This has been my only point, nowhere have I ever said hes a really good or great coach who is blameless in every situation. All I said, in response to his constant whining that the Jets underachieve is that its not really given the case. To say that 10 wins were an underachievement means you would have to believe they were an 11+ win team. No one ever thought that, bet he didnt either unless hes blowing smoke out of his ass. To actually have the gaul to say that 5 wins last year also was a season of underachieving is beyond belief. To make the claim that the only people who claimed they were a 1-3 win team were those who actually believe that predicting 1 win will draw more readers to a article that predicting 5 wins. Thats ridiculous. Actually we all know that its worse but who wants a warning for saying what it really is. LOL
My first impulse was to question your statement about "taking a shitty team in his debut full of over the hill players and led them to 10 wins. With Fitzpatrick![" so I went to look up the average age of the 2015 Jets and found this article (which maybe should be in it own thread): http://www.footballperspective.com/2015-av-adjusted-team-age/ which takes a different approach than simply adding up the ages and dividing by 53: *************************************************************************************************** In each of the last four years, I’ve presented the AV-adjusted age of each roster in the NFL. Measuring team age in the NFL is tricky. You don’t want to calculate the average age of a 53-man roster and call that the “team age” because the age of a team’s starters is much more relevant than the age of a team’s reserves. The average age of a team’s starting lineup isn’t perfect, either. The age of the quarterback and key offensive and defensive players should count for more than the age of a less relevant starter. Ideally, you want to calculate a team’s average age by placing greater weight on the team’s most relevant players. My solution has been to use the Approximate Value numbers from Pro-Football-Reference.com. The table below shows the average age of each team, along with its average AV-adjusted age of the offense and defense. For the second year in a row, the Jaguars and Rams were the two youngest teams in the NFL; this year, though, the team formerly known as St. Louis took the top spot. The average AV-adjusted team age last season was 27.1 years; the Rams (25.6) and Jaguars (25.8) were the only teams below 26, while the Jets (28.2) and Colts (28.6) were the only teams above 28 years. Rank Team Avg Off Off Def Def Age Age Rank Age Rank 31 NYJ 28.2 29.2 32 27.3 21 On offense, the Jets stand out as really old, and with good reason: New York had an unorthodox approach to building an offense, which was through veteran acquisitions. Of the Jets top 8 offensive players in AV, only two were homegrown, and those players (Nick Mangold(31.6) and D’Brickashaw Ferguson (31.7)) were both drafted back in 2006! Otherwise, there’s Brandon Marshall (31.4, acquired via trade with Chicago), Ryan Fitzpatrick (32.8, trade with Houston), Chris Ivory (27.4, trade with New Orleans), Eric Decker (28.5, free agent signing), Breno Giacomini (29.9, free agent signing), and James Carpenter (26.4, free agent signing). Willie Colon (32.4, free agent signing) would have joined that group if not for injury. What does that mean for 2016? It’s hard to say, although for now, only Ivory is gone (replaced with another older player, Matt Forte). Fitzpatrick’s status is up in the air, but the Jets certainly seem likely to once again have one of the oldest offenses in the NFL. What are the odds that Marshall, Decker, and Forte stay healthy, along with the three offensive linemen in their thirties? Not great, which may be why New York is driving a hard bargain in the Fitzpatrick negotiations. Can the Jets reload on offense — i.e., get younger — before it’s too late? That’s the big question, and it all starts at quarterback. Putting that position aside, though, the hope would have to be that wide receiver Devin Smith (2nd round, 2015), tight end Jace Amaro (2nd round, 2014), Quincy Enunwa (6th, 2014), and Brian Winters (3rd, 2013) could develop into key contributors. Frankly, that may be expecting too much, so the Jets may be reloading on the fly with Forte-like acquisitions again next year. The other variable is if Bryce Petty (4th, 2015) somehow turned into a legitimate starting quarterback, but he did not take a snap during his rookie year so his development remains hidden to observers outside of Florham Park. ***************************************************************************************** So what did I draw from this? Well first, to get back to my original point, while the Jets WERE the second oldest team, that doesn't mean they were "over the hill". They did win 10 games and they had some very good players in their prime, specifically Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker. Their failure - THAT year - wasn't due to age, and was certainly due to some mistakes made by Bowles and his CS. Second, after the end of that season, it was noted in this article and other places that the Jets had a QB problem, and yet they failed to address it until this past draft! Re-signing Fitzpatrick should not have stopped them from trying to find an upgrade, but apparently let Macc think he had the luxury of taking a "project" with his 2nd round pick in 2016, and when it became obvious that Fitz was shot, and no one else was the answer, he still didn't feel any urgency to use a #1 pick on QB, the most important position in football. So this last point is aimed as a criticism of Macc, but it also includes Bowles because what was he doing while the most important position on his team was undermanned? Was he lobbying Macc to get him a FQB? Was he doing everything he could develop the guys he had, and building schemes and game plans and playbooks around them? I don't know honestly, but the results argue that he didn't do a very good job with this critical aspect of the team. In the end, 101, I still say the 2015 team was NOT "over the hill", but simply under-achieved, and Bowles has to own his part in that.
