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Pittsburgh – You could argue Jeff Ulbrich’s messaging after losses is better than the man he replaced, who is a great guy, but perhaps made too many excuses at times.
Ulbrich doesn’t do that.
“It’s not good enough and it starts with me,” Ulbrich said after the Jets loss in Pittsburgh.
The man is clearly an alpha dog leader, a former NFL inside linebacker who leads like a MIKE linebacker. He was livid after last night’s game.
But perhaps he’s finding that the Jets culture is broken and not a quick fix.
I once said to a league source that Woody Johnson needs to fix the culture, and the person responded, “He is the culture.”
Woody means well, but some would argue the best approach to NFL ownership is how things are handled in Kansas City, Buffalo, San Francisco and Baltimore, where the ownership group hires a GM and coach to run the football operation, and lets them do their thing with little to no meddling.
Not how places like Carolina, Cleveland and Dallas are run.
Of course, an owner can do whatever he darn well pleases since he owns the team and signs the checks.
But right now the Jets need a cultural repair.
Aaron Rodgers hasn’t been vintage Rodgers, but honestly, some of the plays he has made over the first seven games, some of the throws, are like “wow” this guy is special.
My point is Rodgers perhaps has been a little bit off at times, but there are much bigger problems.
Rodgers, like Ulbrich, is having a hard time overcoming the culture.
It’s not helpful to the culture for the man in charge to go viral by saying last week at an NFL owner’s meeting – “Thinking is overrated.”
He was also asked if the season was salvageable and said, “Salvageable?,” Johnson said. “We’re gonna kick … you can add the words after that. We’re going to do really well.”
He means well, but good cultures don’t talk about how good they are going to do, they just go out and do it. They let their play do the talking.
If I owned a team, I would let my GM and head coach talk to the media about football stuff. Keep the messaging consistent.
When was the last time you saw Terry Pegula in Buffalo speak to the media? He avoids it like the plague. He lets Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott handle that.
Just because reporters come up to you at an owners’ meeting, doesn’t mean you have to speak. You can politely decline, like Pegula and most other owners do. Just say no.
Woody is a nice man, but somebody in his life, whether it’s his wife, Ira Axselrad or his brother, perhaps should tell him to just enjoy the hell of his team, and stop talking to the media, people who generally don’t have his best interests at heart.
And if the Jets are ever going to fix their culture, it would be best for Woody, to just throw the GM and head coach the car keys and let them do their thing.
It’s the best way.
“Joe Douglas is sitting there making $6 million a year and he’s really just the director of college scouting,” said former NFL GM Mike Lombardi on VSIN.
What he meant by that is that Woody controls the purse strings making him ultimately the football decision maker.
“[Woody] runs the team,” Douglas said. “The reason Haason Reddick [wasn’t] there is because Woody is saying to Joe Douglas I’m not giving you any more money for him. That’s it. So whoever you have to go to the owner for money you’re really not the GM.”
Also, make the main thing the main thing at all times. Don’t worry about uniform combinations or TV Emmys. It sends the wrong message to the rank and file about what is important.
Nothing is going to change until the culture changes.
So it’s best to let the GM and coach do their thing and stay out of the way. And if you don’t like the job they are doing, get a new GM and coach.
After 13 straight years out of the playoffs, and a 14th in the offing, the current approach and culture are clearly not working.
October 21, 2024
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