Since taking over the New York Jets in 2009, head coach Rex Ryan has been known for his brash, outsized personality, and his stout, hard-nosed defenses. And, of course, his stout, outsized, but recently-trimmed figure. But offense? It's a secondary concern to things like defensive lines, linebackers, and, well, secondaries. In 2009, the Jets ranked 17th in the NFL in points per game, but made up for this mediocrity by fielding the toughest defense in the league. For the next two seasons, New York's offense improved slightly, checking in at 13th in the league each year, before completely cratering in 2012 and 2013, when they were ranked 28th and 29th, respectively. Accordingly, the initial success which Ryan enjoyed in his first two seasons, when New York appeared in two straight AFC Championship games, disappeared. In the past three seasons, Ryan's Jets have gone 22-26. Last season's 8-8 finish was seen as a surprise, as many had picked New York to finish 4-12, or worse.
Despite being led by rookie quarterback Geno Smith for much of the year, New York managed to scrape together a .500 finish, and likely saved Ryan's job in the process. You can watch the video of Jets owner Woody Johnson standing in the New York locker room after the team's season finale, announcing that he had decided to keep Ryan on as head coach.
It's a telling clip, showing just how well Ryan's oft-divisive personality plays in New York amongst his players. The New York Jets love Rex Ryan, and Ryan clearly loves them back. Unfortunately, in Year 6 of Ryan's reign as mob boss of the Gang Green, love isn't going to save his job again. The only answer to silencing Ryan's critics is the most obvious one: winning. And Ryan's team spent the 2014 offseason with this reality in mind, picking up players who could help them accomplish this mission on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Former Tennessee Titan Chris Johnson will be taking over as the team's starting running back. Rookie safety Calvin Pryor is expected to shore up the team's secondary as a hard-hitting last line of defense.
And then, of course, there's the quarterback position, which remains as undecided as ever for the Jets. Whether it was Chad Pennington, Mark Sanchez or, currently, Geno Smith, New York hasn't had a reliable signal-caller in years, even when future Hall of Famer Brett Favre came to town. As such, the team signed veteran quarterback Michael Vick to a 1-year/$5M deal to back-up, or even overtake, Geno Smith under center. At this point, Smith has yet to be named as the Week 1 starter for the team. This indecision likely stems from the fact that the Jets will take anyone they can get at the position, particularly in a year when Ryan is fighting for his job. This season isn't so much about developing confidence and talent as it is about securing victories. Forget about building the trust and maturity of your second-year quarterback. Right now, Rex Ryan would cut off his wife's feet for a playoff season.
On August 12, we attended the New York Jets training camp in Cortland, N.Y. at the care of Kawasaki and CNY Power Sports, a local motorsports dealership which provides the Jets with Kawasaki Mules—essentially a large, souped-up hybrid between a golf cart and an ATV that the team uses to haul around practice equipment. While standing on the sideline with CNY's owner, we watched the team practice to gauge how close the Jets are to regaining the form that nearly took them to the Super Bowl just five years ago.
As one would expect, the team's defense looked tough. In the morning, as rain was falling across the turf at SUNY Cortland's football stadium, the offense and defense lined up across from each other in the red zone, one side poised to break through for a score, and the other ready to deny them. The players were whooping and hollering, coaches bumped chests with them after they made a strong play, and Ryan could be spotted standing near the 20-yard line, smiling with his unmistakable, 100-yard grin. He loves to be here. As our local connection would later tell us, Ryan is a fan of Cortland—which has hosted New York's training camp since 2009—and can seen dining and drinking with locals when the team comes to town in the summer.
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You had to wonder how much he liked about what he saw from his offense, though. Johnson appeared fast, as one would expect him to when he's facing little-to-no resistance during drills, but Vick and Smith both struggled during a gray, windy day, even against a secondary that has been troubled with injuries and shifting personnel. Vick's throws were wobbly and inaccurate, while Smith struggled to connect with his top target, wide receiver Stephen Hill. These mistakes raise a number of questions: Who are the Jets going to be in 2014? What impact will offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg have in his second year with the Jets? What is the team's offensive identity?
