There was nothing to adjust to. Favre really was hurt. He had surgery for a torn bicep muscle before he signed with the Vikings the following year. The story of 2008 was: Jets 8-3 with several extraordinary offensive performances. Then Favre gets hurt and they're 1-4 down the stretch and out of the playoffs. There are definitely reasons to criticize Mangini during his tenure with the Jets, how 2008 went down is not really one of them. He did a good job until his Star QB broke down and then he did a bad job. That's one of the main definitions of the HC-Star QB relationship in the NFL.
When Mangini got to Cleveland he was too much of an unyielding disciplinarian. I remember some stories of ridiculous rules he implemented that made some players roll their eyes...didn't seem like he had the total respect and the team ever truly buying into him. Plus, he just never had the talent or support from anywhere in the organization to make it work. It was just a perpetual losing culture that was generally avoided which is only now is emerging from the ruin. It was the wrong job to take. But he just wanted to coach I guess. The way 2008 ended, in such a humiliating embarrassing fashion...the fish coming in after being 1-15 the year before and beating us with Chad and winning the damn division. You just had to wipe the slate clean. He wasn't a bad coach or talent evaluator, but he did seem at times a bit distant. Not the type to galvanize a locker room or lead charge...or unite a team in times of adversity. Game planning, strategy, anticipation, situational football stuff...yes Mangini had a good grasp of that. Moreso than Bowles or Gase. I just think he was trying too hard to BE Belichick without truly understanding how Belichick worked. He ended up being Belichick circa early Browns days rather than Belichick 2001 and later.
