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Man, do the Jets need this.
Rex Ryan used to talk about “blunt force trauma” – the importance of being brutally honest with players about their film and how they are playing.
To a degree that might have lacked the last few years, with some in the football operation, who perhaps didn’t want to hurt feelings, continuing to roll with certain people, regardless of the film.
Not to pick on this player, who has a great motor and plays very hard, but the former regime’s handling of defensive end Michael Clemons was illustrative of the problem.
No matter how much he struggled with getting off blocks and setting a hard edge against the run, he played extensively. It was like the decision-makers were making personnel decisions wearing rose-colored glasses.
And the mishandling of this situation was so reckless that, because they continued to roll with him regardless of the film, it ended up costing the new regime cap space when he got a playing time salary hike for 2025 based on how much action he received last year.
The old regime’s disinterest in pulling people due to bad film reached a point of absurdity last year, when it took owner Woody Johnson to force the benching of a safety after the Arizona defensive debacle.
For whatever reason, the old coach and interim coach were just not inclined to bench people.
This must stop, and it likely will.
When it comes to reviewing the film, there must be 100 percent honesty at all times. All the rose-colored glasses need to be thrown in the dumpster at 1 Jets Drive.
And based on what Glenn said yesterday about linebacker Quincy Williams, it looks like the rose-colored glasses are gone from 1 Jets Drive.
“I told Quincy when he first came and met with me, there are some things that I want him to work on, and he is doing everything he can to get better at those things,” Glenn said. “Listen, I don’t lie to players, and he’s a really good player, but there’s also some things that he’s got to get better at, and he understands that.
“I pulled him in my office, told him some things he’s got to work on.”
For the last four years, all we heard were rave reviews about this player, about his hard-hitting and his Pro Bowl appearance.
But in some ways, it was a Potemkin Village, with people inside the building and in the media acting like this player was a star and there were no issues with his play.
This wasn’t accurate. We wrote about this for the last four years and were considered haters, but we always felt that while his toughness and hitting ability are top shelf, he had some things to work on, like pass coverage and not overrunning plays due to overaggressiveness.
Not only was his play in coverage not great, but the coverage of the player was not great.
Another issue with Williams was his former position coach, who is a wonderful person and extremely intelligent, might not have been like Glenn and the new linebacker coach, Aaron Curry, who’s going to be brutally honest with his players. The old linebacker coach, who is one of the nicest people you will ever meet, seemed to walk on eggshells at times coaching the unit, perhaps not wanting to be too hard on them in his PC era, where coaching too hard can get you in hot water.
There will be no such issue with the new staff, especially Glenn, who, as he said, “I don’t lie to players.”
Man, Glenn is the perfect elixir for the Jets at this particular time.
They need somebody, to use the old Howard Cosell expression, who will “tell it like it is.”
And Glenn has no issue doing that.
June 4, 2025
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