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It’s a wonderful approach to life. It really is.
Robert Saleh said at the Senior Bowl – “Our beat knows I’m an eternal optimist, so I always see the good in people.”
We need more of that in the world.
However, could that be a slight issue from a player personnel evaluation standpoint at times?
With player personnel, you have to be brutally honest and deal with the cold, hard facts at all times.
The power of positive thinking isn’t going to make some players better than they are.
The Jets were 4-13 this season. Clearly, they need some personnel upgrades. You are what your record says it is. And there were also too many blowouts.
Saleh was asked at the Senior Bowl about the Jets cornerback position. He talked about the two starting corners from when the season ended (Bryce Hall and Brandin Echols) and nickel back Michael Carter.
“The challenge for those three is to find the ball, and once they do that, they will be right up there with the upper echelon in this league,” Saleh said.
Is that a little strong? Perhaps.
This team’s pass defense struggled all year, and the defense finished 32nd in the NFL. The pass defense issues weren’t just the corners, it was the safeties and the linebackers as well.
There were way too many blown assignments all year by all three position groups mentioned above.
While all three of these corners have potential, the Jets clearly need to add another high in the draft.
But will Saleh’s eternal optimism stand in the way of that?
Look, I have no idea what he says behind the scenes, but the stuff he says publicly about players is sometimes filled with praise that might not be commensurate with performance.
“We have our starting quarterback,” Saleh said in Mobile.
Do they?
I have no idea.
Zach Wilson was wildly inconsistent as a rookie. That was understandable. He went from playing North Alabama and Troy to playing New England and Buffalo. He went from throwing into wide-open windows to very small ones. His footwork and throwing mechanics need a lot of work.
Perhaps he will take a quantum leap in Year Two. It’s possible. We know he has rare arm talent and escapability.
But we have no idea if the Jets have their starting quarterback. We didn’t see enough in 2021-22 season to make that settled science.
You could make the argument that Mike White, who beat the Cincinnati Bengals, who are representing the AFC in the Super Bowl, is being marginalized now, so he doesn’t pose a threat to Wilson. If a QB needy team has half a brain they make a run at White in free agency.
However, getting back to the main point here.
There seems to be a prevailing mindset in the building that all these young players just need time to develop, and in time they will be good.
Some will, some won’t. Time won’t help some of them.
Look, there is an important caveat to point out here: I’m talking about Robert Saleh’s PUBLIC comments on players.
While I think some comments are a tad hyperbolic on certain players, as long as he’s brutally honest about players behind closed doors with Joe Douglas, that is all that matters.
All I’m saying is that “I’m an eternal optimist, so I always see the good in people” isn’t the best approach to roster decisions. It certainly is wonderful in real life.
So Jets fans can only hope that what Saleh says about some players from the 32nd ranked defense publicly, isn’t what he always says to Douglas behind closed doors.
“Bill Belichick is the best there is at making hard decisions,” wrote SiriusXM NFL Radio’s Pat Kirwan. “The Patriots simply don’t let themselves get emotionally attached to players. They make business decisions.”
That is how the Jets need to be.
February 7, 2022
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