newjerseynewsroom.com

BY SAM HITCHCOCK

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

A ruling government is like a coaching regime. Each exists until its people/players become saturated by the demagogy/message. Eventually, what was working to keep the constituency centralized and stable transitions into something much different, and then that becomes aggrandized until everything collapses like a Jenga puzzle. From the Soviet Union falling to the Greek riots, schadenfreude is what makes entities’ collapsing so polarizing – and this, too, is true for the New York Jets.

The simple reality is that the Jets just have too many moving pieces that cannot get out of their own way. And if there is one adjective that CANNOT be used to describe head coach Rex Ryan, General Manager Mike Tannenbaum, and receiver Santonio Holmes, it is “tactful.”

Coaches in professional and college sports now have a shorter shelf life than ever before. Everything they say and do gets digested and analyzed by the media and fans. Ryan has only been the Jets coach for THREE YEARS. He has made two AFC championships, and is still unanimously considered to be on the hot seat. It does not help that everything he says, or Holmes says, or Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow says, gets magnified and dissected –there is too much noise for this to last much longer. The storm is coming.

Here is the AFC East division breakdown of the Jets and their competitors, with my Week 1 prediction at the end.

NEW YORK JETS:

An interesting dimension for the Jets heading into this season is how the scheduling positions Mark Sanchez in the early going. Their first seven games are brutal, as New York will face three AFC championship contenders and one NFC championship contender. This could set up nicely for backup/Wildcat aficionado Tim Tebow. If he can get the starting nod after Week 7, the road becomes much more paved after that.

Sanchez will start by playing Buffalo Week 1, at Pittsburgh Week 2, San Francisco Week 4, Houston Week 5, and New England Week 7. Week 3 they play at Miami and Week 6 home versus Indianapolis, but it is reasonable to think they will finish this stretch somewhere between 2-5 and 4-3.

And if the Jets lose Week 1, lose at Pittsburgh, and then go 1-2 against Miami, San Fran, and Houston? It seems very conceivable Sanchez could lose his job by then.

When Tebow finally gets the starting nod is crucial because from Week 8 forward the Jets play eight very winnable games in their final nine (Miami, at Seattle, at St. Louis, Arizona, at Jacksonville, at Tennesse, San Diego, at Buffalo).

Whether Sanchez or Tebow is behind center may not matter, as the Jets offense can be tabbed with the football adage, “If you have too many players at one position, then you have no one at that position.”