Votes of confidence
-
- April
- 1
Big news trickled down yesterday, starting from the man at the top. Jets owner Woody Johnson said that despite the $140 million spending spree that has made the Jets more active than any NFL team in the offseason, there is no win-now mandate for Tannenbaum or Mangini. Both will be back in 2009 regardless of what happens this season. Even if Pace and Jenkins are total busts, even if Mangini asks Faneca to block six pass rushers at once, their jobs are safe.
Flush with confidence, Tannenbaum then declared that Chad Pennington isn’t going anywhere either. Chad isn’t leaving, he said, whether through cut or trade, and will compete for the starting QB job in camp. It had been believed that Chad’s Jet career was over after being benched for Kellen Clemens last year. But it seems Clemens so underwhelmed the front office that they’re willing to throw him back into open competition. Which he will probably lose, because his intangibles and decision-making (which look much more impressive during training camp when no one’s getting tackled) aren’t up to Chad’s level.
I’m fine with Woody Johnson’s declaration and not so fine with Tannenbaum’s. In general I believe that coaches and especially general managers get fired way too quickly in sports. Smart GMs come into a new job with a plan. Plans take a few years to enact. And most of them are coming into bad situations. Owners that are too restless or that listen to impatient fan bases tend to fire GMs in the middle of the plan, thereby subordinating the team. Tangini’s only had two years on the job. 2008 will make three. Is that enough time to judge their work? I say no. They need time to build a team to their liking and even make a few mistakes without one screwup (which everyone has) without being tossed in the street. At the same time, loyalty has to end somewhere. Just look at the disaster that is the Knicks. James Dolan is so loyal and sycophantic to Isiah Thomas that he’s blind to the man’s abysmal record. Tangini shouldn’t be judged like Thomas. They’ve already had one overachieving season. Their boss, sensitive purveyor of baby powder and No More Tears shampoo that he is, was right to extend them some latitude.
Chad doesn’t deserve the same treatment. Not that he’s a bad guy; not that he hasn’t done a lot for the organization. The guy just isn’t a very effective NFL quarterback anymore. And he’s not going to get better. The Chad we saw last year, the one who lost his job, that’s the Chad we’ll get in 2008. Sure, he’ll look better behind the revamped O-line. So will Clemens. There is no future in Chad. You cannot win a Super Bowl with Chad. And if you start him again you delay the rebuilding process another year. Let’s either see what we’ve got in Clemens or pick up someone in the draft (I’ve heard Delaware’s Joe Flacco mentioned) and start the process. Chad should be gone, and if he’s not gone he should be a backup, a safety valve just in case. Again, Chad is not the future.
Tangini—use your new job security to move away from short term fixes.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 4:00 pm by Jake Thomases.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
Jane McManus 
Chad is one year removed from being the NFL Comeback player of the year and the best offensive player on a playoff club. I think the idea that he is no longer an effective NFL quarterback is dubious. No one is an effective NFL quarterback with Adrien Clarke protecting him.
Fair point about Clarke. It’s unfair to judge someone based on last year alone. Jet QBs were sacked on 9.4 percent of dropbacks — third most in the league. The NFL average was 6.1 percent.
However, even in 2006 you couldn’t have been feeling great about Chad. Sure he threw 17 TDs. He also threw 16 INTs. Every throw hung in midair for hours. Safeties didn’t bother playing more than 25 yards downfield. He was the comeback player of the year mostly because A) he returned from two surgeries to play 16 games for the first time ever, B) the Jets won a surprising 10 games, and C) he’s a likeable guy that everyone wants to see succeed.
Chad is still a serviceable quarterback. He’d make a great backup anywhere. And an OK starter somewhere (Minnesota, Chicago). Just not here. The Jets are rebuilding and already have a young QB that needs playing time to mature.
I won’t disagree about Chad (I don’t totally agree either) but Clemens is not the QB of the future. Since this draft is full of decent QBs, the Jets should take one in the second round.
What Kellen Clemens needs is to be good enough to beat out Chad in camp. If he can do that, no worries. If he can’t, there’s no reason to throw him out simply because he’s younger and therefore theoretically part of the future. They should play the best player and leave it at that. (And I’d add that Clemens shouldn’t be considered toast if he can’t beat out Pennington this year.)
I expect both guys to see playing time, honestly, but hopefully in better circumstances than last year.
Sorry, But I disagree with you on both counts, Jake. With all the moves that have transpired over the past two years, plus the current free-agent moves—Woody Johnson should have enough, after this season, to decide if Tangini knows what they are doing. They handled Kendall horribly and the O-line stunk last year. Their insistance on a 3-4 defense had many defensive players playing out of position. As a result, the defense stunk. There is not one free-agent move that is not a questionmark, this year. If all these moves don’t work out – why would you give them more time to screw up. The Knicks were a perfect example—Why give an obvious loser the keys to the city. The Islanders did it with Mike Milbury. Woody, as owner, should insist on winning and success. He is not paying millions for 4-12. By telling Tangini, ‘you’ll be here no matter what happens’—there is no urgency. As a long-suffering Jets fan, I can tell you—there is a lot of urgency! As for Chad, if his arm is shot, we will know it in pre-season. If it is not shot, and if the O-line is as good as everybody expects – he can take us to the Playoffs. As with the Giants, once you are there, anything can happen. Go Jets.