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It’s time of another edition of One Jets Drive with notes on the Jets supposed circus and also Greg McElroy . . .
LaRon Landry said today on ESPN about the 2012 Jets – “It wasn’t that big of a circus. We stayed together as a family, as a unit.”
I totally agree. I was around the team from the beginning of camp to the end of the season, and I think this was a close team.
The media made it seem like the locker room was a dysfunctional mess
It really wasn’t.
This team really liked each other. There was a good vibe in the locker room.
It was also a hard-working group. Quitting wasn’t an issue.
The Jets came out after the bye week, and outplayed the red hot Seattle Seahawks. If they go anything from their offense, they would have won that game.
The team had a bad year, but it wasn’t a locker room soap opera that caused it.
The media and public often blame the wrong things when a season goes awry.
This is a quarterback-driven league, and the Jets didn’t get good quarterback play.
Maybe it wasn’t all the quarterback’s fault. Perhaps part of it was hiring an offensive coordinator who was a bad fit. Maybe some of it were the lack of ideal weapons (though I think this is overblown).
But if the Jets got better quarterback play, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation about circuses and the like.
And the Tebow-factor in the struggles of Mark Sanchez is greatly overblown.
Sanchez had many of the same shortcomings prior to the arrival of Tebow. He issues have been related to accuracy, decision-making and field vision, not Tebow. This stuff didn’t just rear it’s ugly head in 2012.
The Tebow-mania was really big in the summer, and Mark’s best game was Week One against Buffalo, so how much did it really affect him?
If Tebow messed up Mark’s head, it wasn’t in a big way.
So once again, it wasn’t a circus with a distracted locker room. That wasn’t the case at all.
The media can keep throwing that out there, but it’s a way overblown factor.
The Jets weren’t a circus last year, but a team that didn’t get the play they needed at the quarterback position.
Baltimore Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome put it best when talking about the seven NFL GMs who were fired after the season.
“All them guys that got fired didn’t have a QB,” Newsome said.
And the Jets were one of those teams . . .
If you listen to the media, Greg McElroy isn’t a viable option for the Jets starting quarterback job in 2013.
We don’t agree.
At the very least, he could be a good hold-the-fort quarterback until a draft pick quarterback like Mike Glennon is ready to start.
And perhaps while he’s a hold-the-fort guy, he shows the Jets he is the long term answer.
While most reporters are showing McElroy little respect, he could have an ally on the revamped coaching staff who could help him turn into a viable option.
The new quarterback coach, David Lee, was on the Dallas Cowboys staff from 2001-2004.
McElroy’s father works on the marketing side for the Cowboys, so his kid was constantly around the team. So Lee knows Greg McElroy since he was a kid.
So you know Lee will be fair to him in a competition.
February 6, 2013
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