Kris Jenkins was (sort of) live blogging the game Sunday night. You won't get anything this candid from a current player, and very strong insights into what was going on. I was pretty blown away at some of the criticism, and I wonder if the actual players (esp defense) aren't thinking the same things.
I have been REALLY impressed with Baxter. Ok its been a shit storm, but when things calm down, I think we have a very able #2 in him. Great article btw.
So now you have two recent-former Jets really giving it to the team and moreso the coaches. Maybe Clowney was taking a shot for spite but clearly Jenks is pointing all this out with the same frustrations that we're all having. Everything rings true. It's simple to just blame Vlad and Baxter for being inept but really the blame goes on the coaches for putting in an obviously under-developed Vlad and on the "everyday" line guys left for not picking up the slack. To me that makes it even worse.
it's not just him though, there are many who agree with that. I still contend that whether or not he REALLY is the problem, the fact that everyone THINKS he is is enough. It's very hard to succeed when players, coaches, and fans all think you're a problem.
I guess what really got me is, if he's this mad at the offensive staff, and he's not even personally invested in what's going on anymore, just a fan like us...I just wonder if the defense isn't past finger pointing and on the verge of downright mutiny by now? I always thought Schotty sucked. But he keeps his job every year, and the talking heads at ESPN always mention him as a future head coaching candidate (I even heard a local guy here around Charlotte pushing him as the next coach of the Panthers back in December. I was both laughing and praying that would happen.) But since Rex is a defense guy, and probably thinks the same way Jenks does about this, somebody please tell me why the fuck is Schotty not unemployed today? Why? I do not get it, what is the appeal? Can we start a "Fire Schotty" petition somewhere? and get about a million signatures, and maybe Tanny will listen to us on this? Fuck, man, this sucks.
Why was Schotty kept on from the Mangina era? When do you ever see a coaching staff fired and coordinators stay onboard? Dude has the in. I'm sure his father is good friends with Woody or some crap. Only explanation I can think of.
More interesting is the "they got rid of players with heart". Who is he referring to, Braylon Edwards? Shaun Ellis?
My assumption for Schotty retaining employment when Rex was hired was because Rex didn't want to touch the offense if he didn't have to. If Schotty was retained, that means the transition for the offense was seamless. With the offensive system already in place. Rex could concentrate on turning the defense around. But i think they should've axed Schotty at that point. That was our window to get rid of him.
Schotty was kept on because the Jet's woes during the Mangini regime stemmed from injuries and the fact that Mangini and Bob Sutton never got the 3-4 working well. Working with 3 different QB's in 3 years was also an excuse for the Jets inability to create consistent results on the offensive side of the ball. At the end of this season if the Jets haven't solidified on offense, which is looking doubtful at this point, Schotty will have had 6 seasons to put it all together and out of that we'll have had one eleven game run in 2008 when Brett Favre was actually running the show. That will clearly be the point to cut ties with Schotty and let him go find his all-world QB to run the offense he so desperately wants to run. A better offensive coordinator would have recognized that Sanchez did not fit his system and begun adjusting things to make the system work with the franchise QB he has. Schotty has just plowed ahead as if his QB's strengths and weaknesses did not matter and so now it will cost one and maybe both of them their jobs in fairly short order. In the NFL the offensive coordinator either finds people who work with his system or he adjusts his system to fit the talent he has. Schotty has done neither with Sanchez over the last 2+ seasons and so both of them have become a liability. Time to fix the situation for good. Sanchez is a young QB and who knows where his abilities wind up in the end. Schotty on the other hand has had more than enough time to prove he is a positive and has instead proven to be a negative. Time to let him go. It's going to happen at the end of the year anyway, the Jets have a chance to salvage something out of this year if they just make a clean break at the bye.
The Defense hates it when the offense sucks it up, and the Offense hates it when the defense sucks. I remember watching Maybin's reaction after Sanchez threw that interception immediately after his potential game-changing fumble recovery. Some of the veterans may have more restraint than him, but I could tell those guys were thoroughly pissed at their offense on Sunday.