You're Woody Johnson: Fix the Jets

A couple games this year have shown that the struggles of this organization go far deeper than a couple positions (CB/QB). The Jets are a complete mess right now, there are so many things that need fixing; how would you go about it?

(my post was too long so I broke it up into "state of the team" and "my plan")

State of the team:

For me, there are a couple things other than QB/CB that need immediate addressing. The first is David Harris. Everyone wants to shit on the secondary, but I don't even see them as having been the problem in pass coverage this year. Last year? Yes, Dee and Cro got torched for 70 yard TD's weekly. But look at what's happening this year. Branden Oliver torched us. Tight ends (Thomas, Gates, Bennett, even the Bills' Chandler) went off on us. Slot receivers have annihilated us. The common ground that most of them share is that David Harris had assignment on them when they went off. He's becoming like Bart Scott. He's one of the worst coverage linebackers I've seen. Yeah, he leads the team in tackles every year because he's (kind of) a good run stopper. But he's slow, unaware and terrible in space. He's just not fit for today's NFL. I don't even blame the corners for half of the passing struggles, Harris is just dragging the pass coverage down. On the other side, I like Demario and I'd keep him, he's the new ILB to build around.

The other really big one is the offensive line. The Jets' ineptitude on offense is always blamed on the playcalling, or the QB's failure, or the receivers inability to get open. It's hard to do much of anything when the line of scrimmage is already pushed 2 yards back at the snap of the ball. We have 3 solid receivers in Harvin, Decker and Kerley. When it was Schillens and Clyde Gates it was easy to say "Oh, they're bad of course they can't get separation." Well these guys are all either big, fast, or good route runners; it's obvious they can't get open because they don't have enough time before defense gets to the QB. We can't run the ball inside because the line gets pushed around, we can't run the ball outside because the line isn't fast enough. Vick, Geno, Sanchez could all be decent NFL QB's if protected, but show me someone who can play behind this line. Mangold has been awesome, O'day has shown promise. But Brick is a shell of himself. Colon single handedly ruins drives and Breno looked like a complete fool against Mario Williams last night. It's easy to say that the Bills have a great D-line and it's a rare case, which is true. But look at the NFL now, great D-lines are the new thing. Us, Houston, Denver, Miami, Buffalo, Detroit, Seattle, etc. Stacked fronts are all over the place, and you need a competent OL in order to compete nowadays, especially with 2 of the best lines in the AFC East.

As far as safety goes, I'm not ready to turn on Calvin Pryor. Rex was misusing him in order to compensate for the deficiencies in his defense. Yeah, when you don't have good corners you need safety help, but Pryor isn't meant to be used in space. He's a dynamic playmaker at the line of scrimmage and 10-15 yards downfield from it. I believe once we have a defense where we can trust the corners more, he's going to be an awesome player for us. I also believe that between Dawan, Allen and Jarrett we have at least one competent safety, so I really don't think we need to spend a high draft pick or marquis free agent signing at safety. A complementary player wouldn't hurt though.

I can say the same for Quinton Coples. Everyone wants to criticize his lack of production but I really like what I've been seeing from him. Rex has been using him to jam wide receivers at the line, again to counteract his lack of corners, which takes away from his "production" (his meaningless stat line). However, on the plays where Rex turns him lose after the QB he's been making some impact plays. He's also shown a lot of growth. As an OLB they teach you that if you go unblocked, turn back inside because it's a handoff. In his early days in transition from DE, he would get trigger happy and sprint right through towards the QB, smelling a sack. Now, he shows awesome discipline and blows up the RB, I've seen him destroy so many running plays at the line. We need a pure speed pass rusher on the other side of him though, whether is be a 1st/2nd rounder or a decent free agent pickup. Pace, like Harris, needs to go now.

I'll address the other positions that I don't see as that much of an issue. WR was a huge concern a couple months ago, but I like the corps we have now. Harvin, Decker and Kerley should be good for any competent QB, and I definitely want Harvin back, but a depth player or 2 would be nice.

At TE I really like Amaro, I think he has a bright future as a pass catcher, but we could use a nice in-line blocking tight end. Between Cumberland, Amaro and Sudfeld you don't really have a good blocker, and that could come in handy to help out with some of the line's struggles. Last night Cumberland and Amaro teamed up on Mario Williams and he still got a sack on the play.

I like what he have going at running back, we need to feature Chris Ivory for years to come. However, if you made me choose between Johnson and Powell I'd take Powell any day. In today's NFL you need a power back, a 3rd down back and a speed back. We would have 2 of those in Powell and Ivory, but the speed back would need to come from free agency or maybe a mid round draft pick. Given the ridiculous devaluation of the runningback position in the NFL, it shouldn't be too hard to bring a decent option in.

And on the defensive line we just need to resign Snacks and we're fine. Obviously in Sheldon and Mo we're in good hands and Douzable is great depth, he'd start most places.

The coaching staff needs to be completely cleaned out, but that's been well established on this board. Abyzmul had one of my favorite posts this morning. I've been wondering how the Jets offense could possibly be this incompetent over the course of 6 years, 3 OC's, multiple QB's and different QB coaches. At first I thought the offensive line, but that's actually been decent some years. I thought that there's no way Rex could destroy the offense this much just by not paying attention to it. Then Byz suggested that it's Rex's lack of contribution to the offense that ruins it, it's the fact that he does contribute to it. I think that might be dead on; when you see all these gimmick plays and weird playcalls, maybe Rex actually does have a hand in it. I think we need to move on, and my guy is Kyle Shanahan. He's a great offensive coordinator, he draws up awesome gameplans that work with little talent (look at what he was doing with the Browns without Gordon). But my favorite part about him is that he doesn't make his players conform to his gameplan; he builds a gameplan around the players he has (RG3/Cousins/Hoyer without Gordon/now implementing Gordon seemlessly). I think he would be the right guy to turn around this joke of an offense and finally help us develop a rookie QB.

