A lot of the players he cut rid of were either a problem in the locker room, overpaid and past their prime, or both. Have to applaud him for having the stones to get rid of a few iconic Jets (Harris and Mangold) but the mark of a good GM and organization is to get rid of players a year early than a year late. The play of the replacements is what really matters in this equation.
But he didn't do enough. He still hasn't drafted that franchise QB. He neglected OL for 3 seasons. Defense look worse than when he just took over. [Repeat ad nauseum.]
I don't disagree. The QB question is still very real. In 2018 Josh McCown will not be starting and it does not seem like the Jets view Petty as anything other than a backup and Hackenberg is either no ready or the team doesn't view him as much either, or both..our O-line has gotten better but still has been abused by better d-lines (Jaguars had their way with the o-line). I'm just pointing out the obvious that the cuts/trades he made were legitimate and have had a positive impact on team unity. Now, Darron Lee is still bad, and if it weren't for Adams' versatility, I think our defense would practically be unwatchable. I don't know if that's a coaching thing, a talent thing, or both.
I'll admit that I was really skeptical of both Mac and Bowles after this off-season, and this has been nothing short of surprising. The talent, including McClown, hasn't been a complete joke, and (Bilal Powell's miscues aside) the team has responded to coaching. That said, y'all can start prepping the crow, but I'm not eating it unless the Jets show up big time against the Pats.
They are dumb, piling up meaningless wins, missing out their chance for their salvation through the #1 pick overall.
I think Mac deserves some criticism for not drafting a better OT in 2016 and not doing more to upgrade the OL, but for some to say that he's done nothing in 3 years is both wrong and ridiculous. His first season he tried to sign both Mike Iupati and Orlando Franklin to play OG for the Jets. They, along with Clint Boling, were considered the top 3 OGs available in FA that year. Both Iupati and Franklin wanted to play on the west coast (or didn't want to play for the Jets). I don't know if he contacted Boling and Boling showed no interest, if Boling's style of play wouldn't have fit in here, or if Mac was afraid that Boling would rebuff him too and he'd miss out altogether on an OG, so turned to James Carpenter. Carpenter has been a very solid addition to our OL. Mac may have also had some interest in La-el Collins in the 2015 draft until the murder investigation sprang up. In 2016 Mac was blindsided by Brick's refusal to take a pay cut and retirement, and I think he did well to scramble and add Clady. Clady turned out to not have anything left, but if Clady could have returned to his pre-injury form, the Jets would have had a very good LT for a few years. Mac also tried to trade up for Laremy Tunsil, but teams wanted too much. There were supposedly other good tackle prospects in that draft, who were better than Brandon Shell (Jason Spriggs & Antonio Garcia to name two) that Mac could have added, but at least he added Shell. This year Mac brought in Kelvin Beachum to start at LT, and Jonothan Harrison and several others to improve/increase competition for depth on the OL, and retained Ben Ijalana as insurance. This year's draft wasn't a good one for OL, especially OTs. Could he have done more over the last 3 seasons? Undoubtedly, but what he has done is hardly nothing. I think the 2018 off season will determine the job Mac does with the OL. With all the cap space, he has the ability to sign the best FA OL available, and hopefully will address the LT position in the draft in a significant fashion. With regards to FQB, we don't know for certain that Mac hasn't drafted our FQB. While it doesn't seem likely that he has, it's not out of the realm of possibility. Petty hasn't been given any kind of realistic chance to succeed. He may only be a solid starter or even a backup/spot starter, but we won't know until he's given sufficient reps with the 1st team and gets to actually play. Hack may never develop, but he has talent and both he and Petty are too young to give up on. QBs are a valuable commodity. They can take some time to develop. I think Mac is smart in being patient with them and not cutting them as some short-sighted and impatient Jets fans have wanted. Even if they don't pan out to be our FQB, it's entirely possible that Mac might be able to trade one of them for a pick or let one or both of them walk in FA and the Jets get a compensatory pick for them. Mac could have drafted either Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson in this draft. Both were potential FQBs. I loved Watson's intangibles, leadership, maturity and mobility, but I don't think his arm is sufficient for NE winter winds. I love Mahomes' arm talent, mobility, athleticism, accuracy, and leadership, but I think Mac would have had to have balls the size of beach balls to have drafted him. I think if Mac had drafted either, some Jets fans would have been happy, but probably most would have screamed for Mac's head. If he had, the Jets would have had to keep 4 QBs again or cut one of Hack or Petty. Besides, I don't think that Mac was ready to give up on Hack and probably wasn't even seriously considering drafting a QB this year. I think he wanted to see how both Petty and Hack developed this year, and then if need be, he will look to draft one in 2018. The D does look worse in some games and in some ways. For certain, they are worse vs the run. I don't see that as being Mac's fault, however, as with the exception of David Harris/Demario Davis, the front 7 is pretty much identical. David Harris could have stayed, but he has hardly played for the Patriots. While he's a solid tackler, his coverage skills are sadly lacking and he doesn't have much range. Plenty of high draft picks had been invested in the DL and D, and Bowles and Rodgers have been running the D. They've been playing players out of position, and several of the players have regressed under Bowles/Rodgers' tutelage. In addition Mo has been battling injuries the last 2 years and Williams is battling injuries this season. Mac got rid of Richardson, his off-field antics, big mouth, and potential bad influence in the locker room, and added Kony Ealy who is a better player AND a 2nd round pick. Mac got rid of Calvin Pryor and added the Jets' leading tackler this season in Demario Davis. Davis isn't all that, but he's better than Pryor and a decent stop gap for a year. Mac has fixed the safety position with the addition of Adams, Maye and Brooks, added Claiborne at CB, and improved the depth of the CB position. The speed, athleticism, and play-making ability has greatly improved on D. We have a lot of young players with potential who bring high motors and lots of energy to the field.
