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There is no doubt the Jets have a strong roster.
On paper, it’s one of the strongest in the league.
Now comes the hard part and that is bringing all these parts together.
And an essential part of doing that is creating a powerful football culture.
This is something that has hurt them in the past according to some observers.
“The Jets always struggle because they have no culture,” said former NFL GM Mike Lombardi on VSIN last week. “They have never built a culture. They think it’s about adding talent, but the cultural foundation isn’t there to win with.”
Some might agree or disagree with Lombardi’s assessment of the Jets’ culture, but that story recently in The Athletic with 30 sources painted a picture of a culture that needs to improve.
“I think Jets fans are in denial,” Dianna Russini told Barstool Sports. “They want to call people liars because they don’t want to believe that it’s that bad, that the culture is that awful. So don’t blame the team, blame the reports that uncovered all of this.”
She is referring to fans who gave her a hard time about her blockbuster story in The Athletic, but surely a lot of Jets fans know that the culture needs to improve.
So this is the huge next step for the Jets. They need to take all this talent and get it all on the same page in an improved culture.
That means no more excuses and moral victories.
And this isn’t just about the players and coaches.
“It takes a lot. You have to give up yourself and conform to the culture. That is the GM, the owner, everybody. The culture doesn’t just exist for the team,” Lombardi said.
It’s everybody!
They have a lot of work to do, and they must get everybody on board, the owner, his social media people, everybody.
After losses, you shouldn’t tweet highlights of individual players having a good game.
As Herman Edwards said, “You play to win the game.”
So no more moral victories like saying: “We exorcized a lot of demons” after a 7-10 season. Can’t do it.
They also need high-level accountability. After a player does a few bone-head things in games, you should not say, “If you knew him, you wouldn’t have a problem with anything he did.”
You can’t stay stuff like that in a strong football culture.
That is not high-level accountability.
So they have some work to do to fix the culture, and bringing back two former Baltimore Ravens, safety Chuck Clark, and offensive tackle Morgan Moses will help. Ravens have a great culture. Those guys can teach their teammates a lot.
Also, Aaron Rodgers will help, and he needs to continue his blunt commentary, like when he said after the season: “Anything that doesn’t have anything to do with winning needs to be assessed. So anything in this building that we’re doing individually or collectively that has nothing to do with real winning needs to be assessed. . . . It’s not a half the time thing, it’s not a sometimes thing, it’s not a most of the time thing, it’s an every time thing. If you want to be a winning organization, and to put yourself in position to win championships and be competitive, everything that you do matters, and the bullshit that has nothing to do with winning needs to get out of the building. So, that’ll be the focus moving forward.”
Preach.
I’m not being a hater.
Just dealing with reality.
With this roster, if they fix the culture, magical things can happen.
April 4, 2024
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