"Where did it go right" would be a better question. We traded the bulk of our high draft capital for two drafts to move up and pick him. We were already a team that was seriously lacking talent so that was mistake number 1. We brought Sam into a really crummy team with a crummy o-line. Then expected him to learn while running for his life. It didn't help that Kearse went from a great possession receiver to whiny and useless in 2018 leaving us with a very sub par wideout core. Then we spent a bunch of our cap in the offseason on a superstar RB that was only a superstar because Pitt had a top o-line, and a LB who would only play one game in two seasons. Neither solved our protection problem. Then we let Josh McCown walk and hired Adam Gase, the QB whisperer with the eyes of a mass shooter, to assure Sam didn't get any development while trying to learn a new system. That season our o-line got even weaker but we used our one high draft pick on a DT and our next pick in the 3rd round on a DE. Sorry Sammy boy. We had a super easy schedule but a lack of WR weapons and even crummier o-line. Add consistently getting creamed, humiliated, and seeing ghosts on national TV to the running for his life part. In fact, all three of our starting QBs that season got beat up. Then in 2020 we were going to finally make it right. But outside of Becton our o-line only marginally improved and all our wideouts got hurt right away. And of course Bell was as useless as ever. People blamed Gase for that but the truth is Bell is not a good enough player anymore to overcome a lack of blocking talent. In his whole Jets career not even one time could he break one. I don't know where Sam was supposed to get his confidence from. And here we are. So while we tried to develop Sam he never once had: -An o-line he could rely on. -A WR core that could help him. -A RB that put that forced teams to respect the run. -A HC that could mentor him to develop and grow. Sam Darnold the Jet was broken. Yet people kept expecting him to take the next step when he wasn't even given the tools to take the first step. It went wrong everywhere and went right nowhere.
Everyone can try to pinpoint one or even a couple moves here or there that put this team and franchise in the position it's in. And Adam Gase sucks and he certainly deserves some blame for the teams failures the past couple years. But all you need to look at in order to really understand why it's an absolute dumpster fire is the link below. And you can realistically start in 2009. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nyj/draft.htm
Getting out of a draft with only 3 picks is bad biz for sure. No room for error, and then it's been pretty shite drafting since then.
It's terrible to look at. But imagine if we had one Pro Bowl offensive lineman, receiver and say linebacker pulled in from the drafts in the past twelve years? The impact would be wild on the ups and downs of this franchise. And what's telling to me is a LOT of these draft picks barely even bounced around the league after they left us or were one and done or fifth on the depth chart. The frustrating part about that is that the offensive lineman that became serviceable NFL lineman (Aboushi, Ducassez, Slauson, Dozier, Shell).
Gase seemingly needs everything to go right in order for his “system” to work. When legit everything went wrong, he couldn’t XO his way out of bad situations whether it’s bad OLine play, or terrible WR’s...some of it is BAD to try to coach through but we can sit here and say he didn’t do his best to put this team in optimal positions. And I’m still of belief Sam can be a starter, it’s likely not here.
The thing is every lineman you just mentioned is/was the worst lineman on their respective O-Lines. If they were the worst players on the Jets O-Line that would be one thing... But the Jets had a lot of bad players on their offensive line for a lot of years. If they had better talent overall, it probably would have helped those guys become serviceable. Edoga might be a guy just like that, but hopefully the Jets O-Line talent improves enough that we won't miss him even if he goes elsewhere.
We've sliced and diced all the problems and obstacles thrown in front of Sam since Day 1, so I'm not going to re-hash them again. The simpler question to answer is: Did ANYTHING go right? Answer: No. But to answer the original question in terms of "original sin", they went wrong when Werblin sold to Hess.
Dozier is an OK guard and so was Slauson. Shell was a swing tackle at best. The both were backups and below average players. But man. We've had below average to horrible play for 5+ years. We could've used a couple average guards.
Jets were trending in the right direction with Mangini and Tannenbaum, they drafted some great Jet players. Woodys lack of patience with Mangini and Tannebaum is where it started, instead they fired Mangini, brought in the blowhard Rex Ryan and the beginning of the end started, the drafts became a joke and the focus was no longer on building a balanced team. The focus shifted on building a dominant defense and a ball control offense with marginal offensive weapons, Jets have not recovered from that until the JD hire. Get rid of Gase and hire the right HC, the arrow should start pointing up. @Jonathan_Vilma had it right, 2009 was the pivotal year.
The drafting has been horrendous and that’s why we are where we are. Add in the overpaid free agents and poor coaching and you have the worst team in football. I actually believe that Douglas will turn the team around in a couple years with solid drafts and smart FA signings, but who knows. It’s the Jets we’re talking about.
It all went wrong the day Bill Parcells left town. The Jets have not had a fully professional management team since then. Even momentary ups as somebody displayed some competence for a couple of years in a row have not been able to compensate for the total lack of an effective organizational vision. Nobody the Jets have hired as HC or GM since 2001 has been up to the job of creating a winning organization and lately they've been a bunch of total losers. Joe Douglas gets an exception because he took over a bag full of dicks and is still emptying it out and trying to restock.
It's crazy to watch that and realize how many times Robbie A was on the other end of so many big plays Sam has ever made. I know its in the past and can't be reversed, but I still don't get how Douglas let him go to Carolina for NFL peanuts. This franchise needs to draw a line in the sand and do everything we can to KEEP young weapons around a developing QB and not take them away. Very frustrating
