Jeff Capellini: The Green Lantern

Jones Is The Leader Jets Have Been Waiting For

Someone had to say it.

When you rush for more than 1,300 yards and score more than two dozen touchdowns, you can pretty much say whatever you want. Thomas Jones called out Brett Favre earlier this week on a New York City radio station, making the kind of comments many in the Jets' locker room probably wish they had made.

There was nothing malicious about what Jones told Hot 97 FM. Jones is a straight shooter. Favre, himself, credited Jones earlier in the season with being the emotional leader of the team. Well, Jones pretty much summed up the Jets' emotions at this point.

Jones said Favre should have been benched during his struggles. He said the veteran quarterback's play down the stretch was embarrassing and that his teammates may not admit it publicly but they almost blame Favre for the Jets' fall from 8-3 to 9-7 more than axed head coach Eric Mangini.

But to be fair, Jones also made it clear that the team would welcome the future Hall of Famer back in 2009. They seem to understand what many fans understand but don't want to admit: the Jets, at least next year, will not be better off without Favre.

The fans are teetering on the brink of revolt over Favre and the coaching situation. One need only listen to WFAN at any hour of the day to hear the venom. I heard one caller say the other day that Favre has proven nothing to the fans. He may have been an all-world talent in Green Bay, but with the Jets he performed like just another in the long line of disappointments.

Here's why Jones' words ring so true: the only way Favre will endear himself to the Jets' fan base is if he comes back next year healthy and wins not only in the regular season, but also in the playoffs. Does that mean he has to win a Super Bowl to be respected? Probably not. But he certainly cannot come back and toss 22 interceptions again.

It will be interesting to see just how much time Woody Johnson and Mike Tannenbaum give Favre to make up his mind on '09. They have said the next coach will have a big say in whether the organization truly wants him back. My guess is if a coordinator gets the gig he may be a bit intimidated by the notion of telling Brett thanks but no thanks. Though I'll know for certain the next guy will be the right guy if he kicks Favre to the curb, and that's not because I don't want Favre back. I subscribe to the theory that the Jets will be a mess with Kellen Clemens as their quarterback. I just don't see any other viable option but to bring Favre back.

But if your team is lacking an identity, getting one starts with the coach. Whether the Jets hire Steve Spagnuolo or Rex Ryan or someone else without previous head coaching experience, that man will be responsible for the team's public face. I think Spagnuolo brings the best of both worlds to the table. He's an affable guy with a serious streak. Ryan is just evil, but this team has lacked an intimidating edge for 40 years, so he'd be more than welcome. Just look at the defenses he's presided over in Baltimore.

Mike Shanahan, though reportedly just on the periphery of the Jets' plans at this point, would bring professionalism and creativity. Marty Schottenheimer would bring a tinge of respect and fatherly intuitiveness to the job, but his downside is he's never won a big game when it has mattered.

There are others whose names have come up, but they are all mostly wild cards. You just don't know what you are getting in the intangibles department.

Favre is probably thankful the Jets are going to be thorough with their search for a coach. It will give him more time to come to a realistic decision, one that doesn't result in him changing his mind 47 times over the summer. Favre has to know whatever he chooses to do has to be final. Jets fans will give up on him entirely if he plays any games. More importantly, it doesn't appear that Johnson and Tannenbaum will stand for flip-flopping.

As the prophet Yoda once said: do or don't do. There is no try.

As for Jones, he's truly the face of this team. Favre may have the stats and the longevity, but when it comes to the passion to succeed and the will to win, Jones stands alone on this team.

Can you imagine if it had been Jones at the Mangini press conference instead of Johnson and Tannenbaum?

It might have went something like this:

Jones: "We've decided to make a change, not because we want to go in a new direction, but because we got sidetracked from the path we were on."

Reporter: "So you are saying the Jets should have won the division and gone far into the playoffs?"

Jones: "Hell yeah. Someone has to put their foot down. And that foot is me."

Ouch.

Jones is the guy you want in the foxhole with you. He's strong enough to fight off the enemy, but also smart enough to know when to cut his losses and run.

If he could only wear a headset and play quarterback, too.

Send Jeff your thoughts

Jets' Plan B Should Be "Spags"

Now that Bill Cowher has deemed the Jets unworthy, this bumbling franchise is at yet another crossroad.

The pressure to get a proven winner or can't-miss hot-shot assistant in here is enormous. The Jets fan base is perennially left with its nose pushed up against the glass while other teams have found success either getting the coach they want or making the most out of the coach they have.

The Jets never seem to do this.

Ever.

Even when they have had a great coach he hasn't stuck around long enough to finish the job. Bill Parcells took the Jets to within one solid half of football of getting to the Super Bowl back in 1998. But after Denver recovered one of its own kickoffs and John Elway got his bearings, the Jets were once again prevented from getting to pro football's biggest stage.