As far as the rest of the coaches, they need to go to, save for Dunbar, the WR coach and a couple others. Dennis can stay and run the defense using what he's learned from Rex. The most amazing thing about this coaching staff is the predetermination, and the fact that they ALL have it. Reports surfaced that the coaches told Geno who to throw to on certain plays (result: interceptions). Last night, Percy said that McGaughey told him to run out kickoffs no matter what (result: drives starting at the 8). And it's obvious that Marty sticks to the gameplan he drew up during the week even when it's blatantly failing. The NFL is so fluid, things happen over the course of the game, or even a play, where you need to adjust on the fly. You can't just predetermine what you're going to do. The other team doesn't always follow the script you draw up. That's why this team is so poor at making in game adjustments, and seemingly "unprepared". The fact is, they are prepared, they're just programmed to do certain things and can't do others.

 

My plan:

1). I really, really want to draft an offensive lineman with our top 5 pick. I look at Dallas and I see what they've built over years of drafting on that line and I want to replicate it. However, they built that line around a franchise quarterback, something that we don't have yet. I would draft Jameis Winston in the first round. We wouldn't have to move up to get him and I really like him. He's dead accurate no matter what, he stands tall in the pocket and looks downfield even in the face of intense pressure (good given our bad OL) and he's resilient. Everyone is saying he'd be a terrible fit in New York because of the controversy around him. I think that controversy is what will make him thrive. As a QB in New York, you need to get used to turning on the TV every morning and seeing people shit talk you day in and day out. It's going to happen no matter how angelic you are off the field or how good you are on it. I don't think Sanchez and Geno could handle it, it was nothing like what they saw at USC or WVU. But Winston is used to it. He can't watch ESPN without seeing his name defamed. Yet, he still goes out and wins every single game he plays in. I don't think the NY media will faze this kid, I'm all in on him.

He's also resilient on the field; he throws deflected picks that aren't his fault and falls behind big week in and week out. But instead of caving under the pressure and losing for the first time ever, he leads his team back every time. I don't just think he is gonna be good here, I think he's going to make the Jets good. He's got that Brady quality where he just won't let his team lose. (Nothing like Tebow, don't even bring it up). Also, he runs a pro-style offense at FSU where he's asked to read the entire field, he's not another spread guy that needs to learn how to play quarterback. I also love his ability to go through progressions, I'm tired of guys who just stare down their #1 option.

2). Fire Rex, hire Kyle Shanahan. I love Rex, but it's time. I think Shanahan is the guy to groom Winston and turn this offense around. Also, hire a new OC, special teams coach and offensive line coach. I'm not going to pretend like I'm some league expert who knows who the best available coaches are, so I'm just gonna have to leave that up to Woody, which scares me.

3). Idzik also needs to go. He's shown piss poor talent evaluation, he can't be here anymore if we want to change the culture of the franchise. Again, I'm not a coach/GM expert so I don't know who the guy is, but I know the type he needs to be. Talent evaluators get you further in this league than cap managers do. Just look at the successful GM's, they find good players out of nowhere and it translates into good cap management because they usually come cheap. (Whether it be because they're rookies or under the radar free agent pickups)

4). Restructure Harvin. I'd like him to stay, he's shown some really good promise, but he's too much of a cap hit. No player would object to more guaranteed money so it shouldn't be hard to restructure.

5). Premiere free agent signing at right guard.

6). 2nd round draft pick to the offensive line. I've already detailed how important I think transforming this offensive line is, so I'd put heavy stock into it this offseason. It needs to turn around fast. Colon is the first I'd replace, then Breno/Brick. I'd let O'day continue to develop. I'm also hoping that Dakota Dozier can pan out from last year if he moves in to guard.

7). Sign an inside linebacker. Brandon Spikes is a free agent, as is Rey Maualuga. We need to make a splash along those lines to transform the middle of our defense. Ever notice how every single pass over the middle of the field is complete against us? Time to change that

8). Sign multiple corners. I've been avoiding talking about this because it's pretty obvious. We need help here. Getting Dee back will help because he's shown awesome improvement, and Marcus Williams might be a decent piece, but we need much more. Chris Harris is a FA, he'd be an awesome way to replace Kyle Wilson in the slot. Byron Maxwell is also a FA and I think he'd be a decent fit outside. I wouldn't complain with Mawell and Dee outside with Harris in the nickel.


At the end of 2013, I was really hopeful. I thought that 2015 was going to be the year that we could finally compete again. There are just way too many holes in this team right now for that to happen, this rebuilding project is going to take a coupe more years to go down. As a Jets fan it's hard to be patient for this long, but as long as they take a couple of the steps I suggested above I'll be somewhat happy that they're at least taking the right path.

What are your guys' plans to fix this mess?

 

Haha, I realized it as soon as I posted it. I'm a college student home for Thanksgiving break so this is all I had to do with my life for the next week.

It's fitting that a post about fixing this team needed to be this long though, no?