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The leader, who ever is filling that role, can’t just buy into the philosophy, but demand that it’s executed on a high level . . .
Let’s continue to look at Woody Johnson’s perspective on things from his presser a couple of weeks ago.
In my opinion, he might have a little too much faith in the plan right now. I’m not saying he shouldn’t have faith, but I think not just have blind faith in Todd Bowles and Mike Maccagnan’s plan.
“We’re going to build the team through the draft,” Woody Johnson said.” I think Coach and Mike, know exactly what we’re looking for, the kind of players. By definition (when you are building through the draft you are), we’ll be getting younger, faster, smarter and so on.”
Building through the draft is fine, but have the Jets gotten younger, faster and smarter the last two years?
Did any of this happen the last two years?
Have the Jets gotten “young, faster and smarter?” in the last two years?
Let’s look at “smarter” first.
This past year, they were given to blown assignments, especially in terms of pass defense.
They were also blown out six times. Generally, smart teams, generally don’t get blown over repeatedly.
Did this 2016 Jets come across to you as a smart team?
Not really, so in Year Two of the Maccagnan/Bowles rebuild, the team didn’t seem to play particularly football smart.
Perhaps this will improve moving forwards as some of these young guys continue to grow, but there is no doubt the 2017 Jets need to play smarter football.
Faster?
The 2016 Jets, especially on defense, weren’t a particularly fast team.
As I’ve written about many times, Darron Lee should have improved the team speed. After all, he’s a linebacker with 4.5 speed. But he was often thinking instead of reacting out there, and when a fast player’s instincts are off, it negates their speed.
The Jets added two other defenders in the last draft who played a lot on defense – linebacker Jordan Jenkins and cornerback Justin Burris. Neither has great speed.
Bottom line is the Jets didn’t have a fast defense in 2016. There was a narrative being pushed that they got faster in the draft. Didn’t happen. They need to make it happen this year.
On offense, you could say they got a little faster at wide receiver with Charone Peake and Robby Anderson, but aside from those two, how much faster did this team really get?
My point here is simple. Woody believes in the plan of Maccagnan and Bowles. And it’s true that building through the draft is good way to go. But MacBowles needs to take their game to a new level this off-season, in the draft or free agency.
Woody, or his brother Christopher who will take over his role when the owner goes to England as a U.S. ambassador, shouldn’t just buy into the “build through the draft” philosophy that Maccagnan subscribes to. They need to be focused on whether it’s being done well.
May 19, 2017
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