idzik ~ ~ ~

[kelly]

Jets GM Idzik can't afford to stay silent among Jets firestorm

 

The tall, angular man clad in a green shirt watching Woody Johnson’s Jets practice yesterday has been identified as general manager John Idzik.“He’s on the field all the time,” Jeremy Kerley tells me. “I love him. He’s a good dude, he’s a people’s person, he definitely is easy to talk to.”

 

“I’d like to,” I tell Kerley. “We don’t get to talk to him, for some reason.”

 

“You should, man, he’s a good dude,” Kerley says.

 

I know he is. You couldn’t shut his father up when he was Walt Michaels’ offensive coordinator. But Jets fans need to hear something, anything from The Mummy GM during what has become an As the Circus Turns soap opera rerun.

 

BANDAGE PLAYS ON: Jets GM John Idzik—aka The Mummy, writes The Post’s Steve Serby—watches a recent practice with coach Rex Ryan.The model for this type of corporate behavior has become standard operating procedure at the Garden, where GMs Glen Grunwald of the Knicks and Glen Sather of the Rangers wholeheartedly embrace Jim Dolan’s zero-tolerance policy on enlightenment and bunker mentality.But this is the NFL, our national obsession, and these are the Jets, who once upon a time not long ago proudly boasted about their transparency, reveled in their appearance on “Hard Knocks”, and relished holding Sal Poalantonio hostage at Camp Tebow in Cortland last summer.

 

The Mummy has changed everything, by design.But in the meantime, he’s mummified Rex Ryan, who has been reduced to a green-and-white puppet, as if he is suddenly starring in a remake of “Invasion of the Bodysnatchers”. Who snatched Rex Ryan?It is unfair to Ryan, forced to serve as the pinata front man for all the Machiavellian quarterback inertia that envelops the team, and all other matters, for that matter.Forget for a minute the Mark Sanchez-Geno Smith fiasco. Ryan declined to even reveal whether Greg McElroy or Matt Simms would start tomorrow night’s preseason finale against the Eagles — until tomorrow night. McElroy has a minor leg injury? Then start Simms. Is that so difficult? And the prestigious Snoopy Trophy is not even at stake in that one!

 

A request yesterday to interview The Mummy was declined. For the umpteenth time.Mum’s the word. Or, in this case, Mummy’s the word.Now, most Jets fans who pay exorbitant prices for this rebuilding product wouldn’t care if Marcel Marceau was their GM as long as they were convinced he had a plan that had more than a Kotitian chance to get their team out of the circus business and back into the football business.Look, the Dartmouth man can conduct his business any way he pleases, but Yankees fans should consider themselves fortunate that they can get daily updates, or so it seems, from GM Brian Cashman. Different sport, different franchise, I know. But still.

 

No one is asking for Sanchez’s X-rays, or for how many shares of Johnson & Johnson stock The Mummy may own, or his short list of 2014 head coaching candidates, or whether he thinks the 2013 Jets should Suck for Clowney.But Monday morning would have been a good time to show up and douse the firestorm still raging from his head coach’s bizarre postgame press conference with a funny line, something like, “Rex has lost so much weight that when he turned sideways, I couldn’t even see him!” The Mummy hasn’t addressed the daily media since the first Saturday after training camp opened in Cortland.

 

Other questions for The Mummy:

 

What did you think of Rex’s decision to play Sanchez in Garbage Time?

Since neither Sanchez nor Geno Smith will be playing in the preseason finale, since the evaluation process should be 99 percent over, are you waiting to see if Sanchez’s shoulder can heal in time for Tampa, or will Mummy be the word on your starting quarterback all the way to Opening Day to keep Darrelle Revis and the Bucs guessing?

When should it, when will it, be Tone Time?

What are your thoughts on free agent Mike Goodson’s four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy?

How ’ bout that Spadola?

 

Giants GM Jerry Reese takes a back seat once the season starts to the players and coaches in the arena. As a rule, his availability is limited then, although it is a rule that can be broken under the discretion of the league’s best public relations department.Of course, Reese has never been saddled with trying to change a culture, with shooing a circus out of town. As we know only too well, The Mummy is.

 

> http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/jets/mummy_dearest_COkRA5ZitMrDQWlkojMk1L

[kelly]

This is probably not the 53-man roster John Idzik envisioned when he first came to New York.

Not one filled with former undrafted free agents, a hodgepodge of budget veterans and two quarterbacks no one trusts.

On second thought … it’s exactly the roster he envisioned. The better question is what this means for the 2013 season, coach Rex Ryan and you, the fan.

The simple answer is it’s going to be a long year. There will be a lot of growing pains as the Jets stumble through youth and inexperience. The quarterback, be it Mark Sanchez or the more likely option of Geno Smith, will throw touchdowns but also many interceptions.  And in the end, Ryan will likely be looking for a high-paying defensive coordinator job with a team searching for the next Wade Phillips.

There will also be bright spots. We’ll bask in the glow of Muhammad Wilkerson making the leap from undercover great to mainstream famous. Quinton Coples and Sheldon Richardson will team up to torment interior and exterior offensive linemen alike. Demario Davis, Damon Harrison, Dee Milliner and Ricky Sapp will stumble at times but shine in others and it’ll be worth watching just for those “wow” moments.

