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The ignored culprit of the constant Jets mess
By Bart HubbuchDecember 6, 2014 | 12:42am
Another day, another anonymously sourced story alleging palace intrigue within the Jets.
And like seemingly all the other ones before it, this latest claim of a “toxic” stew brewing in the halls of their Florham Park practice facilty never gets around to blaming the king.
Oh, the report for SB Nation by veteran NFL writer Thomas George that dropped Friday morning is definitely juicy, citing unnamed sources to back up tales of Rex Ryan, offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg and general manager John Idzik being constantly at one another’s throats during this 2-10 disaster.
Curiously, not once in a 1,200-word story — which immediately went viral, as all stories on the Rex-era Jets seem to do — was the real culprit for their current state of near-total dysfunction mentioned.
Woody Johnson escaped again.
Allegations from the whisper-filled story caused quite a stir within the Jets’ Florham Park practice facility on Friday.
Ryan denied trying to “stick it” to Idzik or ever thinking about firing Mornhinweg, Mornhinweg denied trying to stick it to Rex. But two sources did tell The Post’s Brian Costello there has been some tension between Ryan and Mornhinweg. And, of course, Idzik stayed true to form and didn’t say a word.
While parts of the SB Nation story didn’t exactly ring true (how was the all-run game plan against the Dolphins an attempt by Mornhinweg to get back at Rex and an attempt by Rex to get back at Idzik?), it is totally beside the point by now.
It’s all just soap-opera material at this point since everyone on the coaching staff is getting fired a month from now, and the hapless, overmatched Idzik might get the boot, too.
What is much more germane and needs no sleuthing to prove is the ultimate source of all this mess is Johnson, though the buck of blame rarely — if ever — seems to stop with the Jets owner when the national spotlight focuses on his woebegone franchise.
The Jets are indeed a circus, but their true ringleader doesn’t get the blame.
The Jets have $12.4 million in cap space after carrying as much as $25 million for much of the season, and they’re projected to go into next season with a staggering $44 million in room if the cap ends up at $142 million per team.
Idzik often gets the grief for being cheap in free agency and hoarding all that cap room when it could have been spent on cornerbacks or wide receivers not named Eric Decker who could have had the Jets thinking about the playoffs now instead of the 2015 draft class.
But since when do NFL general managers who aren’t Jerry Jones control the purse strings? It defies all logic to think Idzik has locked the Jets’ wallet all on his own or is refusing to spend money against Johnson’s wishes.
It also defies logic to blame Idzik for refusing to take Darrelle Revis’ phone calls last spring out of some kind of personal animosity, considering Idzik wasn’t even here for any of Revis’ contract disputes.
Johnson was, though.
Idzik is out of his league and can be blamed for a lot of things, particularly his brutal drafting outside of Sheldon Richardson, but final say-so on financial decisions rests with the owner. And if it doesn’t, then the Jets have much bigger problems.
Johnson also is responsible for the wacky scenario in which Idzik was hired but was forced to inherit Ryan, which is almost always untenable and usually leads to conspiracy theories.
You know, like the one popular among Jets watchers that Idzik purposely tanked this season to get rid of Ryan to bring in his own coach.
There will no doubt be more variations on that theme as Gang Green slogs through the final four games of this disaster, because juicy Jets stories are always fun.
But it’s time their owner becomes one of the main characters.
By Bart HubbuchDecember 6, 2014 | 12:42am
Another day, another anonymously sourced story alleging palace intrigue within the Jets.
And like seemingly all the other ones before it, this latest claim of a “toxic” stew brewing in the halls of their Florham Park practice facilty never gets around to blaming the king.
Oh, the report for SB Nation by veteran NFL writer Thomas George that dropped Friday morning is definitely juicy, citing unnamed sources to back up tales of Rex Ryan, offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg and general manager John Idzik being constantly at one another’s throats during this 2-10 disaster.
Curiously, not once in a 1,200-word story — which immediately went viral, as all stories on the Rex-era Jets seem to do — was the real culprit for their current state of near-total dysfunction mentioned.
Woody Johnson escaped again.
Allegations from the whisper-filled story caused quite a stir within the Jets’ Florham Park practice facility on Friday.
Ryan denied trying to “stick it” to Idzik or ever thinking about firing Mornhinweg, Mornhinweg denied trying to stick it to Rex. But two sources did tell The Post’s Brian Costello there has been some tension between Ryan and Mornhinweg. And, of course, Idzik stayed true to form and didn’t say a word.
While parts of the SB Nation story didn’t exactly ring true (how was the all-run game plan against the Dolphins an attempt by Mornhinweg to get back at Rex and an attempt by Rex to get back at Idzik?), it is totally beside the point by now.
It’s all just soap-opera material at this point since everyone on the coaching staff is getting fired a month from now, and the hapless, overmatched Idzik might get the boot, too.
What is much more germane and needs no sleuthing to prove is the ultimate source of all this mess is Johnson, though the buck of blame rarely — if ever — seems to stop with the Jets owner when the national spotlight focuses on his woebegone franchise.
The Jets are indeed a circus, but their true ringleader doesn’t get the blame.
The Jets have $12.4 million in cap space after carrying as much as $25 million for much of the season, and they’re projected to go into next season with a staggering $44 million in room if the cap ends up at $142 million per team.
Idzik often gets the grief for being cheap in free agency and hoarding all that cap room when it could have been spent on cornerbacks or wide receivers not named Eric Decker who could have had the Jets thinking about the playoffs now instead of the 2015 draft class.
But since when do NFL general managers who aren’t Jerry Jones control the purse strings? It defies all logic to think Idzik has locked the Jets’ wallet all on his own or is refusing to spend money against Johnson’s wishes.
It also defies logic to blame Idzik for refusing to take Darrelle Revis’ phone calls last spring out of some kind of personal animosity, considering Idzik wasn’t even here for any of Revis’ contract disputes.
Johnson was, though.
Idzik is out of his league and can be blamed for a lot of things, particularly his brutal drafting outside of Sheldon Richardson, but final say-so on financial decisions rests with the owner. And if it doesn’t, then the Jets have much bigger problems.
Johnson also is responsible for the wacky scenario in which Idzik was hired but was forced to inherit Ryan, which is almost always untenable and usually leads to conspiracy theories.
You know, like the one popular among Jets watchers that Idzik purposely tanked this season to get rid of Ryan to bring in his own coach.
There will no doubt be more variations on that theme as Gang Green slogs through the final four games of this disaster, because juicy Jets stories are always fun.
But it’s time their owner becomes one of the main characters.
