Step away from the panic button, Jets fans. Take a deep breath. The season is not over. It has not even begun.
Come sit on my therapist’s couch, and I will try to talk you down.
I know you’re nervous about this year’s team. My inbox and Twitter feed tell me you’re ready to fire Mike Tannenbaum, Rex Ryan, Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow, Santonio Holmes, Fireman Ed … and Wayne Hunter again, just for good measure.
You’re overreacting.
The Jets are going to be fine. Are they a Super Bowl team? Probably not. Are they as bad as people are saying off this preseason? Absolutely not.
The Jets offense looked woeful in scoring just one preseason touchdown, but it does not matter. Judging a team off the preseason is like evaluating a dinner while it’s still in the oven.
All you have to do is look across town to realize that. At this time last year, Giants general manager Jerry Reese was the one fans wanted to run out of town. The Giants had lost Steve Smith and Kevin Boss in free agency. Plaxico Burress signed with the Jets. Suddenly, everyone was wondering whom Eli Manning would throw the football to.
“It seems like people [are] in a little bit of a panic,” Reese said last year. “We had a game plan. We’re sticking to our game plan.”
That game plan resulted in another Lombardi Trophy.
So, how about we let the Jets play a few games that count before we start sizing up the top of next year’s draft?
Tannenbaum and Ryan deserve the benefit of the doubt. In their three years together, the team has won 32 games. Only the Saints, Packers, Patriots, Ravens and Steelers have won more. The end of last season was a mess, but Ryan truly seems like he has made an effort to fix the problems and has even toned down his bluster to help.
“I was sick,” Ryan said about the end of last year. “Because I knew that, and I told our guys that if we get in [the playoffs], that’s the main thing. If you get in, everybody forgets what happens, but I still think that we could have done damage. It hurt me because I believed it. I almost felt like I was the only one that believed it.”
Critics have been short-sighted when it comes to the Jets. They point out all of the team’s flaws without considering that 80 percent of the NFL has just as many, if not more, flaws. So much was made about Hunter and the problems at right tackle. Examine NFL rosters and you’ll find most teams have at least one spot on the offensive line that is a problem.
The Jets offense only has to be decent for this team to be in the playoff hunt. Ryan’s record as a head coach and defensive coordinator tells you the defense is going to be in the top 5 in the NFL. If the offense can be in the middle of the pack (16-18), the Jets will be fine.
Take a look at the schedule, too. The Jets potentially face the following unproven quarterbacks: Ryan Tannehill (twice), Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson, Sam Bradford, John Skelton, Blaine Gabbert and Jake Locker. That group is not going to inspire much fear in the Jets defense.
The Jets could get off to a slow start with four games in the first eight weeks against teams that made the playoffs last season. The schedule eases up considerably in the second half of the year, though, with just one 2011 playoff team — the Patriots on Thanksgiving — on the slate.
“Bet against me,” Ryan said during training camp. “This isn’t the first time there’s been people that don’t believe in me, for whatever it is. I’m going to come out and compete. I believe in myself. I believe in the men that I coach and I believe in the men that coach with me. That’s why we’re going to be successful. I don’t care what you think.”
Now, if the Jets lose to the Bills on Sunday, meet me back here again next week for another appointment.
Smith still driving Jets Wild
If You just listened to Rex Ryan and Mike Tannenbaum speak the last five months you might have thought Brad Smith is having his jersey retired at halftime Sunday instead of Curtis Martin.
The Jets have used Smith’s success as a Jets Wildcat quarterback as validation for the Tim Tebow trade. Ryan has referenced Smith more times since trading for Tebow than he did when Smith played for him.
Was Smith a valuable weapon for the Jets? Yes, mainly because of his kick return ability, though. The Jets broke the Wildcat out on occasion, but it was never a staple of the offense.
They also let Smith walk away last summer. Ryan likes to say Smith left the Jets, but the Jets asked Smith to wait for them while they tried to sign cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha.
Instead, Smith took a four-year, $15 million deal from the Bills. Ryan also revealed this summer the Jets thought about drafting Colin Kaepernick in the 2011 draft as a replacement for Smith. That means they figured they were not re-signing him.
Smith’s role never really developed last year in Buffalo. The Bills hired David Lee, the godfather of the Wildcat, as quarterbacks coach this winter. Smith is nursing a groin injury, but it will be interesting to see if he proves Ryan right Sunday with a big game.