Brad, My thinking has also evolved. Past decisions such as picking up Favre may have had an element of seeking attention, but there was also a logic to it. Imo the Jets entering this season were in an entirely different situation. Once the threshold decision had been made to NOT end the Sanchez Era, at least not yet, the logic was to seek to shore up the problems elsewhere on the team to see if Sanchez could succeed in the coming year, so the theory goes, not being held back or distracted by the problems of the past season. The core strengths of the team were and are adequate to carry the team to success IF those problem areas were addressed. And addressing them meant merely replacing bad players with adequate ones. It was a doable strategy, even under cap constraints, but was one that would require patience and foregoing the high publicity value type of move. I won't say I was counting on the Jets to pursue the obvious approach. Hardly. But I did have hope that they might have learned from the errors of some past mistakes, and pursue what seemed the obvious approach because it seemed best suited to take advantage of the strengths of the team in a realistic and practical manner. Instead we have seen the Jets pursue a series of moves that do not have any central coherence. There has been both an absence of any good football strategy and an obvious motivation, one overcoming other motivations, to put the team in the spotlight. The Tebow trade was hardly the only misstep, but it was and remains a doozy. For me it was the last straw in having any patience with or hope for the Johnson era. For not only did Woody and the FO not follow the obvious path they should have. They have used some of the picks they needed for the patient strategy. They undercut Sanchez after first sticking with him and then unnecessarily extending his contract. They signed a more suitable backup than Brunell, only to get rid of Stanton to replace him with someone who is not supposed to be the backup Qb in any conventional sense at all. They say they will rely on a greater emphasis on running it to complement Sanchez, and then add in a player who will rely on trick offensive plays instead of a ground it out approach. And one who in fact ran an option O as the starter last year, rather than being the "back-up" running the wildcat here. Instead of upgrading RB by getting a change of pace for Greene to complement the upgrade of Stanton over Brunell, they replace Stanton with not a real back-up and make no move to upgrade RB. It makes no sense, except in terms of what motivates Woody. Woody has no real record of accomplishment outside of his involvement with the Jets. He inherited money. He used that money to buy the Jets. And for the time being we are stuck with him. Comparisons to the Kotite Era are overdrawn. Sure the record of the team was worse, but it led to Hess finally upgrading his FO and to bringing in Parcells. It was hitting bottom before things could and would get better. Right now the team is still in decline. It will not be fixed until Woody either changes his ways or sells the team. We may disagree about some things, but on this point, I agree with you. Woody has shown his true colors, and it's pretty ugly.
I couldn't disagree more. Really. First of all this team went 8-8 with a tough schedule, a shortened offseason & immense roster turnover. I'm not saying we should be satisfied with that..but let's keep things in perspective. When you factor in the several first time major contributors in Wilson,Mo,Connor,& Mcknight, Several players still with the arrow pointing up(Sanchez, Greene,Ellis, & yes even Ducasse), very little turnover, a full offseason, & a much needed change in offensive philosophy...is a 2-3 win swing really out of the question? What's that land us? 10-6? 11-5? You're telling me you wouldn't sign up for that? Recent history has taught us, that all that matters is getting into the playoffs and then anything can happen. The same can absolutely hold true with this team. You say the moves made this offseason have no central coherance. Explain to me how that is? By central coherance do you mean they just didn't attack you & others personal preference of positions/players? Cause all the moves I see made, make PLENTY of sense & fit needs. Even Tebow makes plenty of sense. Many people just can't get over the "big name" aspect. But at its core he is a BACK-UP Quarterback, capable of proving you 5-10 extra curricular plays a game in Sparano's offense. is he an upgrade over Brunell? Absolutely. Is he the franchise savior? No. Was an upgrade at back-up needed? yes. So what the hell is the problem?jets needed a starting safety, they got the best one available. Jets needed an influx of youth/size/speed at WR they signed one. Jets needed a back-up QB, they signed one. The team had limited cap space...I'm not really sure what everyone expected. Had the Jets gone O-line, Change of pace RB & pass rusher, everyone would be bitching about the WR, Back-up QB & safety spots. As for the change of pace RB, you do realize there are 2 young RB's on this team who maybe ready for larger roles. one made the PB as a special teams guy. Maybe they aren't big names..but nowadays most Rb's start out as no names anyway. Are Powell & Mcknight no brainers? No they are not. But they are viable candidates to take another step forward. Rb is not the catastrophe it is made out to be. I know everyone is frustrated & the media's anti-jet agenda doesn't help. But take a step back, for goodness sake. This is the most talented Jets era in many of our lifetimes. Do things need to improve? Sure they do. But for one...can you guys factor in even 1% of improvment from within the roster when make your assumptions, & can we at least wait till the draft is over before calling the entire regime incapable?
