I commend you preaching patience. I have tried that before and yet none seem to try listening to it. Its good to see i'm not crazy. Yes, NE had no respect in the league and BB was not the genius he is now. My only retort would be that the fans had faith in what BB was going to do what he did, but i need an honest NE fan to confirm that. I have the patience for our team and CS/FO- i've seen the changes in philosophy, the talented draft picks, the willingness to continue to fight even though it means nothing to do so. That sooner or later translates into success. I am willing to wait. But the wait is with this coaching staff, and this budding team... if the Jets turn into a raiders situation, where it is 4 coaches in 4 years... my patience will have been worn thin.
Of course, but those 3 before Kiffin have little to do with Kiffin himself. Kiffin sounds like a Mangini clone. Like I said, Davis seems to respect him more than any of 3 guys he hired before him. Davis is called crazy by alot of fans, but one thing you can't question is that he always wants to improve that team. Maybe he's not as crazy as we think, and he hired such a young coach because he saw the potential to bring the Raiders back to glory. I could be wrong, but that roster, especially that D, is more talented than ours is. If Kiffin is as talented as I think he is, they could be a player in the AFC this year.
When they Hired Kiffin, i was impressed and thought Davis finally went in the right direction. Its this whole "Davis want him gone" situation that makes me believe Davis is nuts, because this is the best coach he has had since Gruden. Their roster is yet to be seen, because of the losing seasons. I fear their secondary. Front 7 i don't know much about, so it will take the season to be played out. I have faith in Kiffin as well. Watching the senior bowl, i liked how he is on the sideline and what he had to say during it. But i have little faith in him being there for the long term if Davis continues this nonsense. I'd love to see Kiffin in a slow, less hostile environment like Minnesota, Arizona, New Orleans, Miami, Buffalo, etc. --- all have new coaches, granted. But if he were one of them, he'd be in an alot better setting.
My advice: Filter the bullshit. Rumors are just rumors. Davis hasn't fired Kiffin, and really just the fact that he hired such a young coach kind of says he's thinking long term. He's actually surrounded Kiffin with pretty decent coaching talent and spent money on talented players that would help the offense. For example, I loved the Justin Griffith signing last year. While the Kelly contract seems ridiculous, how many people actually know that much about the contract itself? How many people even know who Tommy Kelly is? Or that he's actually a pretty good and versatile DL-man that would fit any D? Walker got a ridiculous contract, but theres no denying that he's a damn good WR when he's healthy and a perfect pair for Russell.
True, but where there is smoke there is fire, and Kiffin's senior bowl fashion statement was proof to me that things are not well at all. To not even wear the colors of your employer is a slap in the face to every facet of that organization, That running game works. It kept them in games and won a few. The Kelly contract is odd. Maybe he is that good, but coming off of IR like that- you shouldn't get paid that much IMHO. Plus, personally, i never want to see the Raiders do well.
Hey Blitz, how are you? I haven't seen you post here since the Phins started struggling last year. I am not trying to make fun of your season here since we didn't exactly achieve anything important either. As far as our FA activity; it was much needed and I think basically upgraded the positions significantly. It was pretty obvious that after last year we were not going to fix everything throught the draft. These writers who criticize what we do get to me anyway. Last year we did nothing (virtually nothing) in FA; what were we then to the writers? Cheap? It is nearly impossible to please everyone in this world no matter what you do. That is why I don't care what these writers think. The AFC East is going to be the toughest division in the NFL in a couple of years. There will be 4 pretty good teams doing battle. NE is NE - they may start to wane a bit - but still good; we should keep improving; with Bill doing the drafting and personnel moves down there the Phins will be tough again a couple of years (they will be improved this year - poss. playoff run next year); and lastly, the Bills seem to be getting stronger. too.
Of course they are moves of desperation. They need to win now or they WILL be gone. At least they recognize it and are doing all they can to turn it around.
Ya know, this is an inexperienced staff. No secret there. So you want to build a team with young talented players, except its a monumental feat to train an entire team of young guys and get them up to speed. What to do, what to do? Bring in probowl vets to help. Playing with these experienced players automatically serves as an extension to coaching. Plus you fill holes with guys that know the game and can play the game. Who cares if a couple of dildos think they made the wrong moves. History will tell you that the Jets have mastered making the wrong moves. Somehow I think this staff is a bit better than that.
I'm still trying to figure out how a FO coming off a 4 win season and being deperate to change that is a negative.
If nothing else the Faneca Signing should be a big help with the line. The others we will have to take a wait and see approach. I do feel that we threw extra money at guys because the Giants won the Sb. The Redskins have been trying to by a championship for years and it has not worked out to well for them.
Really Mr. Johnson, you were planning to fire them if they didn't improve the team? Couldn't they just be improving the team because the team needs to be improved and they let all the crap like "zomg if they don't they'll be fired" go in one ear and out the other because its all said by people who don't actually have anything to do with running a sports franchise or even any real clue on what it takes to run one? Maybe they saw it like this: Mangini - Damn this team sucks. Tanny - Yea, good thing we have money to spend this offseason. Mangini - Truth. Tanny - Yea. Lets use that money to target specific positions in FA so we can do whatever we want in the draft, like we've done the past 2 offseasons. I realize we're saying the same thing in the end...if they don't win obviously they'll be fired...but the way some people call it desperate make it seem like these two have no plan or no clear goals. Theres no way Johnson would hire a 34 year old rookie HC and have a rookie GM if he wasn't sure they would bring success to this organization with a plan, and I have no idea why some fans have chosen to spin these guys as incompetent because of one bad season after one almost miraculous season.
Not a chance. In fact I wouldn't be surprised at all if they haven't already been told to improve or else they are gone.
Oh. Well thats that then. Doesn't matter that *every* team is expected to improve in the offseason, and considering this is the first time in like 8 years we've had significant cap room...I have no idea why people talk about these moves being "desperate." You just sound like you're looking at it as pessimistically as possible. Of course they'd be fired if they continued to fail. But this is far from an incompetent front office, and its been obvious the past two seasons. Many fans may have let last seasons record completely change their opinion of this FO, but sometimes the process is more important than the result and I like like 90% of the shit they've done in their 2+ years here.
DWare, I think you make a lot of sense here. It is perfectly reasonable for Al Davis to disagree with some of his young coach's "Shoot-From-The-Hip" rash acts like his rapid rejection of his DC. That doesn't mean that David wants to get rid of Kiffin. The media has the pen in hand so the BS initiative is all theirs. Davis may very well be a lot smarter still than people are saying. This is a good DC and this is a good HC. They have spent some serious money on making their defense stronger and whole. They've got the draft ahead of them. Who knows about the Raiders contending this year?
