Matt insists Gang
WOODY Johnson has one final piece of unfinished business before he gets the green light from The Donald to have strawberries and cream for breakfast for the next three years: It’s time to give Todd Bowles a contract extension.
The ticked-off contingent viewing the Jets through a myopic lens won’t grasp the wisdom of such a move but it makes perfect sense in the wake of the organization’s roster decisions this spring.
I sure hope that Johnson’s insistence in January that Bowles and general manager Mike Maccagnan “will get this done” was more than lip service to satiate the disappointed masses. I want to believe that the owner’s stance that “you’ve got to have the confidence and courage to stick by (your) plan and build that way” for sustainable success wasn’t a prevarication to the die-hards.
Truth be told, the Jets plan to strip down to the studs and build through the draft is a strategically smart blueprint to finally give this star-crossed franchise a real chance to ultimately elevate into the league’s upper crust and reach the Promised Land.
Now that Johnson has expunged virtually every helpful talented veteran (sans Matt Forte) off Bowles’ roster, it’s time to make a real commitment to the head coach that the owner maintains that he still believes in.
Bowles, who’s entering the third year of his original four-year deal, should get a two-year extension.
It initially made sense to tack on one year to his deal, but the picture has become clearer in the wake of the team’s off-season purge that cleared more than $65 million in salary cap space and set up an $80 million vault for next year.
Getting Bowles under contract through 2020 makes the most sense for a team that is essentially starting all over in 2017. (The 49ers gave first-time head coach Kyle Shanahan a six-year deal to help turn around that moribund outfit).
“I definitely trust in Bowles,” team leader — and best player — Leonard Williams told the Daily News Wednesday before the second day of minicamp. “I love the path that he’s going on. I feel he’s definitely going to take us places. It’s a process. It’s not going to happen overnight.”
Johnson need look no further than the Philadelphia 76ers’ belief in Brett Brown amid their massive rebuild to understand the importance of coaching continuity during a tank-a-thon. Philly went 19-63 and 18-64 — the NFL equivalent of two 3-13 seasons — before giving Brown a two-year extension of his original fouryear deal.
The Sixers, in fact, started off 1-22 in Brown’s third season before he inked the multi-year extension. Brown’s team finished 10-72 in his third season before the organization made significant gains this season with an 18-game improvement. With a couple of cornerstone pieces in place (Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons) and the No. 3 overall pick in the upcoming NBA draft, the arrow is now pointing sky high.
If Johnson truly believes in the Maccagnan-Bowles partnership that was created after an exhaustive search by trusted consultants Charley Casserly and Ron Wolf, then it would be foolish to break up that dynamic.
“We’re going to be able to build off having the same coach here,” Williams said about the importance of coaching continuity. “We’re going to be able to have a guy who’s been here for the last few years and knows the ins and outs of our team. If we bring in a new guy, he’s not going to know our team. We’re going to have to start all over again.” Or as Sheldon Richardson put it: “The guy’s building a team. They got most of the Rex (Ryan) guys out of here. It’s (Bowles’) team. So, I can honestly sit here and say, ‘Let him build it.’”
Johnson insists that he wants to see progress from the younger players this year, but how will he actually determine how much progress is enough for Bowles to return in 2018? (NFL coaches rarely stick around on the lame-duck final year of their contracts for plenty of good reasons).
Johnson, in case you were unaware, isn’t a scout. So, who will brief him about the development of these young players? Well, Maccagnan and Bowles, of course.
Bowles will remain in purgatory in 2017 without an extension. What’s the logic in subjecting your head coach to that noise if you truly believe in him as Johnson says he does?
If Bowles really is more than a caretaker (because the owner is contractually obligated to pay him), then end the speculation and let everyone, including the players, know that this coach is part of the rebuilding process.
Real talk: Bowles’ .469 career winning percentage (15-17) isn’t going to improve this season. There are some promising young pieces on the roster, but Vince Lombardi or George Halas couldn’t work miracles in 2017 with this collection. owles doesn’t deserve to be Dead Coach Walking. He isn’t some sort of clueless buffoon lost on the sidelines. He didn’t suddenly forget to coach, either. Can the man at least have a chance to work with a potential franchise quarterback starting next season?
Woody Johnson says that he’s committed to the big-picture plan. It’s time that he commits to the coach that he says he believes can execute that plan.
BFOR many people, the Jets releasing David Harris and Eric Decker last week signaled the start of a total rebuild and revealed the organization’s intentions to tank in 2017. Matt Forte does not believe it.
“It’s a good thing we don’t operate off of what the fans think and what everybody on the outside thinks,” the Jets running back said Wednesday when asked to address tanking speculation. “What we think as a team, that’s what’s going to happen. And none of us on the team think that we’re going to tank. So all I have to say about that is: Bring it.”
Forte is one of just four players on the Jets roster over the age of 30, after general manager Mike Maccagnan purged his squad of veterans like Brandon Marshall, Darrelle Revis and Nick Mangold.