What Bilal Powell miscues? I think your approach is fair and totally reasonable. It is too early to think about eating crow in Bowles' case. Even though he appears to have learned/improved and to be doing a better job, he still might not be the right HC for the Jets. Bully for him that he's finally starting to do the job that he was hired to do after two years, but this year is about developing the young players and seeing who can help them going forward, not seeing how many wins they can amass. Petty should be starting and Stewart and Hansen seeing the field more than Kerley. So even though the team has been prepared the last two weeks, the game plans have been good, the team has kept playing hard and not quit, and other good things, Bowles still deserves hits for playing Forté over Powell and McGuire, McCown over Petty and Kerley over Stewart and Hansen. Lee should be rushing the passer and playing OLB, not ILB. I understand that Bowles is coaching for his job. The Jets are in a tough position. In order to not have Bowles worrying about wins and losses, and just focus on playing the young playerse, they'd have to extend him or guarantee him another season. Based on his first two seasons and his poor handling of young players, I can understand why they wouldn't want to do that. He probably isn't the right coach to develop a young QB, and the defense is regressing under his watch in spite of a lot of high draft picks and good FA additions. This is where it would have been great if Mac could have ordered Bowles to start Petty, have Hack as the backup, and McCown holding the clipboard as the veteran mentor. As some posters have pointed out, however, with the way the OL struggled in TC and preseason, it would have been risky to start Petty immediately, and the offense might have struggled to develop due to Petty's lack of experience. The problem with starting McCown for the first few games to help the offense get settled and the OL to start gelling, and then move Petty into the starting lineup, is that move may not have sat well with some of the players, particularly since the Jets' offense is playing well, much better than expected, and the Jets are 2-2. That ove undoubtedly would have been ripped by the media and fan base. Still, Petty should be starting by this point (game 5). If he plays well, and the Jets win under his leadership, great! They may have found their QB. If not, they could have given him 6 games, and then played Hack the last 6 games. With what McCown is being paid, however, I imagine that neither Woody nor Chris Johnson would have been content with his holding the clipboard and not playing.
I was referring to Powell slipping leading to the INT, and the mistiming between him and McClown on the lateral pass, leading to the fumble. I'm believer in Powell, but I think he got too amped up (and forgot he was playing with McClown). Certainly, not all Powell's fault, but he's way more talented and important than McClown, and that's why I assigned more blame to him.
Thanks for the clarification. Perhaps you're right, but it seems a little harsh to me to criticize a player for slipping. That's usually unavoidable, unless the player doesn't have the right cleats on for the field and weather conditions. Since the Jets were playing at home and the weather was good, I can't imagine that Powell wouldn't have had the right cleats on. In terms of the fumble, it looks to me like McCown threw the ball too early. Powell wasn't even looking at him and was just getting into position and starting to turn to look towards McCown. McCown never should have thrown that ball. He was feeling some pressure as Beachum whiffed on his block, but McCown is mobile, and he could have moved right a step or two and then hit Powell when Powell was in position. IMO that's all on McCown.
