David Harris wasn't oft-injured but he was fucking slower than dirt... His athleticism left him long ago, yes he was a vocal leader but you are starting to reach to explain yourself... Eric Decker, Nick Mangold (should I even mention #24?) both were declining players because of all the injuries they incurred... As for Matt Forte the team should of just ate his fully guaranteed salary for this year and filled the roster with another young back which may still happen depending how he looks in camp... They should be focusing with Powell as the lead back and newly drafted McGuire and Wilds as the backups...
Those fucking veterans unfortunately had their good moments but they would of slowed any progression for some of these young ones on our roster whom may or may not be here in five years...
This team technically look like they are mailing it in, but a professional athlete on the team don't want to hear that because they are all competitors and they might not have enough talent to be truly successful this season but for this organization to grow they needed to blow up this roster and start from almost scratch...
Even if David Harris was slower than dirt (and honestly I tend to agree), he was still the best linebacker the Jets had. Eric Decker brought veteran leadership and a top notch reputation to this team. he had his share of injuries, but he was still a great player on the football field, especially in the red zone.
The idea of blowing up an entire team just to rebuild from the ground up is nonsense. There's ALWAYS veterans you can hold on to so you can at least present some sort of fight to your opponents. The Jets however, are just laying down and admitting defeat before they even play a game. I am not reaching one bit to come to the conclusion that the Jets are most certainly tanking this season. It remains to be seen whether this team has LESS talent than the 1996 team, but that's only because just about every player remaining on the roster is totally unproven. Just to name a few..... Christian Hackenberg? Bryce Petty? That's not exactly a wealth of NFL experience there? Robbie Anderson? he looked good playing sparingly last season. And honestly, no one knows if he can handle taking consistent NFL hits? He's a pretty skinny kid.
But really the tell tale sign of a tanking team manifests itself in one of two ways:
1) And this is most common - The organization merely sucks from top to bottom. They don't anything well, from coaching to drafting, managing their salary cap, etc. A prime example of that would be the Cleveland Browns. They've been terrible for many years now and no matter what they do in the draft the results never change.
2) OR you can deliberately go in the tank for a season or two to try and increase your odds of getting some franchise changing players. In a QB driven league, teams can sometimes tank to get that one QB they covet the most. The Indianapolis Colts did it?
Looking specifically at the Jets:
1) They cut every single player with a large salary except for a few.
2) Veteran leadership? It's absolutely irrelevant as far as Mac is concerned? Just about every vested veteran on the team was cut.
3) They are attempting to build what would be properly characterized as a "war chest" going into the spring of 2018. But somehow they don't seem to care about THIS season? So is 2017 a throw away season?
All of this points to the Jets not caring about winning in 2017. Let alone when Woody Johnson says himself, that Jets fans should NOT look at wins and losses in 2017, just player development? The run of the mill fan, that merely turns on the TV on Sunday to watch the Jets game, doesn't give a shit about player development. They want to see the Jets win football games.
Woody has never been the kind of guy that would say things like that anyway. He's always looked for the path to quick success. Now? He's remaining very conspicuously quiet while this roster has become virtually devoid of talent.
In the end, believe what you want. I'm certainly not telling you what to believe? But for me? If there's any official stamp you could put on a team to identify them as a team that is tanking? The Jets have invented that standard with virtually every move they have made during this offseason.
