Mariota, Mayfield, and Darnold are all better than Zach Wilson. It does not surprise me that Atlanta & Carolina outscored us, they had better QB play What pissed me off most about the LaFleur firing though was because it wasnt a legitimate look at his performance. He was used as a scapegoat by the front office. And if we end up with a bum like Paul Hackett's kid because of that.... wow just stupid
How in god's name could you look at MLF's body of work and say he was fired because the front office needed a scapegoat?
I’m not defending him but do you remember who the QBs were for those teams? Thad Lewis, EJ Manuel. This board was incredibly harsh with Dabol as well, look at him now. He was obviously not as bad as people made him out to be and his positives were completely ignored as the only thing that was looked at were his shortcomings. Like I said I’m not advocating for Hackett, but it seems like it’s only the negatives that are under the microscope.
The big picture is that this place would have gone absolutely batshit if the Jets didn't fire MLF (MeanDean excluded.) Everyone wanted him gone. Now everyone is freaking out over the possible replacements. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Its not just this place. The Bloggerverse/PodCasters will be merciless if Saleh brings in some inexperienced OC to run the offense. Its not just being turned down by one experienced OC, its the trend towards dumpster diving that Saleh is doing looking for MLF's replacement. The Jets are in an awful position. They have zero leverage and will overpay for anyone to take a 1 year job being OC of a dysfunctional franchise. Any inexperienced OC will have to be a miracle worker and it had better show on the field too. Woody should have cleaned house and started over as bad a look as that is. Saleh has no mandate, but very little job security if the team doesn't make the post season. His seat isn't red hot yet, but its trending that way as the honeymoon is officially over. No experienced OC will take this job for anything short of a King's ransom. No inexperienced OC will be tolerated by the fanbase, the media or the Twitterverse. YouTube will be swarming with Podcasters ripping the entire organization. At the end of this, Woody will have no choice but to clean house and lucky for JD, he'll get another chance. In the end, it may be that Woody waited one year too long to clean house afterall..
Again, I'll just reiterate, MLF's offenses finished 28th and 29th in PPG. While that might not tell the entire story, I think that's fairly indicative of what he brought to the table over the last 2 seasons.
Saleh should have been fired for completely mismanaging the QB position over the two years he was in control. Obviously we don't know if he faced internal pressures to play Zach regardless of the results he was getting but for a HC to play a QB as bad as Zach Wilson during a playoff race was just kind of inexcusable.
Zack Rosenblatt just said on the "Can't Wait Podcast" that he doesn't get the impression that Woody forced Saleh to fire MLF. Link here, fast forward to about the 22:00 mark if you just want to listen to this part. He does concede that the only 2 people that REALLY know the answer to that are Woody and Saleh but Zack's pretty connected in the Jets building right now. Also, he's a journalist and I feel like a "Woody Johnson's meddling" story sells more than "HC fires a poorly performing OC" one. He says that maybe Saleh felt pressure but it was never an ultimatum or directive from Ownership or the FO. Seems like this is a decision the entire organization came to. I haven't seen/heard anything to make me think otherwise right now anyway.
I could see that but I think there were a lot of internal pressures to play Wilson, so just personally I don't blame Saleh for that. If you are going to fire Saleh though then Douglas should go with him for those pressures. using the offensive coordinator as a scapegoat is the wrong way to go about it
I disagree with Rosenblatt. Saleh said in his closing presser for the season that he was going to bring in a veteran voice. That & his tone tells me that he was going to keep LaFleur and add someone to help him. Suddenly though he changed his mind when meeting with the front office / owner
The sad thing is we'll never truly know unless Woody or Saleh tell us a few years down the road. It's just all informed speculation from everyone.
Yes 100%. He was a hot candidate last year and all of a sudden he gets fired? Tampa sucking this year stinks of Todd Bowles, not Leftwich.
Going on this year it looked rough. He has done good things played QB in the league and learned under Arians. I would not mind too much.
Yeah, everyone loved the guy last year.... This year, Brady gets old, and in comes conservative Bowles, and he stinks now?
It's definitely good to hear the perception is firing MLF wasn't a Woody mandate. I feel better about the decision if it did come more from Saleh and JD. Also, the reports about issues between MLF and some players is further validating. Greg Olson seems like a decent name. It could also help with bringing Carr in. My guess is the reason he lost his job with the Raiders last year is because of the regime change. Byron Leftwich is a good name but need to understand more about what happened in Tampa this year that led to his firing. Was he a scapegoat or are there legitimate flags to be wary of?
It all makes for a good story...clicks and what have you. But it's not like experienced NFL play callers grow on trees. If they are good, they are already employed or retired. When Bevell was a candidate, everyone was saying he sucks remember? Look at the great Bill Belichick. He lost Josh McDaniels last year and replaced him a fucking defensive guy in Matt Patricia. Could you imagine us firing MLF and moving Ulbricht to OC while Saleh tales over the D?! So BB removes Patricia and his list is Bill O'Brien (experience in play calling) and 3 guys that have never called plays: Adrian Klemm, Nick Caley and Keenan McCardell. So how is BB, an all time great coach, doing? Firing Saleh after 2 season would have so clown shoes. Can't see how anyone could advocate for that. We already know how keeping MLF would have went over in terms of fan reaction. Did you want to keep him? You are not going to get a list of A+ experienced play callers. Those guys already have jobs. When I hear people say the Jets have the worst fanbase in sports it's hard for me to argue with them.
