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It’s time to get into a few important issues regarding the current state of the New York Jets in today’s Website Whispers . . .
As I said before, this narrative that the Jets quit, or didn’t play hard, in some of their ugly losses late in the year, is nonsense.
It’s just an easy narrative for some people to hang their hat on.
This Todd Bowles quote sums up their season best – “We fought hard, but we didn’t fight smart.”
Teams that quit, generally don’t play the run the way the Jets did. In the last three games, they shutdown Miami’s red-hot Jay Ajayi, New England’s LaGarrette Blount, and Buffalo’s #1 ranked rushing offense.
It wasn’t an effort issue. There were personnel issues, like having a porous pass defense (linebackers and secondary) in a pass-happy league. Guys were making some mental errors (blown coverages) and getting physically beat due to speed issues (like Darrelle Revis and Rontez Miles). Compounding the problem was a below par pass rush. Bad coverage and a poor pass rush = disaster in the modern NFL.
Another false narrative being pushed is locker room discord hurt the Jets over the second half of the season.
Bowles was asked a bunch of questions about this on Monday.
“This happens in in locker room all the time,” Bowles said. “I don’t think that was a problem as far as winning and losing.”
I agree. The problem was between Sheldon Richardson and Brandon Marshall. There weren’t many problems beyond that, and it had little or nothing to do with the results on the field.
Darrelle Revis said there was a “dark cloud” over the team since the Kansas City game when Richardson and Marshall had a heated argument.
This is a reach. Perhaps Revis is trying to take some of the heat off himself for his poor season by creating a different alibi, but there was no “dark cloud” over the team after the Kansas City game.
There was a “dark cloud” over Richardson and Marshall, who clearly can’t stand each other.
So in closing, there was no quitting and the locker room wasn’t the problem. The problems were related to personnel issues and some suspect coaching at time (and the Jets are now making wholesale changes to their coaching staff) . . .
While I don’t think the Jets’ locker room was a big problem, I do think something needs to be done about Marshall.
He probably talks too much. There is a reason why Bill Belichick essentially puts a muzzle on his players. Guys that talk too much, who constantly create news with their words, are a distraction.
As Elvis Presley sang, “A little less conversation, a little more action.”
How is the following statement from Marshall helpful to Woody Johnson, Mike Maccagnan, Todd Bowles and the entire Jets’ organization?
“The best way I can describe it is, having a diaper on and never changing it. And just sitting in that diaper the whole year,” Marshall said on Showtime. “That’s how our year was. It was a bad year.”
How would you feel if you were the owner, GM and coach of a team that was described by one of your top players of being like a soiled diaper?
If I were running the Jets, I would only have Marshall back under two conditions – he takes a pay cut and he cuts way back on his media (less interviews, less money quotes) and that means no more Showtime. There is plenty of time in his post-football life to do television.
Marshall must commit to being 100 percent about football in 2017, and less about Marshall Inc.. And if he doesn’t agree to cut back his salary and his media, the Jets must move on.
January 4, 2017
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