In this morning’s New York Post, Mike Vaccaro, in an inspiring attempt to uplift Jets fans out of their usual pessimism and into a new light of appreciation, spoke of how self-loathing is not the way to be as a member of our fanbase.

To justify his point, he recalled a moment of clarity that Peter King, always a favorite amongst Jets fans, had on a Jets DVD once upon a time.  To directly quote it:

“…he didn’t feel sorry for Jets fans, didn’t have any time for their angst or any tolerance for their anxiety, they were, after all, the beneficiaries of the Greatest Football Story Ever Told one forever day in the Orange Bowl.

‘How would you like to spend your life rooting for the New Orleans Saints?’ was the way King summed it up, and within minutes of dispensing that sage piece of wisdom, he immediately received seven additional job offers.”

Well, here’s the problem Mike:

Not everyone in this fanbase is 50 years old.  In fact, I’m willing to bet that at least half of it falls under that age.  I didn’t get to choose which team I rooted for, it was bestowed upon me by my father, who like you, fell in love with Joe Namath as a kid.  I have no memory of watching this man play, and the only things that I know about him are what I see on the stat sheets, what I’ve read in books, and what I’ve seen on NFL films.  And that’s supposed to give me some sort of newfound appreciation?

Perhaps up until several years ago, we should have told Red Sox fans that they should quit crying since they were such a dynasty in the early 1900’s.  Or we should tell Browns fans to quit crying since they were a powerhouse before the NFL-AFL merger happened.  40 seems like such an arbitrary number anyways, doesn’t it Mike? Why don’t we just tell everyone that if your team has ever won a championship at any point in time since its existence, they’re not allowed to be pissed off.

The Saints comparison is a joke.  To put it in perspective; since 1990 (the year I turned 10), the Jets are 127-161, with 6 trips to the playoffs, one conference championship appearance, and a 3-4 record in the playoffs.

In that same timespan, the Saints are 133-155, with 5 trips to the playoffs and a 2-5 postseason record.

So Peter King wants to know how I’d like to spend my life rooting for the Saints?  Mike, there’s no need to.  I’ve been rooting for the Saints of New Jersey my entire life.

Perhaps some of us are pissed at the way this year’s going due to the fact that we feel this is the best roster we’ve ever seen in Jet green.  Perhaps we’re pissed because we think the coaching is going to be the downfall of it.  Perhaps we’re pissed because we see something truly great in this team, yet are scared to death of the way it’s probably going to end.  Which was clearly evident in the piss poor coaching effort you saw in New England this past Thursday.  Perhaps we’re ecstatic about the win, but frightened of what happens the next time, when it REALLY matters and there is no next week.

So no Mike, it isn’t stupid.  It’s called objective criticism.  It’s because those of us who weren’t fortunate enough to see Namath play and Weebank coach want to see magic like that.  We’re happy as hell as Jets fans, yet pissed off as football minds.  Capiche?

I’m not merely a decade away from retirement like you and so many others, and I’ve most certainly been through enough to be ranked up with the most tortured fans in all of sports.  And what happened in 1969, 11 years before I was even born, during my father’s freshman year of college, doesn’t change that.  And I’d tell you to get off your high horse, but you’re a Jets fan, just like the rest of us, so you don’t even have a horse to sit on.  The sooner you learn that, the sooner you’ll hopefully stick to keeping your articles to regular reports, and leave the stuff on how we’re supposed to be fans to the experts on the message boards.

And yes, I’m ranting, but there’s nothing worse in my eyes than Jets fans trying to lecture other Jets fans on how to be Jets fans.  Especially with the history of our franchise since 1970 being what it is.  And I never thought I’d seen the worst of it until I saw Mike Vaccaro telling me that I should appreciate what the Jets have had because Peter King once spoke of a Joe Namath on a Jets DVD.  Give me a break.

I’ll be on 1010 XL in Jacksonville with my old buddies Mike and Frank from The Press Box at about 4:35 EST to preview Jets vs Pats, and also promote JI.

As always, you can listen to them live streaming here:

http://www.1010xl.com/index.php

I had an entry planned on some offensive line numbers for today, however the stats that I rely upon haven’t been published yet for the week (damn Monday Night Football, it delays everything), so I figured since it’s mid-season, why not do a mid-season mock.  And why not? Everyone loves a mock draft.

