Look at the Jets: the anti-Raiders

[SoFlaJets]

David White, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Take a longing look at the New York Jets on Sunday. They've become everything the Raiders aren't this season: winners and playoff contenders, all in a single-season turnaround.

The Jets were 4-12 last season, just like the Raiders. They brought in a new coach, as did the Raiders.

The Jets are now 9-6 and a season-ending victory away from winning a wild-card ticket to the postseason. Very unlike the 2-13 Raiders, who are gearing up for top-two status in the NFL draft after Sunday's season finale against the Jets at the Meadowlands.

"This is a great situation," Jets coach Eric Mangini said. "It's an exciting time of the year, and we have a chance again to go play well."

The Raiders should be jealous, because they have so many similarities with the Jets, but without all the victories.

In training camp, Jets players were shell shocked by Mangini's disciplinarian style. They were accustomed to Herm Edwards, a players' coach who left for Kansas City.

At the same time, Raiders players were Art Shell-shocked by two-a-days in August and strict rules about being on time, turning off cell phones and other common decencies. His predecessor, Norv Turner, didn't force those issues.

"Eric prepares us very well," said Jets defensive end Bobby Hamilton, who the Raiders traded to New York in training camp. "He tells us exactly what we need to do to win. All we have to do is what he says."

After a slow start to the season, Jets wide receivers were complaining they weren't as involved in the game plan as they wanted.

Shell has also heard everyone from Randy Moss to LaMont Jordan, Jerry Porter and Andrew Walter go public with their game-plan dissent.

"He didn't have to win us over," Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma said about Mangini. "We don't have to like him or nothing like that. We respect him, he respects us. He's a great coach and we're winning games. That's all that matters to us."

That is the gigantic difference between the Jets and Raiders, and there's no overstating the point.

The Jets figured out how to do things Mangini's way, and have won five of the past seven games. The Raiders still can't do what Shell wants on offense, no matter how much they shake up the playbook, which is why they've lost eight straight.

That's why the Raiders are facing their second straight offseason shakeup, from the offensive coaching staff on down, while the Jets are on the upturn.

"When you have a coach like that, you can play for him any day," Hamilton said. "He's not about all that bull junk. He doesn't play mind games. He's straightforward. The right coach came and got me, and I'm very excited to be here."

Enough Raiders players say the same thing about Shell, which gives hope they can make their own marked improvement, even if takes two years instead of one.

It has happened for the Jets. Same goes for the New Orleans Saints, who hired a new coach and have gone from 3-13 last year to this season's 10-5 champions of the NFC South.

So, go ahead and wish away, because there's little else to do between now and next season.

"That's always a possibility and there's always hope for us," Shell said.