The sad thing is when you "defend" Bowles, fans assume you think Bowles is a good coach. The agenda is spot on. From Bowles not playing young players, and expectations. Things we've been arguing about since this topic was created.
I still don't know how they got 10 wins out of that roster, coaching did a good job that year. Mo had a great year, the receivers played well (Bowles let the players play, didn't restrict them), but Bowles and this CS did a decent job that year, Jets were right there ready to make the playoffs until Fitz screwed it up for everyone in the last game of the year. Revis was OK, defense was a little long in the tooth at times, felt the Jets really lacked speed that year. That team in 2015 was going to be as good as it gets, all of the major contributors after that year fell off a cliff. In my eyes, they were over the hill. Yes, the Jets had a QB problem. 2016, the Jets should not have drafted Hack or any QB for that matter. They took Lee in a draft that didn't have a lot of studs. We don't know what conversations they had, but at the end of the day Mac a former scout should know how to build a football team. I still see displaced anger at Bowles. Again, hopefully they continue to improve, I see a lot of good and I see a lot of bad from both of them. At the end of the day, they both need to work better together, and perhaps we are starting to see that happen. You try so hard to give Bowles no credit, but have no issues giving Mac credit. I said it before and I will say it again, both have flaws that can be fixed.
I don’t think Bowles teams underachieved his first year, that’s just redonculous, nor do I think he overachieved last year. I’m in wait and see mode for Bowles, just as everyone else should be before the first game is even played.
I stopped the urge to get detailed as soon as I read and stopped laughing at the idea that Marshall and Decker were in their primes. And that they had some very good players in their prime. Pure fantasy land thinking. Revis? Cro? Marshall? Fitz? These were the leaders of the team, they all were well past their prime. Everything they accomplished flies in the face of all the complaints about his coaching, everything we hear over and over again. And of course even if Its Maccs fault it really was Bowles fault because we all know as fact that he didnt want a FQB. No HC from the defensive side of the ball does. Not Parcells, not Belichick, not Shula, no one. Ever
Pete Caroll won a SB recently so did Kubiak. Both of them were run of the mil at best mediocre Head Coaches. It also might be worth noting that both Carroll and Dan Quinn lost SB because they weren't conservative enough and tried to out think the situation. When Bowles was the DC for the Cardinals, he made absolutely brilliant half time adjustments on a pretty mediocre talent pool. The problem with boxing in Bowles as a certain type of conservative coach is you haven't seen him with a good team on both sides of the ball. I would love to see the next great HC on the Jets. Here's the problem. The likelihood is our ownership is not going to get the next Vince Lombardi. Sonny Werblin put together an unbelievable staff around Ewbank. We haven't come close to that since he gave up his ownership in the team. Bowles has a terrific pedigree. He's smart and knows the game. I would be all for moving on if I saw him with a really good team underperform. He hasn't done that. He has had a couple of teams outperform their talent. You have to give him a chance with a good roster to see how he handles it.
You watch a lot of Cardinals football right? What happened yesterday with the Cards? I guess the Redskins are actually good, that defense was tough to play against in the preseason.
I live in AZ and was at the game. Bradford is completely done and stealing another pay check. The D changed to a 4/3 and the containment and linebacking play was atrocious. I'm not sure if the Skins are any good or the Cards were just that bad? Smith played his typical dink and dunk game. One thing he does is he moves well and doesn't throw 5 yard passes to guys running them into a defender. He creates enough space to make his O work against a D in transition. Bradford was throwing 3 yard passes running Fitz and DJ into linebackers. The guy is a widow maker at QB. I would love to see Rosen starting.
Wow - you really don't get it, do you? People want to read anything about their team - good, bad or ugly. Wags and pundits play them like puppets for entertainment and eyeballs. That's what sells advertising across all media, a very basic concept. And odds are not "reflective" of anything - they are the betting lines and what real predictions, those with something on the line, are based upon. If you're satisfied with thinking the Jets were only going to win one to three games last year, that's great for you. If you're thrilled that they won five go ahead and celebrate but don't expect everyone else to celebrate also.
Redskins are going to surprise a lot of people this year. They can dominate the trenches on both sides of the ball. I think the Cards need to put Rosen in no doubt about it. He's the most pro ready QB in this class. Especially if Sam is uninspiring. Note, the change to a 4-3, not sure what to make out of it for the Cardinals. I like Reddick, but not sure if they have good linebackers for that scheme.
I am much looking forward to this season. I couldn't be happier. I will root for every single player and coach in Jets uniform. I will hold no resentment nor anger on anyone. I don't want my bias opinion based on observations of past performance to interference and have any bearing on this season performance. I'm hoping for improvement across the board. I wish every single player a healthy and successful season. Very special wishes to Sam. May the Jets team, and this town, return back to greatness under your leadership. I couldn't be happier that you are our guy. Be safe, be smart and make us all proud. Go Jets.
I'm no fan of Bowles, but this is spot on, I’m going to wait till end of the year. I just want the jets to win, that’s all!!
Reddick was moved to inside LB last year and was bad. Now he can't even get on the field. He's light and can't shed a block. Really disappointing for someone with his athletic measurable.