It’s that time once again for every team not named the New England Patriots to look forward to the off season and the draft here in the AFC East. While the standings shuffled around again, once more the Patriots are on top and Buffalo, Miami and New York Jets (in alphabetical and standing order) trailed behind saying, “WOULD YOU PLEASE JUST RETIRE, TOM BRADY??!!”
Since the retirement of Tom Brady is still too far off in the distance (oh for a plutonium powered Delorian and a flux capacitor…) every front office has to square their house and get ready to knock off the king of the mountain in 2015. As an E!$PN Insider (I get the magazine for free, so why not?) they are posting the top 4 needs for every team eliminated from the post season. I will list the topics posted by Field Yates, and give my take. I’ll also strike through some and figure out what should actually be a focus. Ending with the clown car driving, Genover giving, last place New York Jets!
- Hire a head coach and GM. (My headline: Figure out how to balance the offense)
….I feel like this is absolutely absurd. You’ve just fired your head coach and GM. This topic on Insider should have just been the headline with no other explanation other then “F***ing duh!”
This goes without saying. I’m not going to speculate as to who should be hired to either spot. All I know is if the Jets hire a defensive minded coach, we’re in for another few years of spectacular failures out of New York.
Edit: Rumor has it the Benedict Arnold of Buffalo, Doug Marrone, is leading the race for his hometown team. He would have say in a GM who is going to essentially have their nuts cut off before they take office if Marrone gets the power he wants. I don’t know that the Jets are willing to hand over that much control, but I feel if Marrone’s power grab comes back unsuccessful in this spot he’ll be back in college where he can truly control what happens. This is presuming he’s hired of course. Now, back to your regularly scheduled article!
What should be a focus point instead of this? A better use of 1’s and 0’s could have been spent working out how to get Fireman Ed back, but what this section should have focused on was the disparity between rushing offense and passing offense. The Jets had the 3rd best rushing offense in the league, but the 32nd ranked pass offense. That means that Blake Bortles ran a better passing offense than the Jets did. The triage unit in Arizona had a better passing offense and they sucked.
The QB situation is about to be covered so I’m going to let it go for the moment, but one can argue the reason they ran so well is they refused to let Geno Smith or Michael Vick throw the ball. Given their propensity to turn the ball over like they were going to be paid a bonus for turnovers, I’d say that’s probably the best decision.
I’m subjected to a lot of Jets games (thanks very much NFL rules) but the thing is they never seemed to move the ball well even as they ran it. It feels like they earned their 3rd ranked rushing offense just by volume. They had a respectable 4.5 yards per attempt but no rusher over 900 yards on the season. You can understand why I feel like it was an exercise in futility.
- Decide how to Approach the QB issue
Maybe the Jets should have taken the hint two years ago when Geno pouted his way into day two of the draft. For someone who came in with what should have been a sizeable chip on his shoulder Geno has been an abject disappointment thus far. He found his way to the bench in favor of Michael Vick and Michael Vick proved he no longer belongs in the NFL. Good for him to have been able to get his financial situation in order during his time in Philadelphia and the Jets, but it’s time to hang it up I think.
That leaves Geno and some kid named Simms who, it should be pointed out, is apparently not good enough to overtake a has been in Vick and a turn over machine in Smith. It’s being suggested that the Jets draft a new QB this year which is something doable now under the new rookie wage scale. Misses on first rounders now only set your team back 2-3 years instead of 5-6 (How much would you bet the Rams wish this was in place for Bradford?)
I’m not entirely convinced the starting QB for the Jets is currently on the Jets, but this whole situation is up in the air because they don’t have any one in place to make football decisions right now. It will be interesting to see who is brought in and what tid bits they offer in the lead up to free agency. Maybe the Jets become the landing spot to an RG3 or Jay Cutler (and once again…A certain Mr. Moore).
- Part ways with Percy Harvin or keep him?
Of all the empty gestures ever offered by a GM to their Head Coach Percy Harvin takes the cake. By the time Harvin arrived to earn his Gang Green card the season was already essentially over. He provided a temporary spark before being dragged down into the abyss with the rest of the Jets skill position players.
The main issue comes to money. You have a new GM and Head coach coming in who will have to either eat 10.5 million for a known hot head and locker room distraction or cut him and potentially see him go elsewhere and succeed. He’s by far one of the more difficult conundrums in terms of free agents.
The issue is there are larger free agents to be worried about other than a guy who costs nothing to cut. David Harris is a huge piece to the Jets defense and he’s up as an unrestricted free agent. If the new regime is going to focus on anyone (besides the sizzle of Harvin) they would do better to focus on the meat here with Harris.
- Extend Wilkerson
…I feel like this is just getting silly, Yates.
Wilkerson needs to remain a Jet for as long as possible but the idea that it needs to happen now is kind of silly. After all, it’s a new group of people coming in (this seems to be a common recurring theme here…). Wilkerson is talented there is no doubt. He needs to be resigned. This can also wait until next year when there will hopefully be more flexibility. The new guys are more likely going to want to add their own flair to the Jets and not continually resign Rex’s left overs. Wilkerson deserves that attention but I feel like he’s going to be pushed to the back burner.
The Jets desperately need to get their house in order. Much like the mess Ryan inherited from the Mangenius, whomever is picked to lead the Jets will have a similar mess. A better than average (dare I say top 7) defense, and an offense in shambles. Let’s just hope they don’t decide to bring in Johnny Manziel as a personal punt protector.
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