Off the field, Smith seems to have the swagger and charisma you would want out of a young player. Every so often between plays, Smith could be spied bopping around to the team's practice playlist, which included tracks like ScHoolboy Q's "Man of the Year", Drake's "0-100", and Rick Ross' "The Devil Is a Lie", the latter which receives an assist from Smith's pseudo-agent, Jay Z. Yet none of his looseness really translated to the field. His accuracy was far from perfect. Balls were sometimes underthrown or late. This problem has dogged Smith for a while now, and was cited as one of his main knocks in the lead-up to the 2013 NFL Draft. There's no question that Smith is a dynamic athlete, but after a season in which he threw 21 interceptions, 12 touchdowns, and had a 55.8 completion percentage, it's clear that he's still a long way away from putting those skills into action during the actual game.
Truthfully, Smith is coming into his second year in a similar position as his predecessor Mark Sanchez when Sanchez was entering his sophomore campaign. One regular season win and a playoff run separated separated Sanchez's 2009 Jets from Smith's in 2013. And the stats? Nearly identical. Sanchez threw 20 interceptions and 12 touchdowns in his rookie season to go with a 53.8 completion percentage. In 2010, Sanchez wasn't markedly better, he just made less mistakes, dropping his interception total to 13. On the ground, neither running back LaDainian Tomlinson nor Shonn Green broke the 1,000 yard mark during the season, and they combined for just 8 touchdowns. Yes, defense wins championships, and it took New York to the cusp of this stage in Ryan's first two years with team, but at some point, doesn't a player like Peyton Manning or Marshawn Lynch or Russell Wilson need to factor into your team's success?
Maybe it's too early to tell whether the Jets are on their way to achieving this same success. Last Saturday, the New York Jets won their second preseason game in 2014, overcoming the Cincinnati Bengals thanks to, in part, a rushing touchdown by Smith, as well as a fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Vick. Chris Johnson contributed 63 yards on just 10 carries. Tonight, the team will take on their intra-city rivals, the New York Giants, a team that faces its own slate of concerns following Eli Manning's woeful 2013. The third preseason game is supposed to be the most realistic game of the schedule. Starters will play for the majority of the game before taking off most of the preseason finale in the following week. It's supposed to be a measuring stick game.
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However, as we all know, preseason games are meaningless, almost painfully so. When recounting the team's woeful 0-16 finish in 2008, Detroit Lions fans often like to add that the team went 4-0 in the preseason leading up to their winless regular season campaign, which is to say that the preseason is a strong indicator of absolutely nothing. After months spent waiting for the upcoming edition of the NFL, fans often clamor for any glimmer of hope or promise that they can see from their team in August. It seems inviting to believe that a hot start in the NFL's exhibition slate could translate to some sort of momentum for the upcoming season.
Even if we were to take the preseason as an indicator of future success, the Jets would be exactly where we left them at the conclusion of last season: saddled with a young quarterback who needs more time to grow. Momentum is a sort of funny thing like that. New York fans want to believe that last season's surprise finish could be a signal of more success this year. But finishing 8-8 in the NFL places you in a strange middle ground, where it's impossible to know whether you overachieved or underachieved for the season. New York earned an 8-8 record in 2011, and then followed it up in 2012 with an embarrassing 6-10 year. Conversely, in 2008, the New Orleans Saints ended the year at 8-8. In the next season, they won the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, Geno Smith is no Drew Brees, and when it comes to offense, Rex Ryan is no Sean Payton.
Perhaps that's the biggest problem here: for the past three seasons, the Jets have accepted mediocrity as their end result, but even worse, for five seasons mediocrity has defined their offense. They've placed their faith in a change that may never come. It's the gamble you take with any hamstrung coach who is defined by their past successes: When will they get back to the glory days? Unfortunately, as the pressure mounts for Ryan & Co., you begin to wonder if anything was ever so great in the first place.
