I have been watching this team for way too long now and the current debate over coaching decisions etc could have been saved and repeated every 2-3 years for last 20 years . Bar Parcells we have seemingly decided to hitch ourselves to rookie HC after rookie HC , each time seeing same mistakes and wasted rosters . I wouldn't mind if the train of thought was consistent in our approach I.e build via draft . However due to our media market we splash big bucks on savvy vets and then hand them over to a rookie HC ..why not this time around as we had to splurge go with someone who has ridden the rookie bus.... We then marvel every 2-3 years at the mistakes/ play call/ time management . This franchise needs to marry it's free agency / draft mentality with its coaching and then finally we would have a clear vision. Now all we have is a bloated veteran roster with little youth combined with a coaching staff seemingly learning on the fly. Completely at odds and seen every 2-3 years .... Anyway off to work pissed off and grumpy!
Definitely a pattern. Rookie player coach starts greats, ends 4-12...rebuilding. Rookie No-nonsense coach starts great, ends 4-12 Rookie player coach starts great, end 4-12 Rookie no-nonsense coach starts great..... all leave with a reputation for poor game management. EDIT--I guess Mangini actually end 9-7....4-12 the year before...You get the point. lol
The crop of retread former head coaches every year is usually dogshit. Did you see a former head coach this year that you thought would be the answer?
Agreed. Not a whole lot of head coaches have had great success with their second team. The only real exceptions are Parcells and Belicheat. Jimmy Johnson was mediocre as the Dolphins' head coach, and George Seifert blew what would have been a Hall of Fame career with his abysmal job with the Panthers. Plus, most of the time a guy is a "former" head coach for a reason: He failed in his last job. More often than not, the same things that brought him down before bring him down again in his new job. The problem is, we don't just need a new coach, we need good QB play. We haven't had a year of solid, consistent QB play since Pennington's first year as a starter in 2002. If we can get a solid QB, it won't matter as much whether we have a rookie HC or a vet.
Honestly, I don't see a proven alternative to hiring a rookie head coach like Bowles. It's like pickings an NBA coach or an EPL manager. The successful ones with proven track records jobs are gobbled up quickly. It would be different if college head coaches could adapt to the league, but the NFL is a different ballgame. I heard a former NFL head coach say that, " you have to be a bit crazy... to want to be a head coach." The hours are insane, your under constant public scrutiny and you have to corral a bunch of alpha males..... look at the amount of ex-coaches that opt for the broadcast box? Not a job I would want!
There IS a disconnect between the stated goals of the team and how they go about getting there. If a team is built to "Win Now", why on earth do you hire a rookie HC? That makes no sense as it fails to take into account the learning curve EVERY rookie HC or even player has to go thru. If the team is being assembled for competitive longevity, why only use high DP's on one unit at the expense of the rest of the roster? Trying to do both only mires the team in mediocrity. Either we're gonna win now (hire experienced, successful HC) or win later (draft BPA on both sides of the ball/ hire rookie HC). What's it gonna be Macc?
The other issue rookie HC's face is the evaluating of players that were brought in by previous regime. As well as adjusting to the responsibilities that come with being a HC. TB and Mac, did not get a complete evaluation on these players through TC, unless they were vets. They are learning what these guys can and cannot do, in real game situations, especially at the QB position. So unless the team has a franchise qb , it's probably going to be a season filled with a lot of highs and lows that will lead to a mediocre year.
Even the retread of all retread HC's himself, Norv Turner, isn't a hot commodity anymore. The league is always looking for fresh coaching blood.
Most Super Bowl winning coaches were rookie head coaches with the team they eventually won with. Just saying. Retreads do win Super Bowls but more often they're won by head coaches the organization in question hired and stuck with through the early problems. The Jets problem is that every problem gets blown up like it's doomsday by a media trying to sell umbrellas in a hurricane.
It takes time folks. The real disconnect is not rookie HC or not, but patience and a superior QB. This team was not built to win the SB now. But unlike the crap that Idzik and Rex left us, is was at least built to be competitive NOW. PITTSBURGH started with a rookie HC, so did Carolina, and Arizona, and Cincinnati, and Green Bay to name a few, while others have rotated experienced QBs to no avail....Denver, KC, Philly, Miami and Buffalo, you name it. We started the season knowing full well we would be at best be in the hunt with a record of 9-7. We have made mistakes no doubt, but we remain competitive to the end and have exceeded our own expectations....yet some of the hate of this fan base goes beyond belief. Fire the coach, release the rookies, yadda, yadda, yadda. The GM and HC will grow together and reach the pinnacle only when we have the right QB on board. May be will be Petty, if we give him a chance. But it is clear to me that the NY media and some of the rabid fans will not wait half a season....never mind years. Just for the record, while I had great expectations for Rex, I realized soon enough he will never, ever be a great HC. Not when he puts his BS bravado ahead of the team, not when a leader is stupid enough to ruin a team season, and destroy a young QB potential career just to win a meaningless Snoopy bowl in the fourth quarter. We should count our blessings we moved away from that madness. Rookie coach or not.
Or how about a coach that comes from the offensive side of the ball? Herm, Mangini, Rex and now Bowles. Bottom line, unless and until we have a legit QB that we can rely on, replacing coaches every 3-4 years is going to continue...
No team is built to win now. Even the SB Pats have major churn every year. Every team is in constant flux. Players in. Players out. The only constant from one year to the next is a franchise QB and the coaching staff. Every other position is either on their way in or on their way out.
That's not the answer. I have believed for a long time that the thing that sets good head coaches apart from good co-ordinators is their ability to understand the _other_ side of the ball. That is, if you pick a defensive guy as the HC, he then has to operate at a high level on the offensive side _and_ special teams. If he doesn't, then the other sides of the team languish and you can never succeed. It's not enough to say "get an offensive guy". Bill Callahan was a pretty worthless head coach. But Bruce Arians was able to build a damn good defense in Arizona to go with his good offense. Pete Carroll has an all-world defense but also a productive offense, both in the air and on the ground. Even oldtimers like Marvin Lewis - defensive guy, but he's really having success now that he has a QB and a productive offense (although I shudder to hold the Bungles up as an example of anything positive). Brian Billick drove the record-setting 1998 Vikings offense, but won his SB with a ferocious defense. Tomlin - defensive guy but knows enough about offense to win with Roethlisberger. And it's not _just_ all about the QB. Exhibit A: Chuck Pagano.
This is what should not be overlooked, it's also the last time I honestly felt like the Jets had a shot to win the Super Bowl. Yeah Ryan took us close but those teams seemed like the catching lightning in a bottle catch some breaks type of teams. That 2002 team crushed 2 really good teams before falling to Oakland.
BB is a retread. Carroll is a retread. Weeb was a retread. Of course, he had won before. But---point taken. not a lot. I really hate the way Jet fans turn on their own so fast.
Coaching a good team is 90% defensive and 10% offensive coaching. a GREAT offense can be had with 2-3 great players and 10-20 good plays. a GREAT defense requires at least 11 great players all playing like one. Tons of coaching every snap. Offense is a single point of attack 'somewhere' on the field of play. Defense is like a net stretched across the entire field that must be better than the offensive no matter where it occurs. A rookie HC who has years of successfully coaching an NFL defense will be light years ahead of an OC coming in for the first time. Can you even imagine Shottenhiemer calling our defensive signals?