+1 I still find it incredible how fast people will abandon ship at the first sign of trouble. No fortitude on the part of many of the fans whatsoever. Rex Ryan knows what he's doing. One 8-8 season does not make a failure of an everything they've been doing.
Excellent exchange above. You nail it in your last two sentences. And people who don't believe my theory that ticket sales have driven all of this haven't really been following what's been happening since the building of the New Mausoleum was annonced. I truly believe things on the football side would have been completely different today had the building of the New Mausoleum Stadium take place in a better economy. Given a different economy than we've had recently, PSLs would have sold out at the asking price without the cockamamie, last-minute, panicing discounts. Most of the Upper Deck would have sold out too without many of the complaints. And the result would have been that Woody would have had the financial breather he needed in order to relax and let his football people truly get into a conventional football groove with Tannenbaum and Rex having more "football say." But no, the economy being what it is and the drag that it's been on the Jets FO (the Giants not so because of their long waiting list), it's almost like, in Woody's mind, he had no choice but to go with the offseason flash to bring in the cash. Favre... Plaxico... now Tebow... anything to sell tickets and keep them from heading to the doors (which is what is happening). The sad part is that I think Woody had the team on track to do great things. The plan seemed to be in place. Sanchez was the man and we build around G 'n P and a great defense. Good plan! Pretty simple. But the plan becomes derailed when your sole objective becomes putting asses in seats (or just keeping them there even). If you wake up every morning reading reports of net DECLINES in ticket sales despite sales reps emailing and calling and offering upgrades and side deals and parking concessions and supposed "fixes" in restrooms and escalator issues and you still have more cancellations than sales, you turn to whatever it's going to take to stop that. It's downright embarassing in the eyes of many other business associates to inherit a ton of daddy's money and "invest" it in a franchise that is not increasing in value, not generating revenue and proper sales returns and having to resort to all kinds of trickery and to discounts on StubHub, of all places, all while undercutting your regualr STHers who you require to buy all Preseason Games, but don't require it for the Johnny-come-latelies. The only thing you can do is put a hold on anything long term and think only of what it will take to fix ticket sales this month. Woody is panicing. And that's a shame, because had football things been a little different and a few PO games gone our way, there would have been no need to abandon a solid, long term approach. And we could have kept those asses in those seats the old fashioned way, by winning! Nothing fills a stadium like winning. And nothing will make these ticket sales deflate more than non-winning gimmicks, perceived side shows, deceitful STHer sales approaches, dispicable rep tactics and splashy, flashy, headline-grabbing offseason football moves whose only purpose is a sales tool. They didn't even go to Tebow's news conference. Nobody. Not Woody, Tanny or Rex was there. Too embarased I guess, to answer any questions, like "WTF is going on here guys? You just gave your starting QB a nice pat on the back, so what's up with bringing in Tebow?" They didn't show because they can't answer that question truthfully, which is, "We brought him in here to stop the slide in ticket sales. Any more questions?"
After reading the entire exchange, I'm afraid that it seems like you're right, BB. But I really, really hope that you're wrong. To the OP: Maybe Tanny will sign Lamar Odom to play TE.
Favre took Minnesota to withing 1 game of the SB and if not for some coaching errors and bounty hunting he gets them there. Signing Favre was NOT an attention getting move. Look what happened in Minnesota. Signing Tebow is not an attention getting move look what Tebow did last year. These moves are being made to win a SB winning the newspaper wars gets you nothing. The seats are already sold.
Good post and for the record, I do like the Tebow move for the reasons outlined. I don't think we had to give up much for the amount of sheer football talent we got. I just wish they had gone to the kid's press conference though. The no shows reeked of "We don't know WTF we're doing and therefore don't want to take any questions."
No they're not. THe Upper Deck is defecting in droves. It started last year even, after a PO run no less. And now with our 8-8 season, many are not renewing. When I renewed on the phone last week, the rep flat-out asked me, "So what do you think of us bringing in Tim Tebow?" Curious question, really. I say this because in all the conversations I've had over the years with the reps, not one time did one ever discuss football personnel with me. Nothing about drafts or offseason acquisitions... nothing. Now all of the sudden the reps are "polling" STHers about their opinions of Tebow? Really? And what, pray tell, is THAT all about?
