Excellent post. Bowles needs to watch the Alabama/Tennessee game to see how the secondary SHOULD be playing to compliment what the D-line is doing.
I hate to be the one to burst your bubble...but when you have roughly 70% of the salary cap tied up on defense, and 8 of your last 10 1st round picks have been defensive, having the 22nd ranked defense is nothing short of a catastrophic failure. Period. The offense has been neglected for too long.
if history tells us anything, the Jets will first mess up their draft position by winning a handful of meaningless games after they have been eliminated from playoff contention. Then, they will mess up whatever pick they have by drafting a combine warrior, who actually sucks, at a position where we are already deep.
Mac has only been here for 2 of those drafts, and for one of those a player who was pretty much the consensus best player in the draft fell into his lap. Also, that's what happens when your team has had primarily former DCs as HC and incompetent GMs. HCs want to build their Ds and GMs want to support them and give them every opportunity to succeed. Mac is also only in his 2nd year on the job. Many posters think it is ridiculous to only give Bowles two years to learn and grow into the job, yet you think it reasonable to blame Mac after the same length of time. It's not like Mac has ignored the offense, either. He's added two QBs, OL, a good veteran RB, a great veteran WR, added 3 excellent rookie WR prospects, brought in ASJ to try to solidify our TE position. Anyone who knew anything about the team knew how many holes there were and how little depth there was on the team, and that it was going to take more than 2 offseasons for Mac to address most of the holes on the team and for it to become truly competitive. We also knew that by the time the young players were developing and panning out, that a number of older vets like Brick, Mangold, B. Marshall, Harris, and Revis were going to need replacing. As for the salary cap, the team's biggest area of need when Mac took over was the secondary. Since Woody wanted the team to be respectable and start winning, and Mac was also mandated by the league that he had to spend a LOT of money, most of the money went into the secondary. In addition, the team had already added two studs on the DL and the time came due for Mo to be paid. Mac didn't want to pay it and seemingly tried to trade Mo, but was unable to. Rather than let him walk and get nothing in return, Mac did the only thing he could sensibly do and re-signed Mo. Mac has also been very creative in signing FAs and finding ways to come up with cap space without hurting future caps. Anyone who can't see that the team has a lot more talent, speed and potential than it did 2 years ago is flat out nuts and knows nothing about football, so should just shut up so they stop making themselves look stupid. Is Mac perfect? No, but no one is. There is no successful veteran GM store or tree that Woody can go to and acquire a great GM for the team. The way the system works is that you hire a young up and comer who has had a lot of experience in scouting and personnel, and you pray that his eye for talent is good and his vision for building the team will work. Then the coach has to be successful in developing that talent and putting it into position to succeed. The talent is here. It's the failure of the CS to develop that talent and put it into position to succeed vis-a-vis good game planning, adapting to the talent on the team, being realistic about what is working and what isn't, and being flexible enough to change/adapt schemes.
that same 22nd ranked defense was top 5 ranked last season. It's not like were consistently a bad defense... and this year I don't think we're bad either... I think we are just being poorly coached by bowles and the DC. He's leaving corners on an island unnecessarily ... they are getting burned without help up top causing them to be insecure about getting beat deep to the point where we line up 20 yards off!! Which opens up everything else for them to do.. On top of that.. after every touchdown look at the defenses reaction.. I see a bunch of confusion and finger pointing... these dudes don't know the plays.. or have no chemistry.. something aint clicking... and after 5 games I put that on the coaching staff.
This was a really long winded post of the same old excuses. Where is all this talent? Exactly what aspect of the team has Mac improved? Here we sit at 1-4 with an aging QB who is a journeyman at best. The offensive line is in shambles. The average fan probably couldn't even name a TE on the active roster. Our RB situation is underwhelming...are you really content with building the backfield around Powell? Marshall and Decker are no longer spring chickens and are very much "win now" pieces. Williams was certainly the BPA but from a needs analysis standpoint the pick was a disaster. You could have 19 Pro Bowl caliber defensive lineman but it's all for naught with such glaring needs in other areas. The Revis re-signing was an absolute debacle. Should I keep going? I'm not saying that elite GM's are a dime a dozen, but don't act like Mac doesn't deserve criticism.
John, - welcome and you are correct. And thank you for upgrading the intelligence level of this board. Please don't give up on it yet despite the "sky is falling" threads.
Don't worry, with the weak backside of the schedule (minus the pats games) they'll wind up with the 16th-19th pick..
Sorry if I taxed your poor concentration, focus and reading comprehension. They aren't "excuses." They are legitimate facts. You're blaming Mac for decisions that Woody made about wanting to win ASAP and not go through a drastic rebuild. You're blaming Mac for the failings of Bowles and the CS. That's ridiculous. I see no venom or criticism towards them, only towards Mac. Who was the great QB that Mac should have added prior to this season, and where were your posts this spring summer proclaiming the moves Mac should make to improve the team? The OL is not in shambles. That's just stupid as well as factually inaccurate. He made a great move in acquiring Clady. Carpenter is solid. Mangold is Mangold. Winters is improved and Qvale and Ijalana have done a pretty good job in Giacomini's absence. I guess in your twisted logic, it's Mac's fault that Giacomini has been out with a bad back. Could the OL be better? Undoubtedly, but again, if Mac had drafted an OT in the first round, the OL's play could have been a LOT worse this season, and the defense's play even worse. There were only so many draft picks. Mac couldn't fix everything. We had holes at QB, RB, TE, WR, OL, OLB, P, PR/KOR, and potentially CB. The team had little or no speed or coverage ability in the LB corps. Mac added a speedy LB with great instincts and tackling ability who looks to have a bright future. He added a smart QB with a great arm, prototypical size, and who can read Ds. He fixed the punter position. He added 3 great WR prospects. He added an OLB who can set the edge and is a solid defender. He added an OL who's the son of a HOFer and who looks to have some potential. He added Khiry Robinson. Mac can't help that Robinson broke his leg and is out. He then added a good young RB prospect off the Seahawks PS. It was not a good draft for TEs, and while there were some pretty good TEs available in FA, they were expensive. There was limited cap space and Mac did add Bostick to try to help the position. He also added a good young prospect in Braedon Bowman. Then he added ASJ. Mac didn't draft Amaro and can't help it that he was a bust. From a "need" standpoint, Wiliams wasn't needed, but when he's the consensus best player in the draft, you don't just bypass him, either. In order to be able to trade down, it takes a trading partner. If Mac didn't explore the possibility of trading down, or turned down offers for the pick to take Williams, then yes, he deserves some criticism for that, but killing him for taking a player who has been one of our best players this season is more than a little silly. I do agree with you that BPA MUST be balanced with need. Perhaps Mac can take some heat there, but again, expecting a 2nd year GM to be perfect and make great decisions and moves every time is unrealistic. I totally understand why Mac signed Revis. At that time, Revis was still a very good player, who worked hard and took care of himself. Mac had no way of knowing that Revis' play would deteriorate so quickly and so much. Pryor was a much better player last season. Mac had no way of knowing that Pryor would regress this season, as Marcus Williams and Gilchrist have. They played well last season. I'd be willing to bet that if Mac had drafted a RB, an OL in a higher round, and a TE, you'd be bitching that he didn't address the glaring lack of speed in the LB corps, or address the OLB position, or QB position. Posters like you are ridiculous. You expect GMs to just be able to manufacture players that fit our needs out of thin air. You have zero understanding of what realistic expectations are for the position. In time, some of his draft picks and FA moves will inevitably fail. It will be fair to say that he made a mistake then, but it's way too early to be trashing him for any moves he made that wasn't an instant bust. ALL GMs, even the best ones, miss on draft picks and make mistakes in judgment. When there aren't enough draft picks or cap space to adequately address every position, GMs have to hope that young players on the roster will develop and step up. GMs can't play for them, and it isn't their job to develop the players. That's on the CS.
Its just that on paper, we're not a bad team. Look at the expectations in the beginning of the year vs. what's actually happened. Do you think Mac hasn't brought more talent to this team compared to Idzik years? Mac did get us much younger at linebacker and replaced a lot of the players we lost this offseason. I would be utterly shocked if we don't address offensive line and secondary this offseason. We also have many young receivers behind Marshal and Decker, and we're in good shape if even of them becomes a good starter.
I really struggle with the notion that the issue is with the draft under Mac. I think he has done very well over all for 2 years, with a couple of gambles that didn't quite paid off. We overpaid for Revis out of necessity and we got stuck with Fitz for one more long miserable year. The issues with this team are not with the draft, but rather a double whammy that is really hurting us 1- We have no QB, and Petty was not quite ready before he got hurt 1- We have a poor CS that is not putting a talented defensive team in a position to be dominant and win. Our game planning and adjustments are dismal. A good to great Coach would have this d humming. A decent QB with the ability to make all the throws and our record would be reversed.We need to fix the real problem first, while we continue to improve thru the draft. Smith is coming back, the kid d can open the field, but how is the ball gonna get there?
Unless it's a DE that will move to OLB in the pros and go on to be the edge rusher that has eluded the Jets as much (if not more) than a QB since I've rooted for them. Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
A post like this makes me wonder if you're planning on jumping off a building. But I must say that most of this is hard to argue with. For me, I would keep Mac and shit can Bowles at the end of the season. Bowles sucks, but Mac has done good things for the most part............
I have no doubt in my mind we will win enough to be out of contention for the top qb's..... we will have 8-10 wins at the end of the year...,,
We really got lucky with Leonard at 6, hopefully we fully commit this time around and avoid the too little too late season heroics. I want the top QB on the board, whoever he may be. It's a tall task but I think we have the team to do it.
Rysn Fitzpatrick will never get this team to the playoffs he had his chance last year and will fail again if given another chance.
