Green Rewind By Marty Schupak November 24, 2015

Second Thoughts….

  The Ryan Fitzpatrick bashing continues on talk radio around town. Can the Jets win with a QB like Ryan Fitzpatrick?  Yes, but only if the talent level was better around him. Fitz is just what you see. He is a quarterback with tons of heart but limited talent. How different this season would be if the Jet receivers caught half the drops? The turning point of the season was when Brandon Marshall dropped that touchdown pass against the Patriots. They would have gone up by eight in the fourth quarter with no guarantees of victory but their chances would have been a lot better.

  Good organizations cut players that are not productive. This is why Quinton Coples was cut. It is a good thing and sends a message to the rest of the team. Besides not really having a position for him, his productivity was getting less and less. While not on the Vernon Gholston “bust” level, Coples was not very productive. He had 16 ½  career sacks which is 16 ½ more than Gholston. The killer is that Chandler Jones, the player many Jet fans wanted was available and now HC BB has him and he is second in the NFL this year with 10 ½ sacks. It stinks!

  I’ve been on Leonard Williams but he played well on Sunday. My only concern is that he seems to play better when Sheldon Richardson isn’t in the lineup. I know there is probably no correlation but it is strange.

  Jets GM Mike Maccagnan has got to approach each season knowing that Todd Bowles and him will have to “plug and fill’ roster spots and positions after every game. There are injuries every week in the NFL and even when teams prepare for the worse, they still have to scramble. Teams must draft versatile players that can switch positions during a game or season. There are no such things as set rosters. Rosters are always changing. And please Mike, draft and carry extra offensive linemen on the team.

  Everyone can get on Todd Bowles for a number of reasons; he is not emotional, the team comes out flat for games, he doesn’t know how to manage the clock or make adjustments, his decisions going on 4^th downs is awful, the players are unprepared etc. I have a different slant on it. The Jets have the worst special teams in the league. Their receivers have dropped tons of passes. Their offensive line is old and slow. They have no tight ends. Their linebackers have no outside speed to rush the quarterback and cannot cover anyone in pass coverage. Their corner backs are both on the “back 9” of their careers. With all this Bowles has them at 5-5 with a chance to make the playoffs in his first year as head coach. Maybe I’m too idealistic and I get on him as much as anyone during the game, but we have to give him some slack. In 1983 it was Bill Parcells first year as  New York Giants head coach. The giants had an incredible number of injuries that year. They finiashed 3-12-1. General manager George Young considered firing Parcells and hiring Howard Schnellenberger. Young decided to give Parcells one more year and the rest is history. I’m not comparing Bowles to Parcells but let’s show some patience.

What the Jet scribes are saying:

  Rich Cimini, ESPN

“As Todd Bowles noted Monday, when they waived Coples, it was a business decision. The Jets knew they were going to cut Coples in the offseason, so they took a proactive approach, eliminating the risk of getting stuck with his salary.”

  Manesh Mehta, NY Daily News

“The 5-5 Jets, one of the handful of teams fighting for a wild-card berth, don’t have much choice but to stay the course. A radical change to Smith would prove disastrous. The Geno Coaster is not for the faint of the heart. Smith is no longer the future (or present) of the franchise.”

 Brian Costello, NY Post

“Media and fans want to point the finger at Fitzpatrick for the Jets losing four of their last five games because … the easiest thing to do is blame the quarterback, and the quickest fix is to switch quarterbacks. But Fitzpatrick is not the problem with the 2015 Jets.”