I didn’t use any sort of scientific method for the order, it’s simply the reverse order for the league standings on ESPN as of right now.  Detroit and Philly both have 2-1st rounders due to trades in the ‘08 draft, so I subbed them in.  The order will probably look nothing like this in the end, but I wasn’t going to make up a random order.  I felt it was best to just go by the way everything looks right now, and how I think the picks might fall if the season ended today. I’m not going to detail every pick, simply because it’s still ridiculously early and that would take forever, I will do the Jets though, obviously.

So, away we go.

1. Detroit - Matt Stafford, QB, Georgia

2. Cincinnati - Andre Smith, OT, Alabama

3. Kansas City - James Laurinatis, MLB, Ohio State

4. San Francisco - Rey Maualuga, ILB, Southern Cal

5. Seattle - Chris Wells, RB, Ohio St

6. St. Louis - Michael Oher, OT, Ole Miss

7. Oakland - Eugene Monroe, OT, Virginia

8. Houston - Michael Johnson, DE, Georgia Tech

9. Jacksonville - Vontae Davis, CB, Clemson

10. Cleveland - Michael Crabtree, WR, Texas Tech

11. San Diego - William Moore, S, Missouri

12. Denver - Brandon Spikes, MLB, Florida

13. New Orleans - Aaron Curry, OLB, Wake Forest

14. Green Bay - Malcolm Jenkins, CB, Ohio St

15. Miami - Taylor Mays, S, Southern Cal

16. Minnesota - Jeremy Maclin, WR, Missouri

17. Indianapolis - Alphonso Smith, CB, Wake Forest

18. Detroit (via Dallas) - Knowshon Moreno, RB, Georgia

19. Atlanta - Alex Mack, C, California

20. New England - Brian Cushing, OLB, Southern Cal

21. Philadelphia - Jason Smith, OT, Baylor

22. NY Jets - Darrius Heyward-Bey, WR, Maryland

- I was honestly targeting Tyson Jackson with this pick, but after seeing the board falling the way it did, I had to go with DHB.  Don’t let his stats fool you either, Maryland’s offense hasn’t exactly keyed in on him this year, and it’s hard to argue that they’re clearly at full steam when they’re actually getting the ball.  Just a ton of potential and a great set of wheels on this kid; I think it would be a fantastic pick in this slot simply due to his skill-set (we’ve been severely lacking a true deep threat since Moss), and the fact that he’d be able to sit and learn for a year or so under two of the better recievers in the business.  Don’t rule out the Jets going ILB, DE or CB at this slot though.  RB is definitely a possibility at this point if Moreno is still on the board, which is always possible as RB’s have been proven to drop in recent years.  I think there’s the possibility of a very good 3-4 ILB prospect slipping if Brandon Spikes declares, (which as you can see above, I think he will, and honestly I might have him going to low, he’s fantastic).

23. Chicago - Greg Hardy, DE, Ole Miss

24. Buffalo - Jermaine Gresham, TE, Oklahoma

25. Arizona - Phil Loadholt, OT, Oklahoma

26. Baltimore - Brian Orapko, DE, Texas

27. Washington - Mike Mickens, CB, Cincinnati

28. Tampa Bay - Tyson Jackson, DE, LSU

29. Philadelphia (via Carolina) - Clint Sintim, OLB, Virginia

30. Pittsburgh - Duke Robinson, OG, Oklahoma

31. NY Giants - Travis Beckum, TE, Wisconsin

32. Tennessee - George Selvie, DE, South Florida

It’s official, Leon Washington is the Jets best playmaker on offense.  If you don’t agree, I’m sorry, but you just haven’t been watching the Jets since 2006.  No player is as much of a home run threat, no player is as versatile on the field, and there’s few players throughout the league who can go the distance at anytime either running, recieving, or returning, and be equally dangerous in all 3 facets of the game.

I did some rough math yesterday with this year’s stats, and this is what I came up with.  Feel free to double check me, as I could very well be off.  There’s a reason I took my one required math class in college and never took another one.

What I did here was just figure in total pass attempts and total rush attempts.  Simple enough.

Along with kick and punt returns, added with rushing attempts and receptions, Leon is averaging just under 12 times per game that the ball is in his hands.

That’s about 18% of the time, with regular offense and ST’s COMBINED, that the team has gotten the ball into his hands.

Take out the returns, and focus only on rushing attempts and receptions, and it’s 7 times per game he has the ball in his hands.

7.

From a percentage standpoint, they’ve gotten the ball into his hands just under 12% of the time on offense.

>12%.

This is our best offensive playmaker.

If there’s really any worries about overusing him, I’m sorry, but the numbers suggest otherwise. Even with the return attempts, he’s being underutilized immensely. Take out that 60 yard run and he’s still averaging 4.5 YPC on the ground. Not to mention that along with Jones, we’re 26th in the league in rushing attempts, despite the fact that we haven’t played one top-ten rushing defense this year.

