{"id":1190,"date":"2007-11-26T00:24:58","date_gmt":"2007-11-26T05:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jetnation.com\/?p=1190"},"modified":"2007-11-26T00:24:58","modified_gmt":"2007-11-26T05:24:58","slug":"lessons-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/2007\/11\/26\/lessons-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons Learned"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tyson Rauch<\/strong><\/p>\n

After 12 weeks of the NFL season every team has gone through their ups and downs and are finally showing their true colors. After a Thanksgiving Day loss to the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Jets are now 2-9 and hopes of salvaging the season are falling to the wayside.\u00a0 As the Jets continue their descent lets look back at some possible lessons learned from the first 3 quarters of the season.<\/p>\n

#1\u00a0 My Way or the Highway:\u00a0 Coach Eric Mangini will continue to implement his systems and strategies regardless of the personnel on his team.\u00a0 Mangini\u2019s rebuilding of the Jets has long-term goals and is willing to endure short term speed bumps.\u00a0 This plan looks to take five years to complete, the only question is will \u201cMangenious\u201d be around to complete it?<\/p>\n

#2\u00a0 No more Mr. Nice Guy:\u00a0 Chad Pennington is no longer the franchise quarterback of the New York Jets.\u00a0 Over the years Chad has given his heart and soul to the Jets organization but unfortunately his body could not handle the grind of the NFL.\u00a0 In addition to Pennington\u2019s body wearing down, his arm strength limitations could not beat the New Age NFL defenses leaving him a very strong backup quarterback at best.\u00a0 Here is hoping Chad gets a fresh start somewhere else next year where he can be an asset to a winning franchise.<\/p>\n

#3\u00a0 New Leader of the Pack:\u00a0 For the past three years Jonathan Vilma was the leader of the Jets defense both on and off of the field.\u00a0 Jonathan endured a season ending injury, forcing rookie David Harris into his role.\u00a0 The results have exceeded expectations and it appears likely there is a new sheriff in town with Harris taking over the role of power and playmaker on the Jets defense. Mr. Vilma will be finding a new role on the Jets or a new franchise to play for.<\/p>\n

#4\u00a0 Just Say No:\u00a0 In the past 2 years Coach Mangini has tried a revolving door approach with his linebacker platoons incorporating special team players into defensive schemes.\u00a0 This strategy has failed as players like Matt Chatham and Brad Kassell continue to come up short when it comes to making plays.\u00a0 There are reasons why individuals are labeled \u201cspecial teams players\u201d and Coach Mangini should realize this.<\/p>\n

#5\u00a0 Numero Uno:\u00a0 Coming into this season the Jets wide receiving corps was considered to be a strength of the team.\u00a0 Upon further review the Jets have one legitimate go to guy in Laveranues Coles, followed by a nice second level complimentary receiver in Jerricho Cotchery. After Cotchery the Jets mix and match group of receivers either drop too many passes (McCareins), need substantial development (Brad Smith) or need to get healthy (Stuckey).\u00a0 You do not need an all star cast for a wide receiving corp (see the Packers) but you do need guys that understand the position and what it takes to be successful.<\/p>\n

#6 Money Talks:\u00a0 Be weary of players that have not accomplished much in the NFL prior to putting up big numbers in their contract year.\u00a0 Both Bryan Thomas and Jerricho Cotchery were given substantial contracts after having their first \u201cbig\u201d year.\u00a0 Since the contracts have been signed, the productivity has gone down.\u00a0 Coincidence?<\/p>\n

#7\u00a0 Bend it like Beckham:\u00a0\u00a0 Coming into this season the New York Jets kicking game was considered to be above average. Well after 12 weeks this appears to not be the case as the unit has struggled. Punter Ben Graham is shanking too many punts, leaving the defense in vulnerable positions.\u00a0 The field position battle is crucial for successful teams and this area needs to be re-evaluated.\u00a0 Place kicker Mike Nugent has struggled as well with several missed kicks at crucial times changing momentum in games.\u00a0 Granted Mr. Nugent improved his kickoffs, which was a problem last year, but kudos are not given out for accomplishing what you are getting paid to do.<\/p>\n

#8 Patience is a Virtue:\u00a0 The New York Jets have handed over the quarterback duties to 2nd year quarterback Kellen Clemens.\u00a0 As with every other young quarterback Kellen is going to endure substantial growing pains as he goes through the NFL learning curve.\u00a0 There will be highs and lows but it is going to take game experience to truly identify the type of player Kellen will be.\u00a0 Unless the Jets are willing to bring in a veteran quarterback with a championship pedigree sit back and relax Jets fans, success will not come overnight.<\/p>\n

#9\u00a0 Same old Jets\u2026fans:\u00a0\u00a0 Over the years Jets fans have been labeled many things;\u00a0 obnoxious, angry, negative, skeptical, pathetic.\u00a0 There could be a case made that Jets fans often act like the deplorable Detroit Lion fan base.\u00a0 Once again this year Gang Green fans are showing their true colors.\u00a0 From cheering a Chad Pennington injury, to selling their tickets to opposing fans in embarrassing numbers.\u00a0 Now they are attacking a second year quarterback with three games experience.\u00a0 Where does it end Jets fans?<\/p>\n

\u00a0#10 Money talks:\u00a0 Since taking over the Jets Woody Johnson has been successful at doing one thing\u2026making money.\u00a0 Increased ticket prices and increased game day costs while conservatively spending on front office staffs and personnel.\u00a0 There have been several rumblings of Mr. Johnson\u2019s frugal nature when it comes to spending on his NFL team, which could be a problem with the Jets having substantial cap space in 2008.\u00a0 Hey Woody you are a team in major NFL market why not act like one?\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tyson Rauch After 12 weeks of the NFL season every team has gone through their ups and downs and are finally showing their true colors. After a Thanksgiving Day loss to the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Jets are now 2-9 and hopes of salvaging the season are falling to the wayside.\u00a0 As the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-featured-editorials"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-jc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}