Many words came to mind when talking about the New York Jets this past season. Disgusting. Disgrace. Embarrassing. But one word stands above the rest.
Laughingstock.
The New York Jets have become the punch line of the NFL, featuring Mark Sanchez’s head to butt contact with right guard Brandon Moore in the Thanksgiving Day debacle against the Patriots. It only got worse for the Green and White when superfan and leader of the famous J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS chant Ed Azalone, commonly known as Fireman Ed, stepped down the following week.
Granted, this team was without its two arguably most talented players, cornerback Darrelle Revis and wide receiver Santonio Holmes for the majority of the season. However, make no mistake. This team is terrible, and two players wouldn’t help all that much.
It was been hopelessly embarrassing watching this team play football. The seemingly endless parade of turnovers, especially in the red zone, has been torturous. In three disasters at home against the 49ers, Dolphins, and Patriots the Jets were outscored by a margin of 113-28.
So now, I am asking the same question as many Jets fans: What’s next?
General Manager Mike Tannanbaum was fired, as expected. At the end of the day, all personnel decisions came down to him, and therefore he was responsible for the product on the field. He didn’t put enough pure talent on this team to compete, and the results showed clearly.
As an example of pure ineptitude, he traded for “QB” Tim Tebow last off-season to try and bring the “Wildcat” offense to New York. This move has failed miserably, as the Jets have rarely used the “Wildcat”, and Tebow’s main playing time has been on the punt team. All this trade did was create a quarterback controversy, and make the Jets more of a circus than they already were.
The Jets announced last week that they hired John Idzik as Tannenbaum’s replacement for GM. This move has come under fire because many view Idzik as a Tannenbaum “clone” because of his reputation for being more of a cap guru rather then a personnel evaluator. This means Head Coach Rex Ryan will continue to have a large role in personnel decisions, which in my opinion is not a good thing.
The future of QB Mark Sanchez, who has struggled tremendously in his fourth year in the NFL, is also in question. The Jets have a ton of money tied up in Sanchez, who last year signed a four year contract extension that keeps him in the green and white until 2017. This means the Jets have limited options when it comes to the man once known as “The Sanchise”, and he likely will be the starting quarterback come week one of the 2013 season.
With that said, Sanchez has not yet shown the talent the Jets thought they had when they drafted him in 2009, and he has a lot to prove before time runs out on his time in New York.
In the end, the Jets are a mess. They are a complete disaster in need of a total rebuild. One solution is to look into trading All-Pro Cornerback Darrelle Revis after he gets healthy again. The Jets defense has done okay without him, and the team could improve in a multitude of areas if they traded by far the best player on the team.
Don’t get me wrong; the Jets have some quality pieces, especially on the offensive line in center Nick Mangold and left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson. But they need more than two good offensive linemen, and must rebuild this team if they have any hope of competing in the years to come.
In the end, there are a lot of question marks surrounding these Jets, and the way the team answers them will be interesting to watch.