Good teams don’t get the ball into the hands of their best playmakers slightly over 1 out of every 10 plays on offense.  It’s time to Schott and Mangini to cut the shenanigans already and just start playing to the obvious.  The Jets have one heck of a threat on offense and he’s clearly not being utilized enough.

Between Thomas Jones, Alan Faneca, and Damien Woody, the Jets have given out $85.5 million in contracts over the past two offseasons to upgrade their running game.

As of right now, We’re running the ball 21 times per game between Leon and Jones.

In terms of total rushing attempts between everyone, we’re 26th in the league, take out the stupid gadget plays between Smith/Coles and Favre’s scrambles, and we’d probably be closer to 30th.

In terms of rushing defenses, the Jets have played the 12th, 15th, 16th, 20th, 26th, 28th, and 32nd ranked rushing defenses in the league. 

Not one top 10 rush defense on the schedule so far, yet Mangini and Co are 26th in the league in rushing attempts, in spite of investing an absurd amount into the running game and having a quarterback on the roster who they acquired at the end of the summer.

This in spite of the fact that Thomas Jones is averaging 4.4 YPC, and Washington is averaging 5.7 YPC.  Take out the 60 yarder he ran on Sunday, and he’s still averaging about 4.5 YPC.

This is what the coaching staff considers putting in an effort to get a return on their investment? People use the excuse that Favre is still learning the playbook and the team’s still getting to know each other, but the stats show that the coaching staff has committed to the pass in a stretch where they didn’t face good rush defense and it cost them immensely.  Against the worst rushing defense in the league, Mangini committed almost 2/1 for passes to rushes.

And people still insist on blaming Favre.  Unbelievable.

That’s it, those are your two options.  At this point, there’s no way to justify good coaching.

The combined record of the Jets past 3 opponents is 3-19.  Yes, 3-19, as in 3 wins, and 19 losses between the 3 of them.  In terms of scoring defenses going into this week, they ranked 27th, 24th, and 28th.  Offensively, they are the 30th, 31st, and 32nd ranked scoring offenses.  The 3 worst offenses in the league. 

In other words, it’s pretty reasonable to say we played the 3 worst teams in the league.  Maybe you can rank Detroit up there too, but that would still mean we played 3 of the 4 worst teams in the league.

The combined score against all 3 opponents? 67 - 54.  Losing one, and giving up an average of 18 points per game to them. 

Mangini is 18-21 as a career HC.

So in other words, he has a losing career record, just put up a completely uninspired and lackluster 3-week performance against arguably the 3 worst teams in the NFL, and 3 of his next 4 games are against Buffalo, New England, and Tennessee.  He has a 30% approval rating on ESPN.  As a defensive coach, has the 20th ranked scoring defense in the league despite more than half the schedule consisting of offenses ranking in the bottom 3rd in scoring (Miami, along with the others)

Of course, we have St. Louis during the next month, meaning that Mangini has an opportunity to maybe escape at .500 on the season from this upcoming stretch, simply because we still haven’t won our “game we were supposed to lose” game yet, which every team has, every season.  However, St. Louis has been damn competitive the past several weeks, and there’s no reason to think we won’t see a repeat of yesterday’s pitiful, uninspired performance.

Can’t beat the Raiders, can’t beat the Pats with Brett Favre QB’ing his team and Tom Brady not QB’ing the opposition’s, can barely squeak by Miami and Cinci (anyone who watched that game can’t even argue that it wasn’t closer than the score indicates), and today, attributed the fact that he ran his two best backs only 17 times against the worst rush D in the league because Chris Baker was out.  Unbelievable.

Several weeks ago, I wrote that talent wouldn’t be enough to overcome the Mangenius.  Nothing has happened since to make me believe otherwise.  The guy sucks.

Sorry, we’re either a good team with bad coaching, or a bad team with bad coaching.  Because at this point, there’s no way to justify good coaching.

A recent thread was started in the main forum which suggested Mike Nolan as the next Jets head coach.  Of course, people immediately berated this person and cyber-kicked them repeatedly until there was nothing left of them but e-dust.  There’s irony somewhere in the fact that he got fired in the same week that we’re about to face Herm, who’s also not too far away from getting fired, and it always seems like odd, ironic news always relates somehow to us.

There was a very interesting post in that thread, albeit a simple one, which reminded all of us that Mike Nolan was once the Jets’ defensive coordinator.

