Hi folks, seeing as the season is in the trash and it's back to the drawing board, I'd like to bring a topic into focus for debate. It's something I've brought up in various threads but I personally feel there's something to it. There has to be. The NY Jets scouting dept. What is going on there? Who runs it? How long have they been there? How is it that multiple GM's, across two decades, have been unable to pull the NY Jets from the bottom of the draft heap? How is it that this team is universally considered, true or not, to be the worst drafting organization in the league. Now, if it was the same GM there could be an argument. However, different men across many different philosophies. Hell, by sheer odds, you'd think at least ONE of these GM's would break the cycle. Unless, of course, something is going on where the talent they are being provided do not meet the smell test. I don't know, maybe I'm looking where there isn't an issue. However, I've always believed the old adage, "where there's smoke, there's fire." The team has been such a poor drafting team, for so long, it's time the whole enchilada is investigated. Thoughts? Am I barking up the wrong tree? At worst, it's a fantastic topic for debate.
I thought Mac replaced most of those guys. Especially the long timers who got comfy and soft. From what the results show, it may be time for another staff turnover. Especially the scouting dept. Mougey can't go out in the field and scout talent so, its up to the people whose job it is to do that. Mougey might want to consider hiring HIS scouts and/or consult Glenn who use to be a scout on the hires. This current group is meh...
See now, this is a fantastic idea. While his HC/DC abilities are in questions, I've heard he was a pretty damn good scout. Which makes sense. You'd think a former player, who was around many different players, would be able to spot what it takes to be a player in the league. I don't know about what Mac did or how thorough but I agree that this entire operation needs a very deep cleaning and right now is the time to do it.
It all starts at the top. Until Woody incinerates every scout in the current group, nothing will change. They need to start fresh. Clean the entire building. Not even a janitor in the current group should stay. When it's completely broken, you need to completely fix it.
Well, does anybody know if scouts were replaced last year with the new management? Is this a moot issue? And I have no beef with the quality of the last draft. It looks like They will hit on a reasonable number of the choices. As always, drafting a QB is topic number 1. I have to believe top brass personally observes the guys they are considering. Sure, in the past we had very questionable picks, with a low rate of success. 2026 with all the quality potential picks will tell us a lot. But that won't be known for at least 2 years. Also, I do like the off season and in season pick ups they made beside the draft.. Its the Fields decision that distorts everything asnd probably no scouts were involved with that.
To me the scouting and player personnel departments are just like the offensive line… If you have no idea who they are it’s because they’re doing their job. So far I have close to no complaints about any of the draft picks or signings.
Now, I don't think we need to go as far as the janitors. lol Back office staff who are paying the bills, managing the buildings and keeping the lights on are not who I'm talking about. Football people ONLY. I'm not about putting people, who have nothing to do with the actual product on the field, out of work. The economy is bad enough. Actually, it's not being able to be consistently successful in the lower rounds. Let's face, outside of QB (and maybe McDonald IV) the first round is one where we've drafted high enough that you'd have to be an idiot not to hit. Sauce, G. Wilson, Pennington, Mangold, Ferguson...you can go down the list. It's pretty hard, outside a QB, to fuck up the 1st round. Where GM's and the scouting dept. make their $$ is round 3 on down. The Jets, historically, haven't been very good.
When you blow something up, you don't keep anyone around that represents the stench in the building. That includes all of those back office people as they are just as much a part of the problem. You cleanse entirely or don't do it at all. You've been waiting almost 60 years, you have to be absolute about these types of things. They're all expendable.
It’s a little different than it was back in the day though. Guys can scout from afar with the amount of film available and analytics ala PFF and other sources. The first group of prospects from last years draft seem to be pretty good though. Membou is playing like a top 5-10 right tackle in the league let alone being a rookie. Taylor looks like a nice player and is very young. Arian Smith, meh. Malachi Moore looks like a nice player and so does AZ.
Why would you recommend Woody do the housecleaning? What makes you think he is in any way qualified to make such decisions? Call me foolish but I do not believe that a fat wallet and longevity enhance a resume for such decision making. Either you know much more about the inner workings of the scouting department than the rest of us or you want to send a bulldozer to do a task best suited to a shovel or even a small trowel. Without searching how many scout's names can you identify with their positions at the Jets?
Not a one. And I don't need to because the results speak for themselves in every area of this organization.
Truth is none of us has any real knowledge of how our scouting dept works…I remember JD came in and changed a lot of the processes in how they rated players, and how they fit into the coaching schemes, etc. But we don’t know if that included a lot of personnel changes or just process changes. Regardless, I agree with the poster above…the results speak for themselves. We don’t know all exactly WHAT is wrong, but we DO know that SOMETHING, and likely MANY things, are wrong with this operation. Could be lack of sufficient investment in people, or tools, or skills, could be lots of things, but something is very wrong with how consistently bad we have drafted over many many years. Combined with poor coaching, it’s how you get to our results as a team. But again, we know very little about any of these specifics
actually we can tell a lot. look at the size of the Eagles football operations department: Philadelphia Eagles Front Office Roster >> now compare it to the Jets: New York Jets | Front Office -- Eagles have 37 full time employees in the football operations dept. The Jets have 5. And 2 of them are just interns.
Well it's no secret that the Jets don't take football seriously. Woody was fine with stating that he's not a good owner in terms of winning football games, but he really shines in the way he connects with the players.
Well, so far the player acquisition of the current regime has been good. Draft, trades and free agents. Much better than JD.
This is sickening... Wondered what went on behind the curtain that put us at a disadvantage and this doesn't help.
I dont think you can blame only the jets scouts for beeing "unable to pull the jets from the bottom of the draft heap." There's 3 levels to player development, all of which need to work in order to have a successful player on the field. They are (1) GM and scouting has to do their job in finding the right player; (2) coaching has to do their job in teaching, leading, utilizing the player to the best of their abilities, putting them in positions to be successful; and (3) the player's needs to do his job in studying, training, listening to coach and applying, ambition for growth etc. If any one of them fail, you dont have a successful player. Its difficult sometimes to know which phase(s) failed in a given instance, I dont think you can just say "scouting" as a blanket answer for all failures. There's been plenty of guys over the years who stunk on the jets and then went on to have success in other places and environments. To name just a few, Darnold, Geno, Becton, Ty Johnson, Demario, Pinnock, Woodhead, Myers, Fatukasi, Shephard, even Ashtyn Davis is playing much better in Miami. Sauce will be another addition to this list, I'm sure. You can see in those instances, the scouts actually found the right player, but it didnt work out for other reasons. The entire organization as a whole is creating a bad environment, I dont think you can put it all on scouting.
My point was the organization has changed the hell out of 2 of your talking points. I was simply inquiring about the 3rd. It just "feels" like, outside the 1st round, the talent level of the team isn't comparable to other teams. The 49'ers were on full blown "street talent" and somehow managed to knock out 6 wins. Quite a few other teams are going through the same. I was just wondering what, if anything, has been done with the scouting/talent evaluation dept. Was hoping others had more insight which @BrowningNagle pointed out a SIGNIFICANT disparity.
