... and cleaning house could possibly mean rebuilding. Which could mean going back to the Edwards/Mangini days of a 10 win wild one year, miss the playoffs with 8 or 9 wins the next. Nothing we've heard since the season ended, or even seen all season long from the FO as well as the players indicate a 13 to 14 win division title with home field. The progress you would expect after back to back AFC title games.
One of the Jets who was in the locker room the last few seasons needs to get cut and then go write the football equivalent of Ball Four. He'd make more money off of the book and movie deal than he ever did playing the game and we'd have one of the best sports books of all time to read. It won't be a Rex guy that does that so Eric Smith is out. It won't be a player with an investment in the system so that takes out most of the starters and younger guys. I think Matt Slauson is the guy. If the Jets cut Slauson he needs to go write that book.
Until we get TALENTED ball players we are just going to be ho hum nothing team & at the end of each season posts like yours will be written that I have seen after the last 42 seasons :sad:
Yeah, I'm sure there are GMs licking their chops over the possibility of being able to sign a weak armed, 7th round draft pick who didn't throw a single, regular season pass in his rookie year.
But he is a "high character" guy that airs the team's dirty laundry in the media. Who wouldn't want that from their 3rd string QB?
Actually, I LIKE this kid - at least he spoke up! How many 4th stringers on IR would do that? He's got balls. Maybe he should take over for Sanchez.
On a team that blatantly lacks leadership and unity, we have a player willing to stand up and speak his mind and identify the maladies he witnessed this past season. I'm glad someone was finally willing to speak up. He sounds like the type of chief our headless pack of Indians needs to have around (see also: Cotchery - different type of leader, but his calming veteran presence was surely missed). Some of you speak as if being a proven winner is a bad thing. All McElroy does is win (cheek meet tongue). It isn't such a bad thing to have someone around who not only comes from a culture of winning throughout his journey to the NFL, but is willing to grow a pair and speak out by pointing out the necessary team dynamical elements that are missing, and the detrimental elements that need to be eliminated. Wasn't creating a winning atmosphere that permeates throughout the organization the central goal of Rex's employment? Some of the major selling points presented to the fans were the fact that Rex himself has been around and/or involved in winning atmospheres like the Ravens, the Bears, and our very own SB champs. It seems to me that McElroy has taken it upon himself to actually put the work in and effect change toward validating the boasts of the last few years. He spoke like a true leader, albeit one that has some maturing to do. We need those types of guys around here. Some of you seem to prefer that the truth be silenced for what? Some sense of feel good non-sense PR BS? GMac appears to be set regardless of how the Jets decide to handle him. Worst case, he is a bama radio analyst for life. He sound like the type that will achieve more that, be it another playing opportunity or his first coaching gig. Regardless of whether or not he is starter material, this team needs his football intelligence and leadership present, at worst as Mr. Clipboard. Fact is, we need him more that he needs us. I really hope the FO embraces what he said, because they are really the things we were promised when Rex was hired. To get rid of him would be to send a message to the fans that the types of players actually wanting to effect these changes, are no longer welcome on the team. Sure it looks a little bad from a PR standpoint, but failed machines need to be taken apart before they can be rebuilt into well-functioning units. The Brass externally seems to be in denial of the existence of certain failed parts, or are at least inwardly dragging their feet at making the tough decisions that need to be made to bring us our championship. Maybe his words can be the trigger that gives Ryanbaum the kick in the ass that they need to begin to really address the disease and stop merely treating symptoms with tattered bandages from the midden heap. This fan sure hopes so.
I'll get blasted since this is clearly a minority opinion, but I don't really care. All of us are entitled to opinions, even quarterbacks on IR. Look guys, what everyone is missing is this: the idea of GMac going to another team to be a backup QB is not going to hurt him or the Jets. We all know it's unlikely he'll ever get on the field, and so does he. Cutting him is a waste of time and energy, and does absolutely nothing to solve the problems that this locker room apparently has. If he shows the same level of talent that he showed in preseason this year, then why would we want to cut him anyway? Noodle arm and all, the guy wins games, and we could do far worse than McElroy as a backup QB. I'm not exactly impressed with the crop of free-agent backups out there, all of whom would cost far more money than McElroy, and who come with their own sets of problems. I look at it like this: if everyone was willing to show that kind of anger over losing and that kind of disappointment with his teammates' behavior, we likely wouldn't be 8-8 and sitting home for the playoffs. Winning covers up a lot of problems, but when the team stops winning, the underlying problems emerge. Look at the 2011 Red Sox, one win from the playoffs, but losing finally exposed the long-term locker room issues they were having, and they're finally being corrected. People are latching onto the "selfish" comments, but McElroy also talked about changing schemes in the middle of the year, and the offense never finding its rhythm. He offers a possible solution, but people only want to rant about how some 3rd string rookie bench warmer shouldn't be talking like that because it's not his place to do so. Why is it not his place, if the people in front of him aren't living up to expectations? People are saying that he shouldn't be airing dirty laundry and keep it in-house, but that's not always the best solution. Sometimes you have to blow things up to rebuild them properly, whether it's an attractive solution or not. Apparently, the team and its captains and its coaching staff weren't doing enough to police the team, and with the story already out there by the time he spoke, what more harm could he do? He's not telling us anything we don't already know 3 days later, and no one is denying his comments, just that he dared speak them. I find it absolutely comical that Erik Ainge would be chiming in on someone keeping his mouth shut, as he couldn't seem to keep a pipe out of his own mouth. I'm glad he has cleaned up his life, but he's surely one to be giving the rest of us lessons on morality. McElroy doesn't NEED to be an NFL QB, but he wants to be successful at it. Someday he'll likely be working in an NFL front office, maybe ours, and he'll be passing judgment on similar situations. Wouldn't you want someone like that taking a critical view of the team and trying to find the best possible solution, rather than burying their head in the sand, claiming ignorance, or blaming some media conspiracy?
McElroy's a non-player stating something that has become obvious to everyone associated with, and following, the Jets. He's not drawing much needed attention to the problem, he's exacerbating it.
More like Sanchez's chemistry with BRAYLON 'cause it's apparent that Holmes never truly respected Mark at all.
No, because no player on the Pats would have spoken out like that about what goes on within the lockeroom. Belichick has firm control over all his players.
lol @ the jets cutting a quality starter on a unit with more pressing needs. He is an average lineman on an above average line. Perhaps you missed the operative word in the excerpt you quoted? I mean, its even in there twice That word is "speak". What other player has been so vocally forthcoming with the truth of what went on this past season? You may have had a good idea, but eyewitness confirmation is always preferred in my book. His comments weren't meant to be inflammatory. They were an honest assessment of his observations of where things are and where they need to go in the future. He could have been little more tactful in his presentation, but that can easily be chalked up to lack of professional maturity, which comes with age and experience, so he gets a pass from me.
Well I gotta hand it to him.... Either he'll be on an NFL team somewhere playing QB or he'll have his own talk show in the end. :breakdance: That, or it could backfire with teams not wanting someone who would air their dirty laundry at the drop of a hat when it suits him.
