Just someone looking to stir the pot mostly... I think they got a couple of things wrong, and some other things just didn't work out as expected. Offensive line play has been more of a factor where Sanchez and Greene are concerned to me... well, Sanchez for sure. Greene may not be as good as billed, but better blocking by the line will make a pinto run like a mustang now and again. The defense is a bigger concern to me. I expected more from them than they seem to have given this year. Not sure what I am missing there, but it needs some work. Seems we've become that team that can't stop the run again. I don't think the strike shortened pre-season did a lot to help the team prepare and come together either. As a fan, I am willing to be disappointed without having to fire up the torches and grab the pitch forks on the FO and coaching staff. We had two very good runs and now we got a let down. I'm willing to be disappointed and hold my anger until I see what they do about it next year.
Exactly... I am thinking the same. This team, this year, just doesn't give you the same "they can do it" kinda vibe. Play has been ugly, sloppy, and a lot of luck. That isn't how you go on the road and win playoff games, much less make the playoffs. I'm having a harder time seeing this team beat any of the AFC front runners in my head as well.
I agree, I think Rex can win a superbowl, and he's perfect for this team. I just hope he keeps being himself. He's apologizing way too much lately and toning down his act, which is sort of sad. Plus, I'd rather have the coach who says "This is the best team ever!" than the SOJ coach who says "Wow, we suck, we'll be lucky to go 8-8". Presonally, I hope you're right. Rex is fine. I think people don't realize, the Jets put together a great offensive line in 2008, and they were doing well until Favre fell apart due to injury midseason. Just for fun, take a look at Brett's numbers early in the season, then later on. Also compare 2008 to 2009 for a commentary on Shotty's offensive schemes. http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/1025/gamelog;_ylt=AtFbpl2pOXSq7rkO0hZDvhn.uLYF?year=2008 Rex came in and took the pass defense from 29th to first in one year! http://www.nfl.com/stats/categoryst..._NET_YARDS_GAME_AVG&d-447263-o=1&d-447263-n=1 http://www.nfl.com/stats/categoryst...sonType=REG&tabSeq=2&qualified=true&Submit=Go The team was due to decline a bit. Faneca was in decline, and we got rid of him. then Woody retired somewhat unexpectedly. The guy is brilliant at motivating a team, and running a defense. It seems he is loyal to a fault though. He needs a new O-coordinator. If he's really in love with the running game, he should find a coordinator that will accommodate that and push for the Jets to play the draft/FA market accordingly.
It's really sad how media and some fans think. If you want to get on Rex for saying personel wise we were better this year than last..I'm fine w/ that...then again..what do you expect him to say? I just don't understand why everyone finds fault in the front office or Rex for the roster changes. Ellis,Richardson,Coleman,Woody,Faneca & Lowery were all no longer fits for one reason or another. All of those players were replaced with draft picks,all of which have showed signs of promise. The problem is..when you replace veterans with younger players, there is going to be some turnover issues. Young players above all else struggle with consistency, and that's exactly been this team's problem all year long. Let's further analyze. Jones replaced by LT/Greene- Jones was showing signs of decline and wanted too much money for what he was. Greene is really blossoming into a great power runner. He struggles w/ consistency(a commonity within this analysis) but seems to be headed in the right direction. Faneca replaced by Slauson- Faneca was making way too much money and became a major liability in pass pro. Slauson was real bumpy early, but has stepped up into a very solid mauler at LG. Younger,cheaper and better fit for our blocking scheme. What more can you ask for? Shaun Ellis- Replaced by-Wilkerson- Ellis left b/c he got a ridiculous offer from a rival looking to make a headline. It made no sense to pay Ellis almost 4 mill when he's 34, declining and has hip issues. Wilkerson is really blossoming into a great 2 gap player. he struggled early w/ consistency, but he seems to make a big play in the backfield every week. As he gets stronger he will start getting off more blocks and w/ his wingspan, he may end up being a better Jet than Ellis was. Tony Richardson-replaced by Conner- Richardson was nearly 40 years old, and leadershop aside...was starting to slip as a lead blocker. Conner seems to get better every week. Much like Wilkerson he has struggled w/ consistency, but the more snaps he gets the better he'll be Coleman-replaced by Wilson- this one kind of speaks for itself. Wilson is blossoming into a great CB...w/ some consistency issues that continue to be ironed out. Woody replaced by Hunter- This one has not worked out. Hard to argue w/ the FO's thought process however. Woody was coming off a major injury that ended his season, and Hunter looked solid throughout the whole playoffs. Additionally the team drafted Ducasse as a long term solution. Hunter is what he is. An inconsistent player who has sloppy technique but can have outstanding performances when his talent takes over. I still believe Vlad Ducasse is going to be the RT long term for this team. I will not back off on this assessment. All of these scenario's were planned in advance by the front office..and aside from the Right tackle position, all have signs of promise. Unfortunately, when you have turnover and young players being plugged in..there is going to be a period of drop off in production as the players fall into their roles and learn consistency. We'll likely see further examples of this with Ellis replacing Pouha. Does this team have holes? Yes. the decline of players like Scott & Leonhard have really hurt this team. But we've filled alot of holes caused by injury/aging w/ some quality replacements that just need sometime to get their sea legs. I believe the future is bright and all of this criticism is knee jerk and short sighted.