I couldn’t believe it, I’d completely forgotton about that.  Yes, Mike Nolan was our defensive coordinator once upon a time.  He once wore green and stood on the sidelines while some of my favorite defensive Jets ever ran his gameplans.  Victor Green, Aaron Glenn, Mo Lewis, Marvin Jones…they all once sat in meetings with Mike Nolan and prepared for next week’s opponent.

It’s crazy thinking about it that way.  Everything that we’ve witnessed since then, and it made me go back and look through some old stats and rosters on all the stuff that we as a fanbase have watched since then.

5 years of Herm, several years of Mangini, a Patriot dynasty, one dissapointment after another in the postseason, the rise and fall of Chad’s shoulder, Dewayne Robertson, Terry Bradway’s reign of losing one good player after another, Jay Fiedler, Patrick Ramsey, Quincy Carter, Brooks Bollinger, the fizzled ending to Chrebet’s career, Jonathon Carter in Indy, Justin McCareins, Richie Anderson and Jerald Sowell being two of the most underappreciated Jets of the decade, the let-down of Ty Law, Eric Coleman giving us hope and then bottoming out, the fallout from losing Jason Ferguson, and on that same note, James Reed replacing him, Donnie Abraham playing very well for us for several years, signing Reggie Tongue, the debacle of John Hall’s constant mishaps, the infamous Washington-raid of 2003, even Chad Morton’s awesomeness as a kick returner.

Laveranues Coles returned kicks for us here and there for two years.  I completely forgot about that.  James Farrior sure turned out to have a good career, just not with us.  We lost a great Special Teams player like Jamie Henderson to an unfortunate motorcycle accident, and I still think he would have evolved into a quality starter.  I met Kevin Swayne when I was working in Freehold Mall during college, and he signed a Christian prayer card that he had on him and gave it to me after I asked for an autograph.  I bought Curtis Conway, John Abraham, Jonathon Vilma, and Sam Cowart jerseys.  I bragged to my buddies about how Jon McGraw would be the next John Lynch, and defended trading Moss to Washington to get Coles back, even in the midst of that awful 2005 season.  I even punched a wall when Lamont was finally gone.

And who here remembers Matt Turk punting for us? Pat yourself on the back, you’re one hell of a fan.  How about Kevin Lockett?  Aaron Beasley? Shane Burton? Damien Robinson? How about Tom Tupa? Who is hands down one of the best space-saving punters ever for a roster simply for the fact that he also served as our 3rd string QB.

It’s crazy thinking about that.  So much has probably gone on since that era for all of us.  I went to college, moved cities, said goodbye to my grandmother, lost several friends, gained weight, lost weight, had girlfriends, and lived through the Bush administration.  And it’s amazing that all of that happened since Al Groh, it seems like yesterday.

And that’s just how it is for Jet fans.  It’s why Mangini frustrates us, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.  Sometimes, you just get stuck with a coach and a team who does this to you.  Sometimes you see things like Chad Pennington in 2002, or Brett Favre coming to the Jets this past August.  Sometimes, you watch Thomas Jones and remember that you once watched the NFL’s leading rusher in Jet green, and sometimes you remember that 3rd down once was never a concern because we had Wayne Chrebet.  Sometimes, I guess that’s just the way things are.  Sometimes you realize that you once had all these great players in what seems like ages ago, and sometimes, you look back and realize that Mike Nolan was once your defensive coordinator.

Sometimes, the Jets make you stand up and cheer, and sometimes, they make you kick a puppy.

Man, that was some level of response yesterday.  And I have to say, it was definitely entertaining, I was called everything from trash to even a coward, over the internet (irony much?), for ripping a NFL coach who has done more than his share to deserve criticism the past year in a half.

Did I write that to get a reaction from people? Yes.

Did I embelish things to get a rise out of people? Of course I did.

Did I mean everything I said? You betcha.

Good, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I’m going to focus this week solely on running backs.  Why? Because Thomas Jones is average in spite of the number of TD’s he scored against an 0-6 team, and this team obviously needs a playmaker in the backfield other than Leon, who doesn’t look like he’s ever going to have enough confidence from this staff to give him more than 10 carries in a game 3+ times per year.  Why? I have no idea.  Such is Eric Mangini.