Since Parcells flew the coop, the Jets have trotted in one mistake after another. Remember Al Groh, Parcells' hand-picked successor? That guy went 10-6 in 2000 and then disappeared to the greener pastures of the University of Virginia, his alma mater. He clearly wasn't cut out for New York.

Then there was Herman Edwards, who for five seasons mismanaged clocks and coached so conservatively he almost took both to an art form. Sure, Edwards made the playoffs twice, but you knew the Jets were never really serious about getting to the Super Bowl. He went 39-41 during the regular season, including losing 15 of his last 20 games. He also went 2-3 in the playoffs, sort of a minor miracle as far as the Jets go.

Eric Mangini, for all of his faults, still has a tremendous amount of upside. He'll just have to show it somewhere else because soft-spoken clean-cut guys never win in New York, unless, of course, you're talking about Derek Jeter. But what exactly has he done in the last eight years?

The sexy choice now that Cowher is out of the picture is former Denver coach Mike Shanahan. But seriously folks, do the Jets really want to throw all their eggs into his basket? He just finished a three-year stretch 24-24, including blowing the last three games and the AFC West title this season.

That's not to say Shanahan isn't a great coach. Of course he is. But he's more of an offensive guru. The Jets, by contrast, are built around a power running game and want to have a smash-mouth defense.

Forget the quarterback for a second. Even if Brett Favre does come back in 2009, there are no guarantees we'll ever see the great Brett Favre. We might not even see the often bad one we saw in 2008.

A lot is made of the quarterback position, and rightfully so, but if you want to win with the run and defense, your quarterback doesn't necessarily have to be an NFL legend. He can be serviceable. He can be someone like a Trent Dilfer. Obviously, that line of thinking is likely to anger the vast majority of fans, but it's true.

If Cowher was indeed turned off by the idea of possibly having Favre back, as the New York Post reported on Wednesday, then he wasn't the right man for the job. If Favre comes back, the Jets will still be better off than with any other available QB. And who that player might be is about as difficult to figure out as who the Jets will actually hire as coach.

Though the fans desperately want a Cowher type, the smart move may be hiring Steve Spagnuolo. What he has done with the Giants defense has been downright amazing. Sure, the Giants have talent all over the place, but Spagnuolo's schemes and game-planning are beyond reproach. Here's a guy who is fully prepared each and every Sunday and his players know exactly what needs to be done, regardless of the opponent.

Spagnuolo, 49, has a home in New Jersey and is clearly looking for the right fit. He could have had the Washington job after last season but chose instead to stick with the Giants. He was confident his stock would only go up in 2008, a high-stakes wager he's about to clean up on.

Naturally, there are going to be concerns about Spagnuolo's experience. He may be a defensive genius, but does that mean he'll be able to put the type of staff in place that will allow the other aspects of the game to flourish without his interference? Will he find an imaginative offensive coordinator who can run the football but use enough play-action to keep defenses honest? Will special teams coach Mike Westhoff stick around? Will he have smart people up in the booth to watch for replays to challenge? Things like that.

Of course, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, Jets CEO Woody Johnson will have to make sure he gets his man. Spagnuolo is going to make a fortune as a rookie head coach somewhere because the list of available coaches with serious experience is lacking. So, if you have to shell out a lot of money for a risk, it better be the right risk. If the Jets determine that Spagnuolo is truly the best option out there, then pay him. Don't lose him to a team like Detroit over $500,000 or a few extra years.

There are other names out there. Suddenly, Minnesota assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier is a hot commodity. Maybe the buzz around him is worth it. Maybe Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz is the next coming of Rex Ryan in Baltimore. Perhaps Josh McDaniels will bring his brilliant offensive mind to New York, though it's hard to imagine Bill Belichick standing pat as another of his prize coordinators bolts for the hated green and white.

Regardless, the Jets need to go after whoever they perceive as their guy and go after him hard.

Because the last thing we all need is them boxed into a corner and being forced to hire Marty Schottenheimer. That's not to say Schottenheimer isn't a very good NFL coach. It's just that his playoff resume is dreadful despite owning the unique distinction of getting three different franchises into a position to play meaningful January football.

Schottenheimer would be up against it from the second he signs a contract. The fans and the media would be merciless. Everyone would be waiting for him to make mistakes. Losses would be magnified 10-fold. And God help him if he guided the Jets to a great regular season record and then lost early in the playoffs. He'd be vilified and the team would regress even further than it already has.

Woody, talk to Spags on Saturday. Block out the sexy notion of Shanahan for now. If Steve with the Boston accent impresses you, go get him.

This way we can all sit back and fear the worst, while we wish for the best.

