New York Jets: Irony and acceptability of current rebuild
New York Jets fans are almost unanimously in favor of the current rebuilding plan, which is a bit ironic.
The New York Jets are in the midst of a complete and total rebuild. Matt Forte and Josh McCown are the only two potentially major players over the age of 30 left on the team. The rest of the squad, from the quarterback on down, is young and looking to grow together to start a new era of Jets football. General manager Mike Maccagnan has cut salary and saved it, leaving the team with an $80 million carry over for 2018 (per Rich Cimini of ESPN).
For the first time in his 17 years owning the team, Woody Johnson is behind the plan, ready to build from within (via team website):
"“If you want to go to the promised land, you have to go in a certain direction,” he said Tuesday during an appearance with ESPN New York. “I think this is a direction we have never tried in 17 years that I’ve been involved in with the Jets. We’ve never gone this way.”"
It seems like a long time to figure out something that most of the NFL already knew, but that is for a different discussion. What is interesting is the fact that the majority of Jets fans are actually in favor of the plan.
According to a poll recently run by the New York Post, 79 percent of the surveyed Jets fans approve of the plan to get rid of the veterans and rebuild. 58 percent won’t even attend fewer games, they will be in the stands cheering on Gang Green.
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There is some irony in this. The irony is that the Jets tried this a few years ago, but nobody was okay with it. In fact, it led to fans flying signs overhead to fire the general manager. Yes, Jets faithful, John Idzik purged salary very similarly to how Maccagnan has done it now, but nobody really approved at the time.
Why is it that Maccagnan can get away with it with universal approval, but Idzik was basically the lamb left out to slaughter? In a piece titled “The Optics of Rebuilding”, Joe Caporoso of Turn on the Jets wrote a brilliant take on why the difference.
As Caporoso pointed out, Maccagnan came in with the reputation as the “football guy” while Idzik was the money guy. We all also heard about how he was one of the scouts that noticed J.J. Watt. That got the attention of every Jets fan. If he could find Watt, who would he find for the Jets?
If you look at the results, however, you see that the two general managers haven’t been that different. Chris Ivory was acquired by Idzik, and look at the role he had in 2015. The same could be said for Eric Decker. Idzik also drafted the best remaining receiver in Quincy Enunwa and a starting guard in Brian Winters.
Mike Maccagnan did deliver Leonard Williams in 2015, but drafting a strong defensive lineman early was done by John Idzik (Sheldon Richardson) and Mike Tannenbaum (Muhammad Wilkerson). Other than Williams, Maccagnan’s first two draft classes have a lot of question marks. We don’t know what’s going to happen with the 2017 class yet. He did well putting together a 10-win team when he had a lot of money, but how is he going to rebuild this team?
The real key will come as they move into 2018. As we mentioned earlier, the Jets will have an $80 million war chest in salary cap carryover money. How will they use it? What are they going to do in the next draft, when they will presumably have a very high pick? This one will be huge for the future of Maccagnan in New York.
Next: NFL 2017: The 50 most untradeable players
Jets fans, including myself, have put an abnormal amount of faith in Mike Maccagnan’s hands. Hopefully he will deliver on that faith.