Sam Darnold I rest my case.... Kidding/ kind of Sam is the guy he bet his job on. His football life....his future. If nothing else, he knows his career depends on developing, growing, enhancing, protecting, supporting and making the best of his crown jewel player. I’d give him at least a chance to hire a legit coach, and build around Sam, and see what happens. Sorry. I know it’s more fun to be negative and say “fire everybody”. I’m the most negative guy here.
You're too nice. Since Mac already picked a QB, my only concern is how well the roster will be built around that QB. And based on Mac's track record with non-QBs in the draft and free agency, I don't think he's up to that task.
I can’t really argue Tho I think Both safeties are nice and I like Eli And Long doesn’t bother me Tru is a nightmare and I know he missed on many others You’re right but I just have a feeling this guy is learning.
Thing that gets me is if he had this master plan to snag a QB, why wasn’t he focused on building the OL before that to be ready for him? After his draft record, the OL is probably the second most damning when it comes to Macs performance. It’s like he ignored the OL because he hadn’t found “his guy” yet. Now he has him, and can’t protect him.
As others have probably already pointed out, Mac's drafts and FA record are not good. Are you really going to put the future of Darnold and the franchise in Mac's hands? Based on his judgment in the draft and FA, do you really trust him to hire the next HC and get it right? The bottom line is this. If the Jets retain Mac, then it means they're stuck with him for the next 3 years regardless of how good or poor his drafting and FA moves are. The reason for that is that they will have to give the HC he hires 3 years to prove himself. That HC and Mac will be joined at the hip and they should sink or swim together. Anything less than 3 years, and no quality HC candidate will want to come here after that. If the HC does well, they can't keep him and fire Mac, because then it's likely that no top quality GM candidate will want the job. He'll want to be able to hire his own HC. The Jets cannot keep up with the dysfunctional set up that started with Rex and Idzik.
If his "master plan" was to build the D first and then the offense, then I think both Mac and his "master" plan are stupid. The NFL is an offensive league. Our D already had much better talent than our offense. The OL was in shambles as both Brick and Mangold were at the end of their careers and their replacements needed to be found. We didn't have a RT and the OG positions were very shaky. He's been going with stop gaps at LT. At the very least, his drafts should have been balanced, split pretty evenly between offense and defense, with perhaps a slight edge to offense, but imo his drafts and FA moves should have been heavily slanted towards offense and they haven't been.
All GMs miss on free agency and in the draft. The trouble is that Macc seems to miss more than most and the Jets like any underperforming franchise cannot afford that mediocrity. 4 years is a decent amount of time in the NFL and, based purely on this performance in the draft and free agency, I can't see how you build a case for him staying, other than 'continuity'. Continuity for continuity's sake is never a good thing. Jets should clean the house the minute the final whistle is blown on the season. Whether I trust the Johnsons to make the right hire is another question. But not a reason to keep Macc either. Jets need GM and a coach who have worked in winning franchises, in the right cultures and and not another pair of first timers.
He didn't bet his job on Sam. He bet his job on the number 3 pick, on the idea a good QB candidate would be there. Most reports say he was surprised Sam was there This should tell you that he personally thought Sam was the highest rated or at least Clevland's pick (and his calculus was wrong in that regard); I like Sam a lot, but so far Baker is playing better, showing Cleveland may have been better at QB eval than Mac (which should surprise no one given his prior QB selections [Hackenberg, Petty], and non-selections [Mahomes, Watson]) The only thing someone can say about Mac, is Bowles is worse as a coach than Mac as a GM. He is not a good GM. The team has no identity. His drafts have no identity. If I were a good coach candidate, I would not want this gig because I would expect year after year of mediocre talent (i.e., you can't rely on first round picks to build a team -- it would take 22 years)
We only got Sam because Cousins turned us down. Most of us didn't want Cousins but Mac did. Imagine the train wreck we would be if Cousins came here. So if Mac got his way, we would have an expensive QB with no line and no weapons. He must go!!
When you compare their performances against the 3 common opponents that they share this season (whom Mayfield has played in the last 3 weeks) their QBR’s are very similar. Mayfield has better coaching and better playmakers. Not to take anything away, he’s played great as a rookie, but he has a weaker schedule (from a defensive standpoint) and better support.
I think the reason our acquisitions have been heavily defense because of our head coach. Defensive guy wants defensive players because he wants to win by playing D. I don’t believe Mac has earned the right to pick a new HC, and if there is any doubt for Mac being the GM in the future then he needs to go. This team can’t afford to have a HC and a GM leave after one year like what’s about to happen in Arizona.
Also Mayfield is 2 years older and had 2 more years of college experience. Darnold didn’t even start playing QB until 3 years ago and he’s already putting up decent showings at the highest level with little help. I think he’s going to be ridiculous.
