This is because he optimistically and foolishly chose to have about 10 captains last season, several of whom did not have the full respect of their teammates and at least one of whom acted out badly all season. So Rex's answer is to not have captains. This is his way of dodging accountability for the fact that he chose poorly last season.
I think there is nothing better that speaks to the lack of leaders in the Jets locker room than Ryan deciding not to have any captains.
In other new news the Jets drafted Mark Sanchez, I cant wait to see what this guy has. In all seriousness though I have no idea how this came up out of the blue, being that this whole thing happened a long time ago
I just didn't believe that Rex was actually not going to have captains this season. I thought it was his usual unfocused coach blathering at the time. He's an idiot if he thinks he's going to solve a leadership problem without identifying and tagging a few good leaders to lead the team.
There will be leaders, just not captains I think hes going to give the team a new chance for new guys to step up and prove themselves. And the pressure is gonna be on Sanchez to step up more than anybody
It doesn't make u a leader just because u have a C on ur shirt. A true leader just leads. Good move by Rex.
So the Jets are going to be the only team in the NFL next season without identified captains after having a major leadership problem last year? Really?
Jets are also going to be the only team in the nfl using 2 quarterbacks everygame, or (somewhat) frequently running a 46, so what. I think this really gives the team a chance to create leadership. This is where guys will have to step up. I would expect big things from Mangold Revis Davis (hopefully) and Sanchez. Maybe this gives Davis a chance to REALLY become our Ray Lewis, im pretty sure we would all love 15 years of that. Its way too early to know whats what, but I trust Rex
We had no captains in 09 and 10. Leaders will emerge spontaneously and organically. Guys like Moore, Revis, Pouha and Mangold will lead the way.
With you on Mangold, Pouha and Moore, but Revis? He's been quoted as saying he saw the locker-room disintegrating last year and that it needed someone to step up and do something about it. Why didn't he? And overall I think this captains thing is one of the most disappointing things I've yet seen from Rex. When he was interviewed at the end of last season about Holmes being a captain and he started to say 'that's one of the biggest mistakes I made last season...' I was really impressed that he was going to hold Holmes accountable. Then he went on to say something like '... the whole captains thing' and it all fell apart. It just sounded like a cop-out. He made a disastrous choice last year and rather than deal with that he's just dodged the issue entirely. American sports may be different, but in sports like rugby and soccer the team captain really does mean something and really does add something. He is the man who all the players have to answer to in the locker-room. The thought of trying to pull prima donna crap with someone like Martin Johnson (former England rugby captain) glaring at you is laughable. If strong leaders have emerged naturally then all well and good, I suppose, but that doesn't seem to be the case on this team yet.
Jesus really? Some of you are bashing him for this? If we had made the playoffs last season and he did this I doubt this would even be a topic. Rex had ONE mediocre season and it wasn't even a losing season(in a sense). Everyone thinks the Jets are doomed because of this. NO! Every team goes through a bad season. I personally feel like everyone is pissed at Rex because he talks smack to other teams and this season he ate his words and alot of Jet fans are butt hurt about that because they have to deal with there friends making fun of them and are now trying to find flaws about Rex so they can feel better about themselves. HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE THE SMACK TALK IT BRINGS SOME CHARACTER TO OUR TEAM FOR ONCE! I haven't seen the Jets this relevant throughout their history(besides superbowl 3 of course ). We aren't the quite pussy Jets who people feel bad for every season because we haven't won in over 40 years anymore. We have some spunk finally. Be patient people he's the best coach we have had in years. Back to Back AFC championship games? Top 5 defenses for 3 years running? Hello?! He's the right man in New York give him time. And cmon do you guys really want another hackett, groh, mangini, holtz, or herm again??? All in all I support his decision. No need to give out the captain rank until they earn it. Just stop with the mindless bashing you guys are better than this.
The problem is, this works fine in a place like Baltimore becasue of the presence of guys like Lewis and Reed. There's no need to elect them captain, they are natural born leaders! Here we don't have players like that, and we desperately need leadership, so I strongly disagree with this.
I am with you, strongly disagree. Nobody is bashing Rex for one poor season (at least not I) but it is the ever occuring inconsistency that is baffling. No good manager that i know of is a whing-it person, a championship is steadily built out of doing the small things right all the time.
The Jets did NOT have season long captains in 2009 or 2010. Rex changed only LAST year appointing season long captains and it backfired. He always used game to game captains in 2009 and 2010 and the team fell behind their leaders. This is NOT a cop out, but reverting back to something that worked his first two years here. If he did season long captains for 09, 10, and 11 then said no more captains I agree with your post
how do you know that? I mean seriously, are you in the locker room? We had plenty of leaders in 09 and 10. Plenty of those guys are still there. Mangold, Moore, Brick, Pouha, Revis, Scott, Harris, are all considered leaders in the locker room and are all still here. We have new guys like Bell and Landry who were leaders on their previous teams. MoWilk has supposedly stepped up to be a leader on the DL. Keller has reportedly been a leader in the weight room this summer. That doesn't even take into account Sanchez' contributions, and by all accounts the offense is united in the belief he is their unquestioned leader.
It's good Rex is returning to what he originally did with the team. However, I don't think Rex screwed up by having captains ... his big mistake was based on which players he anointed captains. Instead of choosing locker room leaders, he chose the players who he wanted to step up and become leaders.
This is his way of dodging accountability for the fact that he chose poorly last season.[/QUOTE] Really? Is that why he did it? To dodge accountability. Rex Ryan is the type of coach that accepts and acknowledges his mistakes and does it publicly. Sometimes even taking blame onto himself to take pressure off of his players. So if you think that him not choosing captains is to "dodge accountability for the fact that he choose poorly" you are sadly mistaken. Based on what I've seen from him, he has shown no signs of not takin responsibility for things that go wrong. Him saying he made a mistake by choosing captains and it being a mistake is proof in itself. So let's not go and trash the guy for his good qualities. Just like other members mentioned. Not choosing captains is an oppertunity for guys to step up into the leader role. Havin a "C" on your jersey does not make you a leader, nor does it earn the respect of other players. There are a lot of captains on teams. Not each and every one of them is a leader. This is the case in every sport, in every level of competition. The role is up for the taking. It's up to the players to realize it, seize the opportunity and step into the role. And if there are natural leaders on this team, like I believe there are; few were already named, they will do exactly just that.
Santonio Holmes did have the respect of his teammates going into the season. I thought naming captins and putting the "C" patch on jerseys was stupid, is it why they underachieved? I think partially b/c a guy like Holmes let it go to his head and divided the team a bit. I'm glas Rex is getting rid of them, just have weekly captains. The players in the LR know who the real leaders are.
