For example is not evidence. You could pick about 50 super successful disciplinarian coaches in NFL history if you like.
Is this true though? Nobody was writing the Jets off in 2010 when he took an 11-5 team into the playoffs. Nobody was really surprised when he beat Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. His teams had been competitive with the Colts and Pats before that and just got the upper hand on the day. There's more than an element of truth to this one, however player's coaches can also get results out of young or inexperienced players. That was kind of Dick Vermeil's MO during his coaching career. Herm also did well with young players in both of his stops, although he killed the backs there each time with a heavy workload. Bringing in a disciplinarian wouldn't necessarily work with this particular group of players. The young vets might suddenly become harder to sign if Rex left. And BTW, Muhammed Wilkerson is a young vet who has absolutely prospered under Rex's aegis. DeMario Davis also. Looking at the big picture this is where I see the Jets main flaws at the moment: 1. The QB position, offensive line and receivers are all in transition at the same time. Think about that one. At every level the Jets offense is up in the air at this point. That's a typical rebuilding posture on one side of the ball or the other. Everything is in flux and nothing can be pinned down until stability begins to emerge somewhere. 2. The safeties have been a different crew every year. The Jets have not returned a pair of starting safeties to play together since 2008. That pairing was Kerry Rhodes and Abram Elam. The safeties are the deep middle of your defense and having turnover there every year weakens the team. 3. The outside linebackers have been in decline/flux since 2010, which is when Calvin Pace and Bryan Thomas had their last productive pairing. The first item above is the most important to begin to pin down but 2 and 3 will need attending before things get really good for the Jets.
Really? Hell I was surprised. Maybe I'm totally wrong here but I kind of remember the Jets being significant underdogs in just about every playoff game under Rex. Which is actually a huge credit to Rex but feeds into the "us against the world" mentality that seems to trigger team success. The disciplinarian vs player's coach is probably a false dichotomy because there are just so many other factors involved. But there definitely seems to be a "relaxation factor" under Rex's leadership that comes out when the team is doing well and expected to do well. Maybe the best manager/coach of all time was Casey Stengel. The man was a brilliant manipulator. It was always much tougher to play for Casey when the Yanks were doing well than when they were doing poorly.
The Jets were among the Super Bowl favorites heading into the 2010 season. By the time the playoffs started people were asking whether Rex and the Jets could finish the job they started the year before. That's how I remember it. Might just be jolly green Jet glasses. Yes, Rex definitely needs to work on how to coach as an overdog. The Jets do fall short a fair amount of the time when they are favored. Well, this would explain the 1962 Mets pretty well also. "Can't anybody around here play this game?"
The Jets were a Superbowl contender to start 2010, but they were not favored against Indy and New England in the playoffs. No one outside of the Jets, Jets fans and Keyshawn thought that the Jets could win. This was because this was weeks after the 45-3 beatdown they put on us. Do we not remember Scott's rant? The Jets had no respect.
Another thing about great coaching. Great coaches don't coach up great players. Great players don't need much coaching. It's the marginal players that do. Which is one of the reasons why coaching is probably more important in the NFL than in almost any other professional sport. Even the most talented NFL rosters are filled with more than a dozen (maybe more than two dozen) marginal players. Guys who could be replaced almost any time. Great coaches get the most out of those players. And fear and intimidation is often what they use. Parcells was awesome at making those guys feel as uncomfortable as possible.
See that's the real problem with Dave and Buster's. You don't want a football team, especially a young football team, feeling relaxed and confident. Football is so different than any other sport. It's intellectual to scheme, but emotional to play. Before every game, you want your players to feel that they are playing for their professional lives.
Another thing about Rex. Remember a couple years ago there was an incident involving a female sideline reporter? Throwing the football at her. That bothered me. Not just because it was a subtle form of sexual harassment but because Rex was involved. Why is Rex chumming around with his players? Rex wants to be a regular guy. That's not a good trait for a coach. Remember "A Bronx Tale" when the gangster asked whether it was better to be feared or loved? He said fear. It lasts longer. He could have been talking about an NFL coach.
the only thing about Rex that is killing me, is his BLATANTLY OBVIOUS 3rd down blitzes. Throwing everyone at the QB on 3rd down while the worst CB's in the NFL in terms of man coverage try to stop the offense.. THE BLITZES DONT EVEN WORK, SO STOP IT REX, JESUS.
I think this poll should have been asked at season's end instead of now. Particularly the way this rollercoaster of a season has unfolded.
We get blown out by Buffalo and people are still high on Rex. The major of Toronto admits he smokes crack and his approval rating goes up. Just proof you can get anywhere if people like you ..... I hope Rex can get us too the playoffs but a couple more games like this and Woody might have made up his mind already.
Im a fan of his defensive scheming with an experienced o. c. I truely believe in the second year they should blossom. Let alone the players.
Before the season the Jets were predicted to be 3-13 with 4 year vet Muck Sanchez at the helm, they were ranked 32nd out of 32 teams, and Rex was just a lame duck waiting to get fired. Now we are 5-5 with a rookie qb who didn't have the benefit of a full preseason (as he should have, if we cut Muck as we should have), and people are complaining. Rex is certainly not perfect but given the wins he's been able to salvage out of the dearth of talent we have he has to be brought back. Who are the Jets going to bring in next year, that could have coached this bunch to a record better then 5-5?
The Jets are way ahead of the game at this point. On talent this team should be 3-7 right now headed for a 5-11 finish. Instead they're at 5-5 and headed for 7 or 8 wins. The ups and downs have been frustrating at times but this team has beaten at least 2 teams it had no business beating (Pats, Saints) and it has lost to 3 teams that were clearly better than it (Pats, Steelers, Bengals). That makes the team 3-2 in the tossup games (Bucs, Falcons, Billsx2, Titans). None of that suggests that Rex and his staff have done anything but an exemplary job with the talent they had on hand. The injuries and suspensions on the offensive side of the ball were a huge aggravating factor and the Jets even weathered those without collapsing. You may not like Rex's management style but he gets more out of his teams with bad QB play than anybody else in the NFL and it's not particularly close at this point. Rex's Jets look just like the Ravens teams in the wilderness in the early to mid-00's when they couldn't find a QB for their life. Just look at the Ravens prior to 2008 when they found Flacco. That's where the Jets are living during Rex's coaching stint except they didn't get a favorable matchup at the end in 2009 or 2010 and the defensive talent wasn't all-world in either year and so they fell short of a ring.
One week ago, there was a lot of talk both on news sites and on TV shows that Rex should be considered in the running for Head Coach of the Year, with Andy Reid as the front runner. If we happened to beat Buffalo, and with KC losing to Denver, Rex would be the front runner right now. The only difference is 1 loss! There are no style points in the NFL, just as a win is a win, a loss is a loss. This isn't college where how bad a loss can impact your seeding. We are lucky to have Rex as a coach. You don't know what you have until you lose it.
Rex would not be the frontrunner just because KC lost a game. I can understand you supporting the guy and everything, but he has a lot of ground to cover before he catches up with Reid in the HCOY race.
Reid is going to get it as long as KC makes the playoffs. Rex should be in the discussion for 2nd or 3rd if the experts believed their own analysis on how bad the Jets were before the season.