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If this happens, it will be a boon to the Jets.
Former Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, who recently retired, told Sports Illustrated’s MMQB website, that he might attend Jets training camp this summer.
“I will be in a training camp this summer,” Arians said. “It might be the Jets [with friend and former assistant Todd Bowles]. It depends on who the Cardinals hire. I will be at training camp. I will miss the players, I will miss the coaches. The game, I think the game and me, we owe each other nothing. We’re even.
Arians and Bowles are close.
Bowles played for Arians at Temple, and then served as his defensive coordinator with the Arizona Cardinals in 2014 and 2015. Bowles was the AP NFL Assistant Coach of the Year in 2014, and his terrific work running the Cardinals’ defense helped land him the Jets’ head coaching job.
If Arians does work at Jets training camp this would be amazingly helpful to Gang Green.
Why?
Because Arians is the quintessential straight-shooter. There is no filter with this guy. And the Jets are a football operation that sometimes lets politics trump merit when deciding on who makes the roster and who plays.
There were a pair of cornerbacks who were had terrible camps last summer, and not only did they both make the team, they both got prominent roles. Their position on the depth chart didn’t change one iota all summer. even though they struggled mightily. This isn’t a championship formula.
Arians doesn’t care who he offends with his blunt assessments.
A league source told me that some around the Cardinals got tired of his act because he threw too many players under the bus publicly.
Sounds like a guy who can help the Jets.
And Arians is a terrific QB coach and evaluator. Can you imagine what he would have said last summer to Bowles and Maccagnan about their Potemkin Village quarterback competition.
Arians would have probably said, “What the heck if going on there? This is no competition. These two kids aren’t starting material right now. Just name McCown the starting quarterback for goodness sake.”
And I’m sure he would have had some harsh words about the two young quarterbacks who were both underwhelming last summer, aside from one decent half of football from Petty.
At times, what was going on last summer, was insulting to our intelligence.
The Jets need some blunt force trauma when it comes to personnel decisions.
And I would say this to their faces. I’m not hiding. I’m not being nasty, I’m doing them a favor.
Stop the games. Always keep the best players, play the best players and ignore where they were picked, what they make, hurting people’s feeling or what the Daily News might write.
Arians could bring to the Jets in the summer of 2018 a reality check they need. Stop the politics, stop the window-dressing – deal with reality when it comes to player personnel at all times.
He would be an amazing addition to their brain-trust if this scenario actually reaches fruition.
January 12, 2017
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