Fair enough I like Sam a lot. But I also do not think there was some master plan by Mac to move to 3 to get him. Instead I think he thought there would be a good choice there and he didn't think it worthwhile to move to 1 (or theoretically 2). He is not a good GM. I have no confidence in his drafting, no confidence in his ability to wisely spend this massive cap space, no confidence in his ability to identify the next coach Frankly I don't understand why we haven't fired him yet.
Also, these next few years of getting Sam pieces in the draft are crucial to his continued development. Mac instills very little confidence in actually making this happen based on his crappy track record. With more misses, this could be detrimental to Sam ever hitting his true potential and another failed Jets franchise QB. Too many reasons not to keep Mac I would say. Jets brass needs to go all in for a big time HC and/or GM before it's too late.
Mac's best draft picks are the ones that fell to him. His 2nd round picks with the exception of Maye have been awful and it gets worse from there when you get into the heart of the draft where good GM's find their gems. His best "heart of the draft" picks (rounds 3-5) look to be Shell who is avg at best, Herndon (who could be a real steal if they use him properly) and McGuire. He's failed miserably other than these guys. I'll give him credit for striking a deal to move up to #3. He did so to get Mayfield though, Darnold fell to him because Clev, so far, made the better choice. Mac didn't have to think when making the pick. His FA signings are underwhelming. I get that he had to spend money because Idzik didn't but he spent it like a drunken sailor in a strip club at 2am. My only concerns with dumping him are who is the replacement and can this person put in place a decent staff before the draft? Mac got a pass his 1st year because he had to keep the core of the Jets scouting dept pre-draft. He's done no better with his own guys so that hall pass is long gone. The Jets need to target his replacement now and jump on it right away. If this turns into another long drawn out Charlie Casserly consulting gig I'd be a bit worried. If they are decisive early on and fill out a staff well in advance of the draft, cya Mac!
On the Tru issue I'm inclined to be a little more generous. After all, has any corner looked consistently good in this D? Revis, Cro, Tru, Claiborne and a host of back-ups have been played and struggled to perform consistently - although there have been some good days in there. Every player seems to have the same problems. At some point you have to say perhaps its not the talent level so much as what they are being asked to do. That said he's been injured and hasn't looked interested as well. I'm not absolving him of all blame.
I'm sorry. But I stop reading when someone starts out by saying the draft picks fell to him, yet they laud the very GMs that didn't make the pick in the first place. He made a strategic, very well thought out trade that paid off. He deserves full criticism for the misses as well as full credit for the great picks. Williams, Adams and Sam are awesome. Nothing falls to you if you don't recognize talent. We have a history of lousy first round picks in the past. He has been weak in the middle rounds with some horrible picks and some bad injury breaks but strong in the late rounds. Mayes was a steal in the second and many here were dead against the pick. Its really easy to point out the misses after the fact. We better hope we find someone with a better track record. Not too many available.
Agreed, moving to the #3 and having top ranked QB fall to the jets made him look brilliant. To fire him right after that would be stupid. He purposely set things up to rebuild and have a ton of cash this coming year. Let him see it through. Macc's drafting success is on par with the average GM. As Jets fans it's easy to say it SEEMS like he messes up more than most, but does he really? I don't think so. Not many GMs today can say they have gotten starters out of every first round pick. Not many GMs sign UDFAs and have 5-7th round picks that become solid starters/studs. Every GM has FA signings that don't work out or end up getting injured. It's part of the beast. You also have the fact that the Jets haven't been a top destination for FAs for the majority of Macc's tenure here, so it's not like he has his pick of the litter with FAs. The thing I like about his signings is that there is always an out after 2 years. That Wilkerson contract could have burned them for a long time.
If I had to identify Mac's best attributes/moves, I'd probably name the following: 1) His 2018 handling of the QB position Traded up pre-draft and landed Darnold, the best prospect in a good QB draft Signing McCown on a 1 year deal to mentor whatever young QB we drafted Signing Bridgewater just in case, and leveraging that signing into a 3rd round pick Signing Webb from Giants as a potential future backup 2) His 1st round draft picks He's 3/4 imo (Lee is not a first round talent), but the rest were very solid picks and I think future Pro Bowlers (Leo already with a pro-bowl). 3) FA contracts that the team can get out of Most FA contracts have had an out clause after 2 years, with the guarantees being front loaded. That's the way to do it imo, and avoid cap hell problems by being stuck with bad players (like the Sanchez and Holmes deals for instance). I can also find things to fault him on, but the above 3 things may be the most critical for a GM. It's a bit of a mixed bag overall, but I'm willing to keep rolling with him. I wouldn't be against a President of Football Operations to oversee the front office and coaching staff though.
Saying Sam 'fell to him' at #3 is true, but then again 99.9% of the entire draft class 'fell to him' at #3. Macc had his choice of kickers, TE's, pass rushers, linebackers, just about every player in the draft. So ya, picking Sam above all others was on him. I'm not sure that some of our GMs of the past would have taken Sam Darnold when the nation's top punters were still on the board.
