TONY MUST GO: In order for the Jets to move forward, they must hire an innovative offensive coordinator to replace the all-but-gone Tony Sparano, here with Tim Tebow and Greg McElroy, writes the Post’s Mark Cannizzaro. (Reuters)
One minor detail was lost in the manic Monday postmortem to the Jets’ 6-10 season, as general manager Mike Tannenbaum was fired and team owner Woody Johnson and head coach Rex Ryan hid like cowards when their fans deserved answers.
Offensive coordinator Tony Sparano was still in the building.
Happy New Year, Jets fans.
“He’s working his butt off and starting to go through player evaluations and things like that, that coaches do right after the season ends,’’ quarterback Mark Sanchez said. “He’s a fighter, he’s a tough guy and he’s doing his best to try and help the team.’’
The cynic in me says Sparano can best help the team by being elsewhere in 2013.
Ryan got to stay while Tannenbaum got fired. Now Ryan’s first task is to fix the offense or next New Year’s Day he will be where Tannenbaum is today, looking for work. That begins with finding a new, competent and creative offensive coordinator.
By all accounts Sparano is a goner (if he has not already been told). Why the Jets did not make that announcement on Monday is curious, but then, the Jets have always led the league in curious.
Cornerback Darrelle Revis, unquestionably the Jets’ best player, said whoever the new general manager is “needs to evaluate [the team] this offseason and try to get some playmakers in here.
“You need playmakers to win games. That’s just straight football talk.’’
Revis, whose job is to cover opposing teams’ top playmakers every Sunday, should know.
He had issued a public warning back in training camp when he questioned whether the front office had done enough to surround Sanchez with skill position talent.
When pressed Monday on whether the Jets had enough playmakers this season, Revis said, “Um, I can’t answer that question. No comment.’’
Revis is not alone in his frustration. While Jets defensive players publicly suppressed their aggravation over the lack of support from the offense, there has been a deep undercurrent of frustration with the anemic offense.
The Jets, who ranked eighth in the NFL in defense, did enough defensively to be a playoff team.
“Did you see the game?’’ linebacker Bart Scott said in the locker room after Sunday’s loss to the Bills, in which they became the first team all season that failed to score a single TD against Buffalo’s defense, while brushing off a reporter. “Then you saw the same thing that’s been happening all year.’’
Linebacker Calvin Pace, doing his best to be diplomatic, told the Post’s Brian Costello after the game at Buffalo he “knows those guys’’ on the offense “are trying,’’ but he added that merely “trying will get everybody fired.’’
Only four teams scored fewer points than the 281 the Jets scored this season — the Jaguars, Chiefs, Cardinals and Eagles — and their combined record was 13-51.
To put the Jets’ ineptitude in proper perspective, they averaged 17.6 points per game while their chief rivals, the Patriots, averaged 34.8. The Patriots gained an average of 128 more yards per game than the Jets, who ranked 30th in offense.
Sanchez knows he did not have enough talent around him to succeed this season, but how, after turning the ball over 26 times (making it an NFL-high 52 turnovers in the last two seasons), can he publicly complain?
Despite the dearth of talent to work with, Sanchez performed poorly and made the same mistakes time after maddening time.
But as wrecked as his confidence is, Sanchez is salvageable if the Jets bring the right offensive coordinator in to help him and surround him with some better skill players. He is only two years removed from winning playoff games on the road.
Two potential general manager candidates who are on the Jets’ radar agreed, telling The Post they do not believe Sanchez is a lost cause and he can be a winning quarterback.
That, however, does not mean the Jets can count solely on Sanchez. They have to bring a starting-caliber quarterback in to compete for the starting job (Alex Smith?).
This all begins with the new GM and a new offensive coordinator. This is Ryan’s mess to fix now and he has a year to do it. If he doesn’t get it fixed, by next New Year’s Day he’ll be following Tannenbaum out of the building.