I do believe Rex knows what he's doing and can win. The problem I have is that right now I think Rex's opinions are falling on deaf ears and he has no say at all right now in shopping for the groceries. I'm not even sure if Tannenbaum does either. All the shots in the entire organization are being called by Woody at present and it's all geared to putting asses in seats.
I'm among those who cancelled this year. I've been making the trip from Albany down to the City for each home game for the past few years. I couldn't bring myself to reup, even with the reseating going on. It's just too much effort and cash for me to put down when it feels like the team and mgmt aren't putting forward a good faith effort.
I disagree that Rex's opinions are falling on deaf ears. Rex / Sparano of all coaching combos in the league make the most sense to pursue and acquire a Quarterback who could excel in a power running formation. Rex has stated over and over again how he wants the Jets to be a power running team and the only deaf ears that seemed to be around were those of Schottenheimer - the fact that he's gone now is probably the biggest offseason story for the Jets and unfortunately its not being told.
First of all I really hope the Jets do better than I expect from them this coming year, as I always do. Even if I expect a plus ten win season i hope for better. Of course I do. My analysis of the team is my attempt to be objective, not what I want or hope for. But a couple of points. Yes, anything can happen in the playoffs. But you would agree the odds of success improve with better seeding. It has been done to win all playoff games on the road. But it is harder, and your odds go down. Teams that succeed at it tend to be those with records distorted downward by early season problems and losses but who hit stride through the end of the season into the playoffs, like Green Bay in 2010. But counting on that coming from a nine or ten win season is pushing it. I also acknowledge the off season is, to say the least, not over. Moves may be made that will improve the prospects going foward. But rather than engage in prognostication, let's go to the substance of your post: Tough schedule last year. The Jets went 8-8 in part by going 3-3 in their division, and they could have as easily lost a game to Buffalo is Jackson had not dropped that post pattern pass. If you can't get a winning division record, you shouldn't expect to have a winning record overall. In other words I don't know what was so tough about the schedule. The Jets played the AFCW, hardly a powerhouse division. And split their games. They played the NFCE, a more powerful division. And split. Sounds like a wash to me. Shortened off season. I believe every team the Jets played last season also had a shortened off season. Why this should have been a better excuse for the Jets than other teams is something I must have missed. Immense roster turnover. Huh? From the end of the prior season there were two starters out of 22 who were new, those being Burress and Wilkerson. I know some key backups were also new, but in short do not think this was all that remarkable a condition. Perhaps I did not understand the point you were making about Connor, Wilson and McKnight, but they were not rookies, ftr. Arrow pointing up for Greene? Hm. That's one of my concerns, that he didn't look significantly better than before, and to say that about Sanchez is a subject in itself. Let's just say it's no sure thing that Sanchez will ever be better than we have seen already. And VD? You know I disagree with your optimistic assessment about him. Lack of central coherence. The move I like most that they have made was cutting Pool and signing Landry. But he remains a question mark in terms of durability, and Leonhard's LACK of durability is one of the main reasons why the safeties are in need of upgrade. And Landry for Pool is the off season move they've made I most like. All the others are downhill from there. But.. as you suggest, put my preferences aside and just address the coherence or lack thereof. Qb. Taking one more year to assess Sanchez, who after all was under contract for two, guaranteed only for one, is something I understood. So, from that to extend his contract and guarantee two AFTER making noise to get Peyton Manning seems like a reaction to Manning's complete lack of interest in going to the Jets. I understand there were cap reasons to extend, but that's because Tanny has left the Jets with such little room to maneuvre. But then, after having doubled down on Sanchez, the Jets first back that up by replacing Brunell with Stanton, a real backup, and then undercut Sanchez by bringing in Tebow, cutting Stanton in the process. There was no need for Tebow. He will take plays away from Sanchez with no obvious benefit to the O. And if he has ANY prospect for replacing Sanchez as the starter, then how does one make sense of extending hte guaranteed period of Sanchez's contract? It doesn't. Ground and Pound. LT is probably not coming back. The Jets have the same RT situation as they did last season. Greene did not improve as the year went on. McKnight and Powell did not, either. The much hated Mulligan was actually the better run blocking TE on the roster. So, what moves have the Jets made to upgrade their running attack? Why do we think they will be more successful running the ball this coming season? I can't think of any reason, and that includes Tebow. Tebow and the definition of a backup Qb. Stanton was a backup Qb. The way Tebow has been described, he is more like a replacement for Brad Smith, running the wildcat as part of the "normal" offensive attack. Going back to Ground and Pound, if the Jets call a play where Tebow runs the ball, that means an RB is not running it. Why will that be more successful? If Tebow, who btw saw his ypc go down as last year progressed, can run it better than our RB's, we need better RB's, not some guy who will see the field much less than Greene (unless he replaces Sanchez, of course). And of coures trading the fourth pick and swapping the sixth for a seventh is not consistent with improving the overall roster. The Jets already had a backup Qb in Stanton. The only reason to change Stanton out for Tebow is to take plays away from Sanchez and/or obviate the need for a changeup for Greene by adding a Qb who runs it (?). I also do not see coherence in allowing Hunter's contract to go guaranteed without an attempt to modify it when he was the worst starter on the team last year. The Jets decide to stay with Sanchez, then make noise about Manning, then extend Sanchez's contract and add to the guaranteed period, then trade for Tebow, guaranteeing controvery and undercutting the notion they are going forward with Sanchez. They say they are going ground and pound, then make no positive upgrades to the personnel on whom the running game relies other than bringing in Tebow. I don't see the coherence in those moves.
