I hope one lesson Rex takes away from this year is the need for Veteran Leadership. The loss of guys like Cotchery, T-Rich, Woody etc. in retrospect seem to hurt as much for the leadership loss as for talent. Rex picking Captains instead of letting the players do it probably hurt the natural development of new veteran leadership. Rex making Holmes a Captain seems to have completely destroyed positive leadership on at least the Offensive side of the ball. I would hope guys like Mangold, Moore and Keller team up with Sanchez to realize what happened this year and vow not to have it happen again. Sanchez, as QB, is the natural leader of the team. His career and the team's future rides on him regrouping and leading. He has the natural toughness that I would think the players have to respect. He has to improve to lead. I bet he'll do everything in his power this off season to make it happen. We'll see if it is enough. Mangold is the best Center in the game. If he is in your face for a missed assignment, you have to listen. Moore seems to be a natural leader if what you read is true. The players seem to like and respect him. Keller is obviously a well liked and respected high charactor guy. He was a guy that seemed like he wanted to follow in T-Rich's shoes. He always seems to be the guy stepping in between guys in the huddle when things get heated. I don't think the Defense appears to have the same leadership problems at this point for whatever reason. I think the guys are on this team to right the boat from a leadership standpoint. I hope they and Rex recognize the need and step in to fill it. If they don't, next season will be lost no matter what moves are made from a talent perspective.
I dont know if the team could just keep veteran guys just because they are team leaders. Like you said, they still had guys like Mangold, LT, Keller, Brick, Bart Scott, Leonard, Revis, Harris and the list goes on. In my opinion the old players that were cut are rubbing it in that the jets went 8-8 with year and are salty because they cut them. I've played team sports all my life and competitive drive and caring about the game go further than veteran leadership. Look at Holmes and Plax running their routes and compare to how hard Kerley ran his and you know what I mean.
Don't disagree at all but you have to have the leadership. If you don't keep it, you need to replace it. Hard to argue in retrospect that leadership was not an issue on the offensive side of the ball this year.
I am all for bringing back LT on a 2 year deal if it gives u the ability to cut him after a year. Bart Scott I would welcome back. A lot of people were down on him, but I appreciate the dirty work that he does and doesn't get credit for. I think people like to forget that without Bart Scott, Harris wouldn't look like a top tier MLB.
the big thing is they need to bring in a WR that gets a long with Holmes and will open things up for him...Braylon was that guy. His ability to stretch the field forced safeties to pick their poison on double and allowed people to get open. Also allowed the running game to be more effective. I don't think they can go with Holmes, Kerley, and a rookie -- they need an established receiver that can command some respect
Here's the thing about leadership...it doesn't always equate to talent. Some guys, like Holmes, are excellent football players (when they want to be anyway), but don't command the respect of their teammates. Also, some are great players but don't have a commanding personality. It's rare when you find guys like LT who have (or had) both. The big question then is, do the young guys have that kind of personality? Is Mangold really the type to call his guys out and keep everyone in line? Can Brick do it? I don't really know. I guess we'll find out.
Uh, didn't we already find out? Mangold is not that kind of guy. He's a happy-go-lucky, free spirited kind of guy who is not going to get in someone's face. IDK what the answer is.
Excellent point. It is why guys like LT are so valuable. It is also why I think Rex is wrong about Captains. Having the players vote for guys who they respect and trust gives those guys the credibility to call people out. I tried to pick out younger guys who have shown or might be able to step into those roles. In reality we don't always know who the best leaders are but their teammates do know even when the coach doesn't.
However... can you be a leader without being (or at least having been) a very good player? Let's take the best players on our team. O: Ferguson, Mangold, Moore, Holmes (supposedly), Keller (again supposedly), LT. D: Pouha, Harris, Revis Out of those guys the only one who is a true TEAM leader is LT. Pouha is a leader on the DL (composed of level-headed people though) and Moore is the leader of the OL (as recognized by Mangold). Ferguson, Mangold, Keller, Harris and Revis are all high character guys but they aren't really leaders... they are the ones that HAVE to step up. And Rex should demand they do. Sanchez is already more of a leader than these guys but with the way he's playing it's hard to take him seriously as a captain imo. How can you hold other players accountable if you can't even do what's considered due diligence for a QB these days? To become a credible leader he has to cut down the stupid mistakes.
We need to bring in a Robert Meachem or a Dwayne Bowe to help Holmes out. This will help stretch the field and let Holmes do what he does underneath as well as free Kerley up and make Keller look that more dangerous. My Ideal Line up next year would be: QB: Sanchez, Orton RB: Rice, Greene, McKnight FB: John Connor WR: Holmes, Kerley WR: Bowe, Turner TE:Keller, Cumberland LT: Brick LG: Slauson C: Mangold RG: Moore RT: Free Agent DE: Devito, Pito NT: Pouha, Ellis DE: Wilkerson, Dixon OLB: Averil, Maybin MLB: Scott, Mauga MLB: Harris OLB: Mercilus, Westerman CB: Revis, Wilson CB: Cromartie, Strickland FS: Free Agent, Smith SS: Branch, Leonard Any thoughts?
Revis, Harris, Mangold, Pouha, Ferguson, Scott, Pace ? and Big Jim Leonhard, Greene (played at least half the season injured). They at least back it up on the field. Sanchez Definitely has to grow a pair and lead his offensive huddle. Everybody else is pretty much ghetto fabulous, young or just not good.
Fair points but how much did Rex suppress leadership from those younger guys who may well have been ready to step up by not only choosing Captains himself but making Holmes one of them and adding Mason to the mix. Again this is hindsight but will Rex recognize these mistakes and correct them? So far all he has said is that Captains period are a mistake. I hope in retrospect he realizes he must take veteran leadership seriously and not only foster it but to use your well chosen words, demand it.
doesn't hurt to dream. I think we can make a play for Rice being he is went to Rutgers and from the NY/NJ area. Hopefully Tanny is on the phone because with him there is no need to sign back LT and we finally can go strictly ground and pound and don't need to add Bowe, but maybe someone like Meachem would be a cheaper and could work with the cap.
The thing is we didn't have year long captains the last two years and we had leaders. The players knew who the leaders were the last two years without the C's on their chests.
I think this whole team chemistry and leadership thing (whilst important) is being blown out of proportion - at the end of the day this was simply not a deep and talented enough squad to make the playoffs and rather than saying "this team isnt good enough" they have latched on to this whole chemistry thing as if spending a few days in a forest camping out and building rafts is suddenly going to turn this team into 14-2 contenders. Again, I am not saying good team chemistry and morale is not important, it is. But I do think that the failings of the team (and the resulting bad morale) were more to do with the team not being good enough rather than pooor team chemistry causing a really good team to underperform.
Main point being we had effective team leaders (and I think we are really talking offense here) Rex's first two years even during some periods of very poor play and we didn't this year. Guys like Holmes are in every locker room. Heck, he was in OUR locker room last year. Solid teams don't let those guys lead. Rex has to take the blame for the lack of leadership in any aspect of this team. He has to recognize it and he has to fix it. However, he does that in the end is fine with me.
