC has come. I was onboard for the Bowles lead rebuild but he has just put the car on cruise control. Reading this I realize I have watched the Jets play 3 AFC Championship games. In a league with a massive lack of parity (especially in the AFC) that;s actually pretty good and one of the few positives i have being a fan of this team at the moment. Let's just prey the new coach can finally get past that hurdle and win another Lombardi.
How you lump Herm Edwards with Kotite and Bowles is perplexing. Are you kidding me? I would take Herm over Bowles any day. I don't even need to compare their Jets head coaching resumes, because it's like comparing Roseanne to a super model.
My most disappointing head coach is Todd Bowles with Richard Kotite a close second being pulled behind his Bubba Gump boat on water skis.
For me, it's Mangini. I thought he'd bring the best of the "Patriot Way" to the Jets while leaving behind the worst qualities. Sadly, he seemed to try too hard to be like Belichick and it led to his dismissal following the '08 season. He did help lay the foundation for the 2 straight AFC Championship game runs.
