Now that the New York Jets season is officially over, fans can breathe a sigh of relief. We've been fighting the inevitability of this day since the restructuring of Mark Sanchez's contract. Fans knew that was an awful idea but Rex Ryan, Mike Tannenbaum, and Woody Johnson thought otherwise. To compound that issue, they brought Tim Tebow in to be Mark's backup. I can't decide which decision was worse.
Mark Sanchez is not a good quarterback. Watch any of the last four games and it's painfully obvious. He's not accurate, makes poor decisions and lost any ounce of confidence he's ever had. The Jets certainly didn't help his maturation process as a quarterback. Instead of surrounding him with talent, he was consistently stripped of it.
Bringing in Tim Tebow was a bad move for both parties, the Jets and Tebow. They lied to him by calling him their backup quarterback. That's obviously not his job or he would have come in for Sanchez in the forth quarter against the Titans. He would also be starting next week. This year was a complete waste for Tebow. Hopefully, for him and the Jets, he can get traded to Jacksonville for a 7th round pick.
With that distraction gone, the Jets can deal with more pressing matters. Namely what to do at starting quarterback, head coach, offensive coordinator and general manager. I've defended Rex Ryan all season, but my opinion may have been swayed due to this week's events. The Jets defense is still top notch and their pass defense especially, has been stellar, even with the absence of Darrelle Revis. That is Rex's specialty, but he has to oversee the entire team. The offense, special teams, and overall talent on the team is abysmal. Unfortunately, given his comments to put the blame of not making the playoffs solely on him, it may be time for him to go. If he is fired though, it'll take awhile for this team to rebuild.
The starting QB dilemma is easy to fix. Keep Sanchez. Keep Greg McElroy. Sign or trade for a competent game manager. There will be plenty rumored to be on the market, ranging from excellent (Alex Smith), to mediocre (Joe Flacco, Michael Vick, Matt Moore), to not very good (Kevin Kolb, Brady Quinn), to undetermined (Matt Flynn). Going into training camp make it a competition and determine how to proceed from there.
Lastly, Tannenbaum and Tony Sparano have got to go. This is a second year the Jets missed the playoffs. Much of that can be blamed on the lack of talent and lack of creativity on offense. Bringing in Tebow and drafting only defense when trying to build around a quarterback you traded up for in the draft was a sabotage to his development. Into Week 15 of this season, Sparano still can't figure out how to make this offense function. Not asking for a high powered Patriots offense, but something with less turnovers and a semblance of competence would be nice.
So the Jets have two options: a band-aid or open heart surgery. The band-aid would be keeping basically everyone except Tim Tebow. Find a QB in a trade or free agency and have a QB competition in training camp. Sign/trade for help at running back and wide receiver. Open heart surgery would be cleaning house. Fire Rex. Fire Sparano. Fire Tannenbaum. Cut or trade (who on earth would take that trade?) Sanchez and Tebow. Start over. I vote for the band-aid. If they can pick up Alex Smith, with the defense they have, playoffs are attainable.
Or maybe I'm just suffering from false hope again.
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