The NYJ is not respected by the other teams in the NFL. We have the reputation of being an "easy out". Sometimes, we have a clever QB behind the center who gets the defense to jump off sides or tricks those boyes once or twice this way or that. But when push comes to shove, everybody knows you just slam those Jets upside the head and they eventually lay down in the trenches. Guile will only take a team so far. If you are not able to defeat your competitor in the light of day in the trenches you will lose the game. The NYJ have to change the culture of the team. The first admirable thing that Mangini has done is get the team to bond and stick together and confront what is wrong. This team faced the fact in '07 that it was not going to win many games because it did not have an adequate line on offense, nor an adequate line on defense. They kept playing together week after week even though they went through arduous analyses of their shortcomings. Everybody on that team knew what was wrong by the end of the season. What? Do you really think it was a well-kept secret...? The offense was not on the field long enough to give the defense time to recover. Hell, during the second game with the Pats, the defense held Brady to NO touchdown passes! The NYJ defense made it Brady's worst game of the year (until the SB). But the offense could not get off its ass. It gave the Pats a touchdown in the first series, even though the NYJ received the kickoff. The NYJ skill players never had a chance. But nobody on that team mailed it in for 16 games. Now it is time to fix what is wrong. Never mind what is partially wrong, and what is not absolutely perfect. The most important issue confronting the NYJ is obtaining respect for the OL, and creating respect for their DL. Regardless of prognostication and expertise, neither the fans nor the CS will know whether all these moves (and please God let there be a lot more to come, too) will achieve the goals. But until there is an OL and an DL on the NYJ that wins the day in the trenches on a regular basis, there will be no respect. And the NYJ skill players will have no chance in hell. I think it is incumbent on this CS to solve the big problems first. After we can make this crop of skill players Pro Bowlers with our DL and our OL, then we can start talking about better ballet dancers. But until the OL and the DL strike fear in the hearts of their NFL rivals in trials by fire, we are still struggling with our first order of business. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