This team is the same story as the last two years except this year they had the mangold/turner injury which destroyed the offensive line for 2 or 3 weeks and Mangold is probably still injured. It's a streaky team that can beat anyone but also lose to anyone because they are so up and down based on turnovers. Every coach should be telling their respective team how much he believes in them, but Rex chooses to tell the media for some reason. This team probably is the most talented of the three teams. The 2009 team with a rookie qb was so one dimensional and lacked any type of passing game. The defense was great because the league hadn't figure out how to stop the blitzing. That team similar to this years team fell apart in the middle of the season. Who are the Jets really missing from last year? Woody was hurt a good portion of the season, Jenkins was hurt. Ellis was great against the Pats in January but otherwise didn't do much. When this team wins the turnover battle and they control the clock and put the defense in good positions, they will win most weeks. When they have a special teams turnover and 1/2 interceptions every week they will lose. It's pretty simple.
No but he doesnt have to say its the best talent hes had. It was silly to say that. I dont htink its a big deal either way but the article is correct. Whether it was done out of strategy or stupidity, Rex greatly over rated the talent on this team
The Jets have about the same chance in the playoffs as the cowboys, bengals, raiders, broncos, giants. If you think that any of those 5 can win it all then so can the jets,
Saying something like the talent we have here is enough to go to an SB is okay. Saying something specific like Mark Sanchez has made huge leaps forward this off season is something else.
fans weren't oversold by Rex on the roster, they were oversold on Rex himself. most fans knew the roster was not only not better, but had obvious deficiencies, regardless of what Rex said. what we believed was that Rex was an elite coach and could coach the team to greater success despite those deficiencies. that has proven not to be the case. Rex is undoubtedly one of the top coaches in the league, he has proven that. but he isn't an elite coach yet that can mask the holes in the roster. Jets fans optimism about our success starts with our belief in Rex Ryan as a coach. no, he is the one that does realize that in the playoffs "anything" doesn't happen. there are upsets here or there, but overall the Super Bowl is always won by a team that is one of the best during the regular season, not just good teams, so what is stupid is claiming the contrary. unless your interest is just winning a playoff game or two, but not the Super Bowl. then, yes, you are correct. otherwise, if you truly believe in the "any given sunday" mantra, you must also believe that teams like the Bills and Cleveland still have a realistic chance at the Super Bowl because they aren't eliminated from playoff contention yet. because, all they have to do is gameplan and execute, and on any given sunday they could simply win every game the rest of the way and win the Super Bowl. that just isn't realistic, and I am sure if a Bills fan made such a statement you'd mock them right off the board.
Agree with all of this. Other than the possibility of getting Woody to come back one more year (which I don't really believe he was interested in doing), there is not a single one of those decisions that even in hindsight seems to me to have been a mistake. The only other personnel decisions that you didn't mention were letting Edwards and Cotchery go. Personally, I think the Cotchery decision was not only correct, but necessary, as he had made it clear that he was going to be very unhappy with being the #3 receiver here. The Edwards/Burress decision is a hard one. There's no question that the Jets lost an important deep threat letting Edwards go, but Burress has been money in the red zone, and basically saved the season with that 3rd down catch last Sunday. I think the key point is whether he actually overrated it, or overrated it in public pronouncements. If it's the former, that's a problem, as it affects personnel and playcalling decisions. If it's the latter, I truly couldn't care less. Sportswriters have become so lazy nowadays that they view trashing a coach for saying "I think we're good" as some hard-hitting investigative reporting job. And if he tries to pump up Sanchez by saying he's better than he is, I again couldn't care less - he was going to be the QB no matter what this year, so I don't see the slightest way that it can hurt anything. I would have thought by now that all fans would realize that they shouldn't take seriously anything that comes out of the mouths of anyone in professional sports.