Let me first say that I really do respect your opinion. I wouldn't bother debating our disagreement if I didn't.We definitely both want the same thing. Part of my thought process with all of this stems from the conclussion I came to around week 8 of last season(You can check my posting history around that time if you wish as I mentioned it several times on TGG). I saw a team in a transition year. I thought they could still sneak into a playoff spot, which they almost did..but all and all I saw alot of moving parts. There were a number of younger players that stepped into major roles for the first time(Some as starters, some as not). Conner, Mo, Mcknight(As a KR),Greene(first year starting)& Wilson(Full time nickel). All of these players are good football players capable of getting better.Did they all have some bonehead moments? Sure. Everyone of the aforementioned players main weakness was consistency. This is the next step within all of their development. What was the one constant weakness of this Jets squad last season? Consistency. I'm not going to get into your other points, although I don't feel they lack any substance to them..I just see things alittle differently. One thing i will add is that this notion that the majority of the Jets moves are for marketing/Psl sales & that their only concern is being in the spotlight: I don't think that's all a bad thing. What it does is put everything the regime does under constant scrutiny. This town, this fanbase & this media outlet WILL demand winning..not the late 90's Cowboys. There is an unspoken level of accountability that comes with this...and it almost forces the entire team to conduct business on & off the field with only the highest level of focus and expectations. One thing we can agree on: The draft cannot come soon enough.
The team was up to it the first two Ryan years and then it all fell apart. That is a very disturbing change.
+2 The total negativity of a lot of posters is just baffling. No-one thinks that every move this team makes is 100% correct but then no move any team makes is a 100% correct (or even close to it). Some teams are lucky enough to have elite QBs and are competitive for so long as that one player's career lasts, others like the Jets are not so lucky and have to manage with what they have and when you look at what the Jets have to work with I think that they have (overall) done a great job since Rex arrived in town. If Sanchez can improve to being even a middle ranked QB then there is no reason to think that this team won't make the playoffs next year - if he doesnt then its starting over time again I guess - maybe we can sign Hoyer next offseason! edit: its sort of funny that as someone that in RL is generally considered to be a really negative/pessimistic/cynical person I come onto the Jets forums and I feel like a frikkin little ray of sunshine.
This is the issue, isn't it. The real hot button of the season. Nitty Gritty: Does Tebow replace Sanchez? I say the odds are it will happen.
They couldn't go to the Tebow press conference. To do so would have finished the undermine job on Sanchez and basically guaranteed that he was going to be the most expensive backup in the league by the bye. Every move they have made this off-season has been potentially destabilizing moving forward. Even the good moves like Landry have huge questions attached to them. Signing Stanton as backup QB was a big move forward for the Jets. It gave them somebody they could plausibly put on the field if Sanchez got hurt and potentially even as a change-of-pace if Sanchez had a bad run. Then the value in the move was destroyed by an impulsive move to bring the circus to town. It was the move of a panicked regime that has not laid the ground work for success moving forward and suddenly realized that if this off-season wasn't picture perfect they were in big trouble. Instead of doubling down and doing the hard work to put things back together again they decided to throw some flash powder up in the air and ignite it and hope everybody looked away. The problem is that the big flash is going to be gone in a moment or two and the problems will still remain. It's like the Brett Favre move only it won't even plausibly last for a season.
Championship Game Championship Game Not make the playoffs... You did fall apart last season...QB play was atrocious at times...Defense failed to show up at key moments...Coach ran his mouth way too many times...etc
