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You have to give Jets owner Woody Johnson credit. His comments on Tuesday were those of an owner who was . . .
admitting he made some mistakes.
His “Big Splash Theory” hasn’t worked.
Moves, made in part, to grab the back pages of the tabloids, perhaps to sell some tickets, were mistakes.
Whether it was the Brett Favre and Tim Tebow trades or the signing of Darrelle Revis to a monster deal in 2015.
And I also throw in the big draft day trades to move up and pick Dwayne Robertson and Mark Sanchez.
These moves were Woody Johnson channeling his inner P.T. Barnum.
Johnson’s comments yesterday were basically an admission that this old approach isn’t going to bring a championship to his team and Jets fans.
“If you want to go to the promised land, you have to go in a certain direction,” Johnson told ESPN Radio. “I think this is a direction we’ve never tried in the 17 years I’ve been associated with the Jets. We’ve never gone this way. Get the right type of player in the locker room … young … build through the draft … young free agents that a lot of guys don’t even pay attention to, the guys who weren’t drafted. A lot of good players out there play American football, a lot of them.
“What we’ve done over the years is trade picks away and put too big an emphasis on free agency and not enough emphasis on developing our own.”
The Revis debacle was the final straw, and Johnson had an epiphany, perhaps in part due to all the media criticism he’s received the last two years for signing an over-the-hill cornerback to a monster deal, for the wrong reasons.
He finally realized he had to stop with the quick fix, big splash moves.
However, Johnson’s comments were interpreted by many to mean the owner is embracing a rebuilding project. And by embracing a rebuild, he was contradicting what Todd Bowles said at the owner’s meeting in March.
“You rebuild as far as people and names but you don’t rebuild in terms of trying to win or not win-we’re trying to win all the time,” Bowles said. “We’re always trying to win. We don’t do anything in the mindset [of rebuilding].”
So what is going on here?
It’s a confluence of what Johnson and Bowles said.
Yes, the Jets are getting younger, but that doesn’t mean they are writing off the season.
They signed a 28-year-old player, Kelvin Beachum, to play left tackle.
They signed a 27-year-old #1 cornerback in Morris Claiborne.
They kept veteran David Harris at inside linebacker.
Their defensive line is loaded with young veterans like Mo Wilkerson (who is now healthy), Leonard Williams and Sheldon Richardson. They also have an under-the-radar talent in Lawrence Thomas.
In terms of going really younger, I think it’s basically at the two safety spots.
I think Josh McCown will be the quarterback, at least early in the season, or as long as he does a good job.
The Jets are trying to win this year.
It’s just that the owner is no longer going to force moves to grab the back pages.
May 3, 2017
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