We’ll get to see a youth movement at a receiver corps that’s almost entirely 27 years old and under, which brings with it the excitement of development and the missteps of youth. There might even be a stud running back on the roster if Chris Ivory can stay on the field.

All good things, but not nearly enough to stave off the mistakes of a young quarterback and a team that’s probably not better than 8-8 if everything goes well, which is exactly what Idzik wanted.

Idzik wanted to turn an aging roster over and he did just that, cutting bait with most of the older players he signed this summer as veteran placeholders. Instead of Ben Obomanu and Stephen Peterman, we have Ryan Spadola and a combination of Brian Winters and Vlad Ducasse. He wanted youth because youth is cheap, sometimes interchangeable and often struggles to get it right the first time. If Idzik’s time in Tampa and Seattle has taught us anything, it is that he’s learned at the knees of some long-term planners.  Idzik wanted a rough first year because he wants his coach and his team under his rules. John Idzik is planning for 2014 and beyond, with this season and Ryan as the unfortunate casualties.

Perhaps that’s why Ryan was in Clemson on cutdown day instead of bunkered down in Florham Park?   It’s clear Ryan doesn’t wield the power he once did, but he had to know what kind of impact his road trip would have. Perhaps Ryan is aware that he is playing out the string with a less-than-full deck and a boss that’s just waiting for his the clock to hit zero. In that case, why not bolt to proudly watch your son’s first college game?

It’s a shame in all senses of the word.  Ryan truly is one of the greatest defensive minds in the game.  A rebuild is an ugly thing, even in the accelerated culture of the NFL. No fan base wants to sit through a season they know may already be sliding off the rails. No coach wants to be a lame duck, especially in a market where the headline-hungry media openly attempts to influence the team’s operations and the public’s mindset on a daily basis.

So what’s a coach and a fan base to do? Do we put on blinders, clap our hands over our ears and scream “LA LA LA LA” until it’s over? That’s your right. But it might be more productive to take the bad with the good and enjoy the little things that go right – the improved footwork as Geno drops from under center or the crisp routes from Clyde Gates and Stephen Hill. It’s your right as a fan to stand up and cheer, but it is also your right to boo. You can scream about the Jets not doing right by a coach who has been more successful than Woody Johnson ever could have imagined.

It’s not Ryan’s fault that Mike Tannenbaum chose Derek Mason and Plaxico Burress over Braylon Edwards and Jerricho Cotchery. It’s definitely not Ryan’s fault that Woody and Tannebaum backed the Jets into a corner with Darrelle Revis and his agents.

Ryan is not without blame. Be it the Super Bowl guarantees, public relations foibles or misunderstanding of the leadership within his locker room, Ryan has very much contributed to his predicament. These are mistakes and faults I hope he learns from, because I like Rex Ryan. He’s personable and funny and a defensive genius who turned one side of the ball into something not seen in New York since the 1980s. He took a team and a franchise no one respected and won in New England and Indy and San Diego. He damn near turned the NFL on its collective ear.

Unfortunately for Ryan, between his errors as a head coach and a quarterback that never developed the way many thought he would, there’s enough evidence to bury him. Add in a second straight sub-.500 season and it’s not hard to see Black Monday in his future.

Idzik’s reworked roster will likely pay dividends down the road. You can see the talent bubbling under the surface. Outside of the early-round picks and or well-paid veterans, players like Tommy Bohanon, Ryan Spadola, Leger Douzable, Ellis Lankster and Jaiquawn Jarrett all have the potential to be contributors, if not more.  There is hope that Idzik is building something that will last for multiple seasons.

If he hits on Geno Smith, the wins will come quicker. But even that is a long-term bet. Idzik is planning for the future. The rest of us still have to sit through the now.

 

> http://thejetsblog.com/opinion/case-of-the-mondays-idzik-planning-for-the-future/

[CobraVerde]

All I came away from this with is that media is a bunch of cry babies because they don't get their questions answered so they bash and rip you apart and slam you in the public eye...

[kay_gee]

All I came away from this with is that media is a bunch of cry babies because they don't get their questions answered so they bash and rip you apart and slam you in the public eye...

yup

[JoeKlecko]

yup

 

Yep, and what makes it totally ridiculous, do the idiot think that's what's going to get him to open up and be their buddy?

[kay_gee]

Yep, and what makes it totally ridiculous, do the idiot think that's what's going to get him to open up and be their buddy?

the thing is, I really think the Jets deserve criticism for soooo many football related things that aren't the QB competition, and yet all we get is this.

ETA: I mean, could it be any clearer at this point tha Tannenbaum was anonymously blabbing his face off?

[JoeKlecko]

the thing is, I really think the Jets deserve criticism for soooo many football related things that aren't the QB competition, and yet all we get is this.

ETA: I mean, could it be any clearer at this point tha Tannenbaum was anonymously blabbing his face off?

 

Agreed, but they're not gonna bite the hand they fed them.

[Integrity28]

All I came away from this with is that media is a bunch of cry babies because they don't get their questions answered so they bash and rip you apart and slam you in the public eye...

 

Yeah, the pettiness of that first article is palpable. 

 

It's all become unreadable. Unfortunately, this is what the casual fan reads, then believes. It's sort of how media influences the sheep for politics as well. Just disgusting.