AFC Postmortem - Jets Glimpse Their Future (Hopefully)

Remember when you were 18?  It's a long time ago, but give it a try.  You were young and strong and naively believed you were smart and had finally figured things out.  You were ready to take on everything the world could throw at you and were ready to bend life to your will.  You couldn't imagine being better then you were in those days.  Basically, you were an idiot. 

Now, imagine your cocky, little 18-year old ass gets transported to the future, say 10 years.  Since this is already a totally contrived scenario, you end up having to fight a masked man.  Fuck it, we'll even put it on the moon.  So you're all set to fight this masked man, in the future, on the moon.  (Maybe it's the third round of the tournament and you've already beat a tall guy with a big head and a smaller dude with bad hair and a big reputation in moon fighting who bears a striking resemblance to the kid who used to bully you and take your lunch money as a freshman.  Or maybe not, it's choose your own adventure.)  As you're sizing up the masked man, you can see he's about your size only a bit thicker and with a little less hair and figure he's older.

So right as you're preparing to whip this old dude's ass, he rips off the mask to reveal that ... HE'S YOU!!  Just 10 years older.  So who wins?  The older version, of course.  It's close because your young and spry, but ultimately the smarter, stronger, BETTER version prevails.  As you grasp for one last breath of non-existent oxygen, all you can think is: "This is how the Jets must have felt as they ran into a better, more experienced version of themselves - the Pittsburgh Steelers - thus ending America's favorite, non-dinkus related football story."

From "Hard Knocks" until Sunday, we heard all about how the Jets believed they were the best team in the league. They were soo confident that they had the talent, the desire, the everything needed win the Super Bowl.  Despite all that bluster and all the big off-season moves (Tomlinson, Cromartie, Holmes, The Jason Taylor Statue), and they couldn't got just as far as last year.  In many way, it was much worse.


Last year getting to the conference championship was a surprise. This year getting there fell short of expectations.

Last year they lost to a team that was inarguably better.  This year, they lost to a flawed team to whom they were at least equal.

Last time they had a lead and lost it. This year they got run over (yeah, it ended up close but 24-0, is 24-0 and the Steelers made the plays they needed to make).

Can they find a way to get back next year and finally get over that hump?  That brings us back to our original point - The Steelers are who the Jets want to be - as a team, an organization and a brand. 

Perhaps its not conscious or overt but the similarities are obvious. The young, dynamic, coach.  A power running offense with receivers who impact the game without having huge stats.  Aggressive defensive schemes, predicated on pressure.  A quarterback who isn't always pretty but gets the job done.  (The Steeelers have an obviously large advantage here - which is why they won the game on Sunday - but the more we watch Sanchez the more we see some of the same qualities that make Big Ben special).  All the elements are there.  You can almost imagine Woody Johnson, an owner who yearns to eclipse the Giants as the premium franchise in the NFL's biggest market, trying to copy the blueprint like a kid with tracing paper. 

The Steelers are just better and they should be since they've been at it for more than 40 years.  From the Rooney's on down, the Steelers have maintained, yet adapted, their overarching organizational philosophy to allow them to consistently identify talented players that fit their culture.  Not coincidentally they're about to take a shot at their 7th Super Bowl.  They've mastered the true secret to long-term winning - a stable organizational philosophy.

Up until now, the Jets have been completely devoid of any such philosophy.  They've gone from coach to coach, system to system, like someone groping for the light switch in the dark at night.  Jets fans have to hope that they've finally found an owner who understands how destructive a pattern of short-term solutions can be and is committed to allowing the combination of Mike Tannenbaum and Rex Ryan to continue to build the team with consistency and patience.  For us, the entire key to the Jets offseason is understanding that no matter how close they are, true championship organizations are build over decades. They can't panic and sink big money into aging players in search of the missing piece. 

They have to continue to establish themselves as an organization that players want to play for and add to and nurture their young core by identifying young players who can be developed and ultimately plugged into their system - like the Steelers do.  They need to go from being a "now" team to an "always" team.

In that vain, they need to move forward this offseason and not focus on last year.  That's going to take some difficult decisions.  LT and Jason Taylor need to go, no questions asked.  Guys like Bart Scott, Shaun Ellis, Tony Richardson, Damien Woody, and Kris Jenkins need to be critically evaluated.  They can't overpay Edwards and Cromartie but have to do whatever they can to retain Shonn Greene, David Harris and SanAntonio Holmes and finally find a damn pass rusher.

None of it is nearly as easy as it sounds, but, after two years of unprecedented success, we'll see if Jets (finally) get it.