Kicking off 2013 Hunter S. style PART I

The poor little media had it’s feelings hurt that the Owner and Coach went on vacation – most likely to get away from the turds that are the media. So let me get this straight: the media bombards this team every day for 6 months, blows every quote out of proportion, calls the atmosphere a circus because they seem fit to print report on every word and blast the organization for talking too much (which of course every team does but I guess the other 31 teams the media does not care about because they do not camp out at their complex nor write about every fart they let loose), then the team says NOTHING and the Media says “the circus continues.” They would have some credibility if they actually reported on FOOTBALL – you know, stuff like here is why the General Manager got fired. Which is what I am about to do.

TAKING THE T OUT OF T-REX: Why is Mike Tannenbaum unemployed? 

It is a complex question with dozens of detailed answers. But the simple answer is that he made 3 moves from the 2008 – 2012 that botched the QB position, the most important position by far in today’s flag football version of the NFL. Now for the detailed analysis

• The QB Position
• Tanny inherited Chad Pennington, coming off his umpteenth shoulder surgery and Brooks Bollinger – a career 3rd stringer, who was pressed into a starting role in 2005 after Chad, Jay Fiedler, and signed off the couch old man Vinny T. went down for the count with injuries.
• Tanny drafted (what we though) was the QB of the future in the 2nd round of his first draft: Kellen Clemens of Oregon
• Tanny added Patrick Ramsey by trading a 6th round pick to the Redskins (as we shall see later, Mr. T departs with draft picks like he ain’t got a care in the world)
• Coach Mangini creates a 4-way QB competition in training camp – which Chad wins in Secretariat ‘73 Belmont fashion.
• Chad has a nice, not thrilling, but nice 2006. Stays healthy, guides team to 10 wins and a playoff berth with smoke and mirrors.
• Chad hurts his ankle early in 2007, Clemens starts week 2 at Baltimore (marking the 78th straight time the JETS face Baltimore with a backup QB) and was a Justin McCaerins drop (never thought you would hear that name again) from capping a 17th point 4th quarter comeback. Ironically, the defensive coordinator for Baltimore that day….R E X
• Chad starts a few more games, the season is clearly going nowhere as the decision to not pay Left Guard Pete Kendall blows up in the franchise’s face as his replacement Adrian Clarke turns in a Wayne Hunter-like performance. Stubborn Mangini still plays a 3-4 w/o a true nose tackle and with a whole year of film in the history books, opposing offenses are no longer fooled, no longer try to get cute, and simply ram the ball down their throats. Clemens starts some games and looks “ok” at best, but at least he cut his teeth.
• The 2007-08 off-season lands Alan Faneca and Damien Woody to join D’Brick, Nicky M. in the middle, and Brandon Moore, one of the most underrated guards in the league. Kris Jenkins is acquired in a trade (3rd and 5th round draft picks). Overnight, the Green & White, on paper, had the best offensive line in the league and the big guy to man the middle on the other side of the ball. Thomas Jones is also acquired in a trade. The plan is simple – give young Kellen a dominant run game in his first full year at the helm…..everyone is assuming Chad will back up Kellen and provide the grizzled veteran leadership, until
• Favre
• I am back – had to go into the garage and let out a primal scream so the kids would not become alarmed. Dumb move, they should be used to it and at 5:15am it is a balmy 49 degrees in the garage – what, you think it never gets cold in San Diego?
• Trading for this prima donna 4 weeks before the season is going to start and releasing Chad to create salary cap room was a move I did not like then and still do not like. I agreed with Tanny that a broken-down Chad was probably not going to take this team to the Super Bowl because he just did not provide the vertical threat and the better defenses had the speed to take too much of the field away (see Baltimore @ Miami in playoffs that season after Chad, with even more smoke & mirrors than 2006, got Miami to 11 wins – in large part thanks to 4 west coast teams having to play 10am games at Miami, and Parcells the GM was a genius, and Parcells the rat slunk out of town once expectations were there and they stunk again after that - mainly due to lots of personnel moves the self-annointed genius made). The whole offense had to be re-worked to accommodate Favre. More importantly, THE HEAD COACH DID NOT WANT HIM! But why listen to the head coach when it comes to personnel decisions of the most important position?
• After a lackluster 3-3 start, the green & white rip off 5 wins in a row, including a dominating performance at Tennessee to hand the 10-0 Titans their first loss. The 8-3 J E T S are looking like “the team to beat” in the AFC.
• But as always, since 1968, something goes wrong. In this case, Favre hid an injury and either defied the Coach and would not allow himself to be benched OR the Coach did not have the Stones to bench him. Add Kris Jenkins all of a sudden not being 100% and you have a very leaky run defense. Favre was AWFUL in the last 5 games. The JETS blew the division and the playoffs – as a matter of fact the only game they won down the stretch was a miracle home win over Buffalo when Sean Ellis returned a fumble for a TD.
• 9-7, the Coach who did not want the QB gets fired the day after the season.
• Enter the next Coach: Rex Ryan “we will be the most physical team in the league, we will have an all weather offense that is ground & pound; on defense, we’re gonna let the fur fly, that read and react is for someone else, and with our fans, man I’m excited for the way we are going to make life difficult for opposing offenses.”
• The 2009 draft……I need to pause here and sedate myself before I am capable of getting to part II. we will also cover the playoffs, college hoops, and a few other things.