OSU (Chris Wells) vs. Michigan St (Javon Ringer) - I’ve kind of adopted Michigan St this year as my go-to team, so I’m pulling for them.  They’re an exciting team to watch, and if they run the table, can still make a run at the BCS.  Javon Ringer has been the best senior RB in the country this year, and is really a joy to watch play.  Keep in mind that he’s really racking up the mileage (he’s averaging 35 carries a game in 7 games), but he’s also averaged 4.5 yards per carry behind an underrated MSU line that’s played very well this year.  Chris Wells has been great since returning from his foot injury and has returned to first-round form.  He’s a big back who moves well for his size and has the capability of being a feature back at the highest level.  It’s pretty amazing for a guy to come right off a foot injury and run for 106 yards on only 14 carries, like he did against Minnesota several weeks back, I don’t care who the opponent is.

Pitt vs. Navy - Wait, I want you to watch Navy football? Yes.  And that’s because you need to watch LeSean McCoy if you haven’t already.  Navy is 4-2 and on a 3-game win streak (one of which was against Wake Forest), and will most certainly be bringing their A-game against the 23rd ranked Panthers.  After a slow start this year, McCoy was fantastic 2 weeks ago in Pitt’s upset of South Florida, and is as physically gifted as almost any other RB who’s eligible for the 2009 draft, of which he’s sure to declare for.  McCoy reneged on a verbal commitment from Miami several years ago in order to go to Pitt, which wound up being a great decision for him.

I’m off to Homecoming for Rutgers this Saturday, so everyone enjoy the weekend.  The new Oasis album is fairly decent, so if you’re a fan it’s worth picking up.  iTunes also recently put up all of Radiohead’s EP’s in their store, and there’s a ton of great songs on those that most probably haven’t heard.  I definitely recomend exploring them, just some great non-album tracks by one of the greatest bands of the past 20 years.

Let’s get one thing straight right now…

I love this roster.  I don’t think I’ve ever liked a Jet team more in my life.  Even the 98-99 teams, I think I’d take the 2008 Jets on paper, man for man.  They’re more talented in just about every facet of the game.

You can’t win football games without good football players.  That’s a fact.  It’s what the Jets have been lacking the past several years and its what Tannenbaum and Co fixed in just one offseason, which is pretty remarkable when you think about it.

And yet, this team still isn’t playing up to its capability, and I don’t think it’s going to happen with Eric Mangini at the helm either.  The man chooses to sit on early leads too early, he lets up on his opponents like a softcore version on Marty Schottenheimer, he fails to play to his players strengths too often on both sides of the ball, and worst of all, he’s stubborn.

Simply put, Eric Mangini, as a head coach, is somewhere between mediocre and bad.

Self-hating Jet fan you say? That may be, but I also think that I know a good coach when I see one, and Eric Mangini isn’t one.  He’s a glorified defensive backs coach who gets way too much credit for making adjustments.  Mostly because this team always looks unprepared in at least some facet of every game and then doesn’t think to do the obvious until its 2 quarters into the game.  The guy switched to a prevent style two games in a row, BEFORE THE 4TH QUARTER.

He consistently lets up on opponents, makes questionable play calls on every end of the spectrum, and in the midst of acquiring a ridiculous amount of starting talent on the offensive line, (and supposedly a guy who was an o-line genius [Callahan]), still has yet to get his line to resemble anything that looks like an adequate run blocking unit.  3 years, no running game.

This man was credited with the success of one of the most surprising secondaries in the league when he was with the Patriots, and in his 3rd year with two of the best defensive backs in the entire league, has one of the worst pass defenses throughout the NFL.  This in the midst of the Jets being one of the best pass rushing teams in football, and the 3rd ranked rush defense.

Would you put Eric Mangini even in the top half for coaches in this league?  I wouldn’t.  I take a quick look at the current teams in the NFL and I see 15-16 teams with a better coach.  And on the other side of that, I take a look at the rest of the league and see only about 5-6 teams who are have a more complete starting lineup from top to bottom.

Those who blame the coordinators and the positional coaches are following the Herm Edwards school of thinking.  Meaning that when the offense falters, it’s the offensive coordinators fault; if the defense struggles, it’s the defensive coordinators fault; if we can’t manage a game from a time standpoint, it’s because we never hired a clock management specialist…etc.  You get the point.  Nothing ever falls on the head coach, which is a load of BS.

I think this team is a Super Bowl caliber team on paper.  It’s just as talented as any team in the league.  We’re going to go far this season because we have Brett Favre and Kris Jenkins.  I truly believe that.  Yes, there are weak points, but every team in the league has its weak points.  My problem is that I only think it’s going to go as far as Mangini’s incapability lets them go.  Sooner or later a playoff run, or a playoff game is going to come to an end on the heels of this guy’s decisions, and I’m not looking forward to when that happens.