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Let’s go over some of the things Joe Douglas said and provide some analysis . . .
Douglas: The work ethic, the passion, there was no pointing fingers, guys stayed together, and you saw it at practice every day and then you saw it in the back half of the year. Going 6-2, that’s not luck. You don’t do that. It takes a group of guys that became galvanized and stuck together.
JC Analysis: There was no finger pointing. Very valid point. Like we mentioned before, that Bleacher Report story about Adam Gase losing the locker room wasn’t something we observed.
While the 6-2 second half might not have been luck, it certainly had a little to do with a very weak schedule. To their credit, they took advantage of it, but there is no way around the fact that their strength of schedule was very weak in the second half of the season.
Let’s not forget, this Jets team got blown out twice by one of the worst New England Patriots we have seen in quite some time during the first half of the season. In retrospect, that was problematic.
Douglas: The plan is to create the best culture in sports. What do I mean by that? I think the best culture, it’s a self-sustaining entity where professionalism, leadership, it’s transferred from one generation of players to the next. You see that in every great team. Every great team has that culture. That’s what we’re going to try to create here. What’s it going to take? It’s going to take people with the right level of commitment, character and competence. Every person, every player that we bring into this building, they’re going to be assessed on their fit within our culture and their ability to help us achieve our ultimate goal, which is win a Super Bowl, year in and year out.
JC Analysis: Part of building that kind of culture is having players committed to the team’s off-season. That is where a lot of chemistry and team-building take place. You can’t make guys attend because it’s voluntary, but you can quietly get rid of guys who don’t, without mentioning this reason.
Also, what Douglas needs to understand, and perhaps he does, is that football culture encompasses every aspect of an organization. Yes, you need “to take people with the right level of commitment, character and competence.” That is the obviously one of the most important things, but you also need to get people in the building to avoid hyping young players while they are developing, like the young quarterback. That is bad for football cultures. Another NFL team has a young QB. That team’s website published something hyping the young QB. The head coach walked in to the guy who runs the website and said, “Pump the breaks on hyping the kid. I need to keep him focused and working hard.” True story.
Don’t try to sell tickets hyping people who have a lot of work to do.
Also, don’t promote players who did good things in losses on social media. Only one stat means anything, and that is getting wins. Good football cultures eschew moral victories.
Building a good football culture goes beyond player procurement.
JC Analysis: This answer was in response to a reporter asking if Gase is the best person to bring out the best in Darnold
One of the dumbest angles this season, that reared its head quite a bit, was Darnold was regressing under Gase. Ridiculous. There are many questions about Gase as a head coach, but to say Darnold was regressing under him is 2 + 2 = 5 logic. Darnold had some really good play this year, and some really bad ones. Some of the really good ones were related to Gase dialing up great first reads and Darnold making great throws. Some of the bad ones were related to Darnold locking on first reads, that weren’t open, and the QB throwing it there anyway. Like a lot of young quarterbacks, Darnold often locks on his first read. Sorry if this bothers some people, but Darnold locking on first reads isn’t Gase’s fault. Gase can’t go out on the field, and manually turn the quarterbacks head to second and third reads.
Gase has a lot of things he needs to work on as a head coach, but it was a reach to say that anytime he had a bad game this year – “Darnold is regressing under him.”
Spare us with that one.
December 31, 2019
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