Before the draft most talks were about getting a new d coordinator. Tearing our Dc apart and now that we got some new additions everyone is like woo hoo top 10 defense. But what i want to know is, how good can a defense be if the coach teaching them and calling the plays for them sucks.....
Sutton is a great teacher. But he's a so-so at best play caller. He's still our DC to answer your question.
I am not confident in Sutton, and the fact that the Jets were so eager to replace him with Rob Ryan makes me think that the organization is not thrilled with his performance. I think that the team did well in the second half of last season with depleted talent, but only after Mangini had to get involved in things. The degree of his involvement is the question, though. Did he actually take control of the defense, or did he just have a talk with Sutton? I think the first option is more likely. I don't think we are going to have a top 5 defense in 2008, but I do think we will be some reps and a defensive coordinator away from having a top 5 D if the key players jell and stay relatively healthy.
If it's solely Eric Mangini's defense and the D-Coord isn't an issue, why did we try so hard to get Ryan?
Of course it's his defense, but his degree of influence day-to-day or play-to-play is questionable. Coaches generally don't call plays or manage substitutions unless they also hold a coordinator title, which Mangini doesn't. My big question is why a rotation system wasn't employed until after the bye week last year. That's a big part of any 3-4, specifically the one run by New England. Our defense took off after the bye, and the rotations were a big part. Seems to me there are two possibilities: Mangini didn't know how to properly run a 3-4, or Sutton was not running the D correctly (or at least to Mangini's liking) and Mangini had to step in and show him how it's done. I suspect the latter. which is why Sutton worries me.
Sutton is a mechanics coach. He never should have been promoted to DC and was better served as a linebackers coach. From what I've read, the players love him, but his play calling stinks.
I believe that this is Mangini's defense, and that Bob Sutton, a long-time techniques guy on the NYJ is Mangini's best available conduit to the players. I believe that Ryan is a long-time friend of Mangini that Mangini would have probably delegated a lot of his defensive discretion to, because Ryan let's say extemporizes better than most. His unavailability, however, took away Mangini's alternatives to managing through Bob Sutton. I think that the HC is disadvantaged to some extent because his defense cannot innovate without his direct attention (hence the progress during the bye, when the HC has the time and opportunity to regroup and refocus what he's directly responsible for). Sutton and Mangini have had two years of this situation to try and remedy its fault lines. Sutton, ever the good soldier, will do whatever is best. Perhaps it is that Mangini above all needs independent thinking 100% focused on the defense to improve this situation. On the other hand, all of this may just be a lack of balance between the DL and the LBs. With the arrival of Jenkins, Pace, and Goulston, the balance will indeed change. Hopefully, it's for the better.
my point is, his team, his system, his responsibility. im not saying sutton has nothing to do with it. but people bitch and moan as if this guy doesnt have a boss who implemented this defense giving him input and orders. i moreso think mangini smartened up and picked up players he realized he needed.
Yea the same Mangini whose defenses have always ranked near the bottom. Hes the brian Billick coach of the defense. A reputation that dosen't justify what his defense have accomplished.
...And what exactly has Lane Kiffin accomplished on the NFL level? Or maybe we'd be better off w/ Art Shell.