I think most people have been too hard on Bowles & Mac. The team was a talent wasteland (remember the "Idzik" 12) when Mac came in and Bowles was still able to get to 10-6 (while missing the playoffs). Other than Wilkerson, who is left from the pre-Mac era? This unfortunately created the illusion that the team had much more talent than it actually had (and that Fitz was a good QB) and created significant expectations for the 2nd year, but the team had a slew of significant injuries, Fitzpatrick was a total disaster, and, most important for Bowles' system, the secondary and safety play was atrocious. Bowles aggressive defensive strategy requires a good secondary and the jets secondary last year was terrible which was a total misfit for his strategy. This year, we have 3 new starters in the secondary, including 2 rookies, and 2 new starters at linebacker (Martin & Davis). And I know you're thinking that Davis was here and knew the system, but you should remember that Davis played with different LBs and with David Harris as his co-starter. Your ILBs need to learn how to play with and help each other. It was always going to take a little while for the defense to gel. It's too early to evaluate Mac's drafts. He clearly got some value in Williams and Adams with his first round picks. Lee is still a question and may or may not be able to become a player. He's also had some other pretty successful draft picks/UDFAs - Robby Anderson, Burris, Petty, Jenkins, Shell, J Marshall and Peake in 2015 and 2016. He also made some pretty good waiver wire pickups - Josh Martin, Ealy, Sefarian-Jenkins, etc. The 2017 draft is looking promising (Adams & Maye look like potential future stars and McGuire is looking impressive also), but we'll have to wait and see. The real test for a talent evaluator is not how he does in the earlier rounds (where most teams rank players similarly), but rather what value he can find in the later rounds, as UDFAs and waiver wire pickups, and in the role, Mac has been very effective. Just to be clear here, I'm not saying that Bowles & Mac haven't made mistakes - they certainly have. Mac gave Revis a ridiculous contract (but he was desperate for secondary help and Bowles was going to need good corners) and looks to have done so with Wilkerson as well (but its not unusual to overpay a homegrown player who's been successful). With those exceptions, his free agent pickups have generally been good and he has generally found good value - Carpenter, Skrine, Claiborne, Beachum. Even Clady and Gilchrist were at relatively reasonable contracts, though they didn't work out. Bowles has made quite a few mistakes also, but this is part of the learning process for a head coach. Bellicheck's first run at head coach of the browns didn't go so well either. You just have to be a little patient with a young coach and give them an opportunity to learn from their mistakes. The question is whether he'll learn or not. The team is playing hard for him and that's significant and his defense the last few games has been pretty impressive. He seems to have brought in a good OC, which is always a challenge for the jets. I'm not saying that Mac or Bowles should be preparing to be inducted into Canton, just that you need to be a little patient and give them an opportunity to remake the roster and develop some talent. It's takes time to turn around an organization and it doesn't happen overnight. It was badly delayed by the illusion from 2015 that they were a good team when they were, in fact, a lucky team.
Let's be honest, most fans have completely evaluated Mac based on the Hackenberg pick. I think overall things are looking up for the Jets and Mac has done a good job shedding cap space while fielding a surprisingly competitive team that's hungry to win... but they still need that franchise QB, so until that happens, I'll say the jury is out on Mac.
So did Idzik what worked well for the franchise, I'll reserve my option not based on a couple meiningless wins, but on what transpires next off-season. I see the writing on the wall already McCown puts up a decent season, wins 5 or 6 games, the top rated QBs are taken in the draft, and McCown nets a 2 yr deal, Fitzpatrick all over again.
yup. funny enough he had a better chance with the jets. at 0-4 The giants have practically 0 chance at making the playoffs. Eli hasn't been good in years and even at his best was just OK. He hasn't played too bad this season so far, but has had some timely turnovers. The o-line is just bad including 1st round bust LT flowers. They haven't really hit on any WRs either. OBJ is one of the best, but can't keep his shit together for a full game. Shepard is decent (a 2nd round pick) and after him nothing. marshall is playing like crap too. The giants knew this hence why they held onto cruz hoping he'd return tof orm and when he didn't, they went and got marshall who isn't playing well. Their RBs are garbage and their "starter" perkins has a 1.9YPC and really shouldn't even be on a practice squad. some guy they just picked up is playing much better and even darkwa and vereen are better, albeit none are starting talents in the NFL. Their defense which was lights out the past season, is playing much worse. apple (1st rounder) is a bust so far, JPP and vernon are having down years, their LBers haven't been good since they had jesse armstead lol. Collins is a beast though at safety and jenkins at CB is playing very well. as is DRC as the nickel corner. Still they are a team that needs to commit to a rebuild and as our luck would have it, watch them draft sam to replace eli in a year or 2
They can have Sam, I am sure he will be a bust myself, I hope his stock doesn't fall far enough for us to think he is worth chancing when he is still on the board at 10,11,12 as no doubts we will end up around this position in the draft after this season no doubt. Still another year for Hack to get his shit together
