Mike Westhoff: "Frankly, I'll tell you exactly how I feel. I think it's cowardice. And that's a one-word synonym for the two-word phrase I really think." Link here: http://www.newsday.com/sports/footb...iring-of-bobby-april-was-cowardice-1.11302473 Personally, I like Westy and respect him a lot, but I think he's grossly overreacting here. (And I'm disappointed in him for implying that at Todd Bowles. Not a classy thing to say, especially when he openly admits he's blindly assuming that April is being fired as a scapegoat.) He knows that ST coaches are not given respect, and I think he's reacting emotionally rather than logically. But April's ST unit sucked horribly - so he deserves to get shitcanned. End of analysis. What did Bobby April do to deserve a contract extension? Nothing. Ryan Quigley is known to be incapable of punting to the left. April did it anyway. In Week 17. With the playoffs on the line. That is inexcusable. Quigley punted it 21 yards. Like he always does when he punts to the left. That goes to the coaching, I'm sorry; you can't do that and think you deserve to keep your job. Bowles didn't fire April as a scapegoat. He fired April for not using common sense. Bottom line: there is nothing "cowardly" about not renewing someone's contract when they exercised terrible judgment and had the worst unit in the league, especially when doing so gives you the chance to hire your original first choice. (Keith Armstrong, his former Temple teammate, who the Falcons would not allow Bowles to interview last year.)
Yea, Westhoff is way way off on this one. He's a ST coach and I'm not sure WTF he was watching this season come up with with this opinion. The special teams were hot garbage all season. Any time the other team returned a kick I had everything including my giblets crossed. Guys were routinely gashing the shit out of them with the smallest of openings. Nobody tackled worth a damn, other than Riley and Miles, or even managed to get into position to slow the returner down. I won't even get into the punt game where the PR had wide open field like the middle of the friggin Serengeti. I have never in my life seen specials so ridiculously lacking even even the most basic of skills. If anything Westhoff is being a coward not getting off his duff and doing something other than sniping because he's still bitter about how things went down with Rex and Co.
Westhoff was blasting this guy on the freaking SNY postgame after the season, NOW he wants to call the Jets cowards? Maybe he told them he is willing to help out and they said no thanks. Seems way out of character for him. Ray Lucas must be like...EHFFFF
I guess this means he's not interested in the job. But seriously, as bad a job as April did scheming coverage, he had less than bare bones to work with, especially after Folk got hurt. They treated the STs part of the roster as less than an afterthought. Maybe April should have been fired, but that STs roster was a black mark for Macc. He's got to do much better than that.
Lots of respect for the guy. He's really smart when it comes to football. And I wish he would come back as our ST coach, though I'm sure that won't happen. But sometimes he can be a real asshole. And this is one of those times.
"Cowardice cowardice!" Anyway, it's the NFL. April took the job, he knew what he had to work with going in. He gave it a shot and he couldn't figure things out. 2 punt return touchdowns, a blocked punt, and the penalties on special teams didn't help either. Did we have an elite return man? No. That doesn't explain why Quigley sucked so hard, he wasn't THAT bad the previous years. The missed tackles on special teams, who do you put that on? Why not play different guys? Why is Cumberland playing on special teams? He's right up there with Cro as one of the least physical players in football that have the mentality of a sloth. They don't want to tackle, they can't tackle, they're scared to, they avoid contact. Why play them on special teams? Anyway, I see his point, you can't just blame April for this terrible unit, but he's part of the problem. It's "cowardice" because you didn't give him a lot to work with and I agree with him on that, but April still sucked, his unit still sucked. I said from the beginning that the front office made a big mistake by not addressing special teams, by ignoring special teams, and certain guys who were over sensitive and didn't want to make a negative comment like that on Macc or Bowles felt like disagreeing because how could they have possibly known or saw this coming? So hindsight my ass. If you go into the season with a concussion-machine as your return man who has NO record of being a decent/proven return man in the NFL, or a backup RB who can barely move, you're asking for trouble. If you lose your best special teams guys like Bellore, Sudfeld etc. and you don't bring in any special teams aces to replace them with, you're asking for trouble. I'm not blaming them for the kicking stuff, you can't see that coming if your kicker goes down. They found a somewhat capable guy to take over for a few games. Quigley - that should have also been addressed. The front office fumbled the ball on this one, and so did April. Shit trickles down. Unless you own a football team or a company you know how this works.
I like Westhoff but really who cares about his opinion? Atleast enough to warrant writing an article about it. He saw years of incompetence on the offensive side of the ball with Schotty, Sparano and Moringweigh. Did he think any of them were unjustly fired? Probably not. Maybe this is just damage control in hopes it will land April another job. Maybe Seton Hall Prep is looking for a towel boy.
I honestly have no idea what would possess him to say this. I just don't understand his point of view. They were obviously horribly coached. This much was evident in the fundamentals that weren't being executed.
I tend to agree. Seemed like Bowles only had 2 or 3 Teams practices during training camp. Almost never. He was more interested in using practice time to install the new O and D. I remember reading through the training camp schedule and being glad there were so few Teams practices.....I hate going to camp and getting stuck watching Teams practice. Anyway I have mad respect for Westcoff. If he thinks April got screwed, he's basing it on a lot more than you or I ever see. Also keep in mind one of our best Teams guys got shipped off to Buffalo. Westcoff would probably have kept Ik and shipped Geno to the enemy
Lol the guy who usually gives the special teams an "F" on SNY now said we just over reacted? I don't think anyone has over reacted, this was a truely piss poor unit for us. ST would undermine a lot of what the offense and defense would try to do in games and turn the ball over a lot. It wasn't all just because of our lack of talent, it was also poor strategy and execution.
Part of the Jets issues on ST has been draft related. It seems like they pick a guard every year in the bottom rounds that obviously can't contribute on ST.
I heard the interview and Westoff was really pissed,,,,,,,,,He also said that Revis was used totally wrong and they played the wrong defense against Watkins and said " can you blame Revis for storming out after the game he was pissed " but I stray,,,,,,,Westoff knows more about the goings on then any of us,,,,,maybe had they fired this coach 4 or 6 weeks ago or brought in a real punter at that time he is cool with it ? After this loss which was on every single coach does look as if these guys fired are scapegoats .
