NY Post: "Early signs point to Johnson retaining Bowles and Maccagnan no matter how poorly they finish"

[jack48]

On 9/21/2017 at 8:11 AM, Jetsbb said:

http://nypost.com/2017/09/21/jets-new-owner-would-do-well-channeling-a-bit-of-jerry-jones/

Perhaps the most interesting thing Christopher Johnson said about his early tenure as the owner of the Jets is that “I’m not Jerry Jones.”

That’s too bad.

Right about now Jets fans might like an owner with Jones’ hands-on temperament, someone who will make those responsible for the team’s meager 0-2 start accountable or at least uncomfortable. Rebuilding is one thing; being barely competitive is another.

A Jerry Jones-type might demand a little more from his players and especially his coaching staff after losing to the Bills, 21-12, and to the Raiders, 45-20. Instead Johnson sounded a lot like his older brother, Woody, by preaching patience.

“I hope the fans will buy into our plan,” Christopher Johnson said on Wednesday.

In his first interview with reporters, Johnson, 58, said he’ll make all football decisions while his brother, team owner Woody Johnson, serves a four-year term as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom. Those decisions will include whether to retain head coach Todd Bowles and general manager Mike Maccagnan after what is shaping up to be a horrendous season.

Johnson vowed he wouldn’t decide on the two most important jobs on the team until after the season and that the Jets’ won-loss record won’t be a factor.

“My brother once said he wasn’t judging the guys on the won-loss record, but on their progression, and I agree with that,” Johnson said. “This is a team on the rise. There’s some growing pains right now, but we have a great plan and I’m going to do everything I can to support the people in this building.”

The Jets have told us about their plan, which is certainly logical. They got rid of overpriced, aging veterans and are trying to rebuild with young talent. Every player selected in the last two draft classes has made the team. And even if it’s in the Jets’ long-term interest to get one of the top draft picks next spring to use on a prized quarterback, it’s never acceptable to go through the motions for 16 weeks. The Jets look in danger of doing just that.

Twelve years younger than his brother Woody, Christopher Johnson has been part of the Jets organization since it was purchased by the family in 2000. A tennis player and active outdoorsman, he works out five times a week and looks like he could go five sets with Rafael Nadal.

He feels qualified to handle his new position, saying he was present for all the major football decisions for the last 16 years and was a sounding board for his brother.

“It’s not like I’m a neophyte in the building,” he said.

As he sat in a starched white shirt with rolled-up sleeves and a green tie, Johnson spoke directly to the fan base when he said: “I bleed green like they do.” He admitted he’s “not a patient fan,” but urged Jets fans to be.

“I want to see this team progress every game,” he said. “I’m not happy with losses. I’m not happy with mistakes.”

Nonetheless, early signs point to Johnson retaining Bowles and Maccagnan no matter how poorly they finish. He said he admires Maccagnan’s drafts and Bowles’ connection with players. And if Woody truly has no say in football matters, it seems even more unlikely Christopher Johnson would change the entire direction of the franchise by firing Bowles and Maccagnan.

Still, this season can’t be a waste and that’s why he needs to be a bit more like Jerry Jones and make the players and coaches know they’re not getting a free pass.

He mentioned leaving Super Bowl tickets for Woody because “every little brother wants to show up his big brother.”

He’s got four years to do it. It won’t hurt if he acts more like an owner and less like a baby sitter.

he sounds like a replicant of Woody--clueless

[NoBowles]

1 hour ago, Miss Lonelyhearts said:

It's difficult to get a very good read on how good Bowles is as a coach. A safe guess would be that he's somewhere in the gray area of not being good or bad enough to matter much. It's possible that he's actually good enough to be value added because this roster is just so bad but it's unlikely enough that there's no reason to do anything other than ride it out and fire him on black monday. Maccagnan is an unmitigated disaster and should be fired immediately.

Only the Jets NObraintrust knows who is more at fault.....

I still believe that Woody pushed the competitive rebuild and the dumb signing and trading for aging expensive vets to try to generate some excitement back after 2 years of the Idzik debacle, and that Bowles and Maccagnan went along with it.

I also believe, from reading enough quotes, that Maccagnans main job has been to get his HC the players the HC wants. 

Maccagnan and Bowles both appear to suck really badly, but the stupid power structure makes it really difficult to understand who is worse.

[jack48]

On 9/22/2017 at 3:55 PM, Sperm Edwards said:

Cringing typing this, but the post above yours is correct. For the tank to work, the way to play it is tell everyone they're safe so they don't go out and do anything drastic...like trying to win games, or making any midseason trades to help them win games later in the season (a la Idzik 2014). Problem is, who'd trust them to take the job if he said they're both safe to do a tank season, then fired them because they were terrible in a tank season. 

I do think it's a bit much to presume Chris Johnson is playing these 2 in such a manner, capable of mastering the PR of such a turnaround move by rationalizing, "I knew wins would be harder to come by in such a rebuild, and accepted it, but neither Woody nor I imagined we'd be this bad." 

There seems to be a high probability both return. Maccagnan, because Chris Johnson might be the one person on earth even less qualified than Woody to pick a GM, and the truth is Maccagnan likely did get at least tacit permission from Woody to do such a teardown with only stopgap/afterthought FA pickups. Bowles, because everyone knows he was handed a sh*tburger of a roster to eat, independent of his own maddening incompetence that would not improve with a better situation (rather, such incompetence would merely be hidden, or winning a number of games in spite of it, like in 2015). 

Blowes is garbage piled high.  I hope they are lying to him, at least.

[Sperm Edwards]

On 9/23/2017 at 4:01 PM, jack48 said:

Blowes is garbage piled high.  I hope they are lying to him, at least.

Both of them are, as each was promoted above his competence level. Even if one is deemed better at his job than the other, the difference is insignificant. Most head coaches aren't good anyway; even those who have shown a competence level coaching one side of the ball. So with most of them, their success or failure is tied to the rosters they're supplied with, plus bonus plusses and minuses for other circumstances (weather, schedule, opponents with significant injuries at that time, etc.).

There are few - if even that many - who will succeed no matter what. Even those with great reputations, like Reid, oversee little more than paper tigers who beat up on crappy teams and take advantage of a division that usually has a minimum of 2 weaklings. His last year in Philadelphia he was 4-12; his next year in KC he was 11-5. Did his coaching ability get nearly 3x better? Of course not.

In 2011 Tomlin's Steelers went 12-4 in the regular season. After that they went on a 21-game stretch where they won 8 while losing 13. Was he simply a bad coach over that stretch?

Since standing on top of the world with his champion Ravens, John Harbaugh isn't even a .500 coach. Or is it just that his rosters haven't been as good as he had early-on? We know the answer.

There's no shortage of other examples of current and recent coaches with good reputations (certainly compared to Jets coaches) who really only succeed when everything falls just right. Payton, McCarthy, Fox, Coughlin, etc.

You couldn't fill half of one hand with the number of coaches that would succeed with the garbage teams that Maccagnan has supplied Bowles.

And yes, Bowles also needs to go.

[jack48]

I think I agree.  What I am saying is I would like both out, but Bowles is an absolute must.  He coaches the games I watch.  And he does it badly.  I don't like the power estructure here and feel Mac should have got to pick his coach.  Water under the bridge now.  Probaby would have been Marrone if he had his druthers.

[Irish Jet]

The early signs mean absolutely nothing. If this season is to be as bad as people think the good will will run dry very quickly. 

By week 14 I expect it to be pretty much confirmed that both will leave.