Good post, Kurt. The team is headed in the right direction because of the recognition of the appropriate time to part ways. Now it is apparent that we have lost talent at Safety and LB due to age and injury. This offseason, we need to bag a safety in free agency and draft LB early. I believe if we go OL, LB, WR in some order with our first three picks and have our safeties at least partially shored up via FA, the future is immensely bright. Safety is really important because of the emergence of Gronk. We should probably draft one in the later rounds also. Otherwise, they have made the moves to stay competitive for years.
of the 2, i would rather face the texans as they are st up for a 1 and done postseason, imo. afa the raiders - what can u say we do not match up well with them and never really have in the past. things can snow ball out there and the current jets arenot physical enough on both sides of the ball.
Up to a point I get your point. But the part about not taking anything seriously is a bit too much. If an HC for a team the Jets are about to play says they think the way to beat the Jets is a certain approach you personally, knowing the Jets, think is a better approach than others, you would take that seriously, wouldn't you? The more specific problem with your post is its implication, which is that Rex was only trying to pump Sanchez up, and was not intending to relay to the fans and media any useful info. Well, let's say Sanchez saw it the same way you do. So, how valuable would what Rex say be? Sanchez, sharing your cynical view of it, would think Rex doesn't really beleive what he is saying, just like you are saying we should feel about anything he says. And I have a hard time with the notion we should just all think these guys, all these guys, are a bunch of liars. Right now, though, I do think Ryan has less cred imo than he did before. And you know what? It's not like finding out there was no Easter Bunny, but it's not great, either.
Yeah, I mean I'd rather have him saying the team is great than the old Parcells "We think we're better than we are" and the other depressing stuff. Because it appears that some of them aren't working out well. Exactly, but when we have that much turnover, Rex looks foolish saying "THIS IS THE BEST TEAM I EVER HAD!". Getting rid of Jones was fine. I think Greene is criticized a bit too often for his lack of statistics (YPC, 100+ yard games), which is mostly due to the offensive line. What I do have a problem with here is if the Jets were going to a 3 wide set as their base offense (which they did in the start of the season) then why use Greene as your primary back? He is a liability as a pass catcher. McKnight is still a liability in pass protection from what I've read. The only complete back on the roster is Tomlinson, who faded down the stretch last season. It seems like the Jets have no consistency in what personal they acquire, and the offense they're trying to run. It's like they have an identity crisis on offense. Yup, Faneca was declining and is out of the league now if I recall correctly. I'm not sure what else was out there in Free Agency, but why not replace him with an upgrade if we want to have a "Ground and Pound" attack? Faneca was a liability in pass protection, but he was a damn good run blocker. Still, I can agree that Slauson was reasonable at the position and not nearly the shit show that Hunter/Ducasse is. Ellis needed to be replaced, but Wilkerson has been a liability at run stuffing. Teams are running at his side of the line above the league average and getting good yardage there. It would have been optimal if we could have kept Ellis for another season or two, but as you mentioned the pats made him a good offer that we probably couldn't match. Maybe Wilkerson is getting better as the season goes on, the Jets rush defense has gotten a lot better in the past 4-6 games or so. http://www.profootballweekly.com/2011/11/03/jets-struggling-to-stop-outside-run-plays http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/dl Richardson was still fine as a lead blocker imo, but at age 40 you have to start thinking about a replacement. I like Conner, but he's nowhere near the pass catcher that Richardson was. It really doesn't matter if you're base offense is 3 wrs and no fullback, but now that we've swtiched back to more 2 wide sets it's one less back that is a threat as a pass catcher out of the backfield. This one had to be done, but it's still a downgrade for now. Don't mind this one at all. Going into the season with Ducasse and Huner was a mistake. It's easy to say in retrospect, but they should have paid Woody for one more year or done something else at the position. I think a lot of it was a clusterfuck. The shortened offseason screwed up the FA period, and then we spent a lot of that time chasing Asomunga. Can't say I blame us for that, especially watching Cromartie avoiding contact.
I agree that it is ludicris to even consider Ryan's job security at this point. But I agree with an earlier poster who said that the disappointment with Ryan may be that he set himself up as a coach that could get more out of players than expected, and he sold that idea to the fan base and media. But we have a defense of average talent, and it is playing like a defense of average talent - no pass rush, blitzes are ineffective, can't make stops in big situations, etc. We also have a qb who is appearing to be of average talent, and is playing that way. I think this is where Ryan set himself up for critizism, knowingly or unknowingly.
Some people fail to realize that sometimes your team isn't as talented as the year before. We clearly lost valuable pieces to the NY Jets puzzle, and have yet to replace them. In time gentlemen. It's probably not our year this year, but we're still in the hunt so keep your panties out of a wad.
