The players don’t come but they sure go, and because these are the Jets we are talking about, you have every right to wonder whether Team Woody — owner Woody Johnson, general manger John Idzik and coach Rex Ryan — is asleep at the free agency switch.
On a day when Shonn Greene raced to the Titans faster than he ever hit a hole, on a day when Yeremiah Bell signed with the Cardinals, on a day when Dustin Keller was thinking about taking his talents to South Beach and pulling a reverse Jason Taylor, on a day when Brandon Gibson visited but left for Miami, the Jets retained Lex Hilliard.
J-E-S-T-S JESTS JESTS JESTS.
Johnson and Idzik aren’t merely cleaning house. They’re burning it to the ground!
Is the braintrust stranded on Revis Island, with no cell service? What’s the plan? Here’s the plan, as it looks today:
Wait until 2014!
What else can Idzik possibly be thinking, other than:
Wait until 2014, when Mark Sanchez won’t be the elephant in my salary cap room, when I will find myself a new franchise quarterback, when I can fire Ryan and get my own guy in here.
What is unfolding before your bloodshot eyes, Jets fans, is the very reason why the owner should have ushered Ryan out the door with Mike Tannenbaum — you cannot function properly when your general manager has one vision and your head coach has another. It is the general manager with the vision for the future who now has the owner’s blessings, and it is Ryan who will be asked to win now with a team that has no chance of winning now.
You are a Jets fan and your PSL bill is burning a hole in your pocket and you ought to be able to see that your team will be everybody’s homecoming game in 2013, which means that PSL will stand for Please Stop Losing.
Who’s ready for 4-12?
If I’m Darrelle Revis, I’m praying for a trade away from football purgatory.
If I’m Ryan, I plaster a tattoo of the owner on my other arm and ask him if he would be so kind as to put me out of my upcoming misery now so my reputation and resume is not forever tarnished.
The Giants have lost Martellus Bennett and Chris Canty, but they have bolstered their defensive line toughness with Cullen Jenkins and added secondary depth with Aaron Ross. But it isn’t their way to make a big splash in free agency, and besides, Big Blue Nation has grown to trust general manger Jerry Reese. Remember when a rehabbing Steve Smith signed with the Eagles and Reese was subjected to the firing squad? Six months later he was hoisting his second Lombardi Trophy, and now he has a first-round tender on Victor Cruz, who made everyone forget Smith, who has been a shell of his former self.
Everyone recognizes that Idzik is Dartmouth-bright, but he is a rookie, which means he doesn’t have Reese’s street cred. Just because you lay in the weeds at the start of free agency doesn’t mean you don’t have a clue. The problem is the Jets are the Jets, meaning they are guilty until proven innocent. It’s not as if Idzik has any pelts on the wall.
LaRon Landry and his biceps are headed to the Colts. Anyone seen Brandon Moore? Dustin Keller? Sione Po’uha and Mike DeVito are gone. You can’t keep everybody, we understand that. So the Jets keep Lex Hilliard. On top of the David Garrard signing!
The wide receiver position is a veritable land of opportunity. And yet Gibson opted not to sign up to play like a Jet. Remember the good old days when Ryan would pound his chest and roar that every player in the National Football League (not named Peyton Manning) wanted to play for him and his Jets?
Wait until 2014. Maybe someone will want to then.
steve.serby@nypost.com