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Dustin Keller made a lot of statements about the state of Jets last week, and today we continue our analysis of them.
Keller was asked about the unnamed officials ripping Mark Sanchez in the New York Daily News.
“[You can’t be successful] if there are a handful of guys doing their own thing or tearing it down,” Keller said. “There were definitely guys like that last season. If it’s going to be like that, you have let those sorts of guys go.
“These are grown men. He said that to (The News) . . . but I bet he’s not also saying that to Sanchez. That’s where the problems come. I come up to [Sanchez] and say, ‘Look. You need to step it up. You need to do this better, you need to do that better.’ It’s confrontational. But that’s fine. That’s healthy. But when a guy is going to the media and saying those things instead of going to him, that’s where your problem comes.
“You can’t have those type of guys. You replace them with guys with a positive attitude.”
Let me start with the last part of those quote. While I understand Dustin’s desire to get rid of the unnamed people ripping Sanchez, that might be a bad idea.
Since I can’t proof it 100 percent, I’m not going to throw names out there, but the people suspected of being the leaks are pretty good players. And one coach suspected of being a leak, is a very important member of the staff.
And also, Dustin, the unnamed people had a common theme, that Sanchez is coddled. What good would it do to say that the Mark’s face? These quotes were a message to the Jets brass (Rex, Woody and Mike) to stop coddling him.
Also, now Dustin and Nick Mangold have ripped the unnamed guys.
Dustin says they should have made the statements to Mark’s face, and Mangold said they should put their name on it.
There is one problem with Nick, and others, saying “put a name on it.”
Actually, that would have been more damaging to the team than going unnamed.
On the record quotes ripping Sanchez would have destroyed the quarterback relationships with those guys. Going unnamed, while hurtful to Sanchez, doesn’t impact relationships since the quarterback doesn’t know which people made the statements.
I don’t think Sanchez has any idea who the leaks are, and that is a good thing for the Jets.
Honestly, I think I have a much better idea of who the leaks were than Sanchez.
I’m not saying this to pat myself on the back – not at all. It’s more about my vantage point.
As a reporter, I see on a daily basis who the reporter is chummy with during the media locker room sessions.
Sanchez is barely in there when the media are, and when he is, he’s got a million things going on, and the last thing he is paying attention to are player-reporter relationships.
So in closing, I think the players (and coach) in the Daily News article did Sanchez and the Jets a favor.
They made good points that needed to be made to open the eyes of the Jets brass, and going unnamed was the only way they could do it.