As usual.

Send Jeff your thoughts

Jets' Coach Search Should Begin And End With Cowher

It's not often Jets ownership and management get credit for doing something right, but in the case of firing Eric Mangini, they have scored a touchdown, nailed the 2-point conversion and recovered the onsides kick.

Mangini had to go. Someone had to pay for this disaster of a season. The Jets have been notorious for letting things slide, for letting coaches have a chance to redeem themselves following bitter disappointments.

They've finally seen the light.

Mangini may one day be a successful coach, but it may not happen in the NFL. He may be the next coming of Pete Carroll. Maybe he resurfaces in the college ranks and takes moldable young men and makes them into winners. It was clear, however, he was never going to do this in New York with the Jets. He will probably get another shot in the NFL, maybe as early as this upcoming offseason, but many people think Mangini's orchestration of the whole "Spygate" saga will hurt him with future job opportunities.

That said, though, can you see Mangini coaching the Cleveland Browns, or maybe another downtrodden organization that knows nothing of winning and needs a fresh young face? That's the latest trend in the NFL. Take guys who nobody has ever heard of and let them loose in cities that don't necessarily have as great expectations as a city like New York.

It has worked beautifully in cities like Baltimore, Miami and Atlanta. All three are in the playoffs. None of the three have Brett Favre, Thomas Jones or Kris Jenkins.

It didn't work in Gotham, nor would it have had Jets CEO Woody Johnson decided this past season was simply an aberration.

Facts are facts. The Jets had no injuries. Their schedule was a joke. They had seven Pro Bowl selections. They had Favre, old or not, injured or not. They overcame an early adjustment period to start 8-3.

For Mangini, there was simply no excuse for what followed.

His game-planning left a lot to be desired. He had no answers for Shaun Hill, a rather unremarkable quarterback, when the Jets went to San Francisco in Week 14 and lost.

His lack of in-game adjustments was glaring. Teams passed at will against the Jets this season and Mangini seemed adamant against blitzing to get more pressure on the quarterback.

His inability to get his veterans to rise above the malaise that enveloped the team over the last five weeks of the regular season was borderline obscene. The Seattle loss will live in infamy. The Seahawks had a makeshift offensive line, their backup quarterback and no receivers to speak of yet still won rather easily.

Mangini's calm, cool and collected demeanor in the face of adversity might have worked if he had been any good at any other of the above complaints.

Every now and then the throwing of a chair or media explosion or calling people out or throwing someone under the bus is called for. Talk of "preparation" and "processes" fall on deaf ears when teams don't respond after falling into a chasm.

The bottom line is Mangini went 23-25 in three full seasons and 0-1 in the playoffs with talent. That will never cut it in New York, even in the case of the Jets, where a mere playoff appearance is often considered an epic triumph.

Credit the Jets for acting swiftly. Credit Johnson for not being Leon Hess. Credit Mike Tannenbaum for not being any number of the GMs that have been through the ringer with this organization.

Now comes the question: who's next?

It may be a bit too early to discuss possible replacements, but this is the NFL after all. You snooze, you lose. The Jets will act quickly. One has to just hope they have already had discussions in smoke-filled rooms with a certain former coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Yes, Bill Cowher is the answer. He's everything Mangini isn't.

It may cost Johnson millions upon million to get him, but if Cowher is interested, the Jets have to get him. Various reports say the 51-year-old is not interested in returning to an NFL sideline in 2009, but that doesn't mean he won't return. It just means the Jets may have to blow him away.

What Favre ultimately decides regarding his future is unimportant in the hiring. Even the casual observer can tell he looks done. Now, maybe Favre would benefit from a full year with the organization and would flourish in Year 2. But, with his arm strength status in question and with a new regime coming in with probably a slew of new coaches and philosophies, Favre, if healthy and motivated, may once again be a man on an island.

If Cowher came to New York, the Jets would immediately be transformed into a no-nonsense team that would pride itself on defense, a running game and accountability. Of course, the issue of who will play quarterback will hang in the balance for months. Will it be Favre? Will it be Kellen Clemens? Will it be soon-to-be free agent Matt Cassel?

Who knows? The Jets' biggest problem right now is the same problem that has plagued this team for the better part of its existence. You can count the number of good coaches this team has had on one hand.

Weeb Ewbank, Walt Michaels, Bill Parcells. That's it. All three took the Jets either to the Super Bowl or within one win. Everyone else, and there have been so many it's easy to lose count, have been good men with good hearts who have thought they had the right stuff, only to find out it takes a lot more than that to guide this perennial laughingstock of an organization.

Guys like Joe Walton, Bruce Coslet, Carroll, Rich Kotite, Herman Edwards and Mangini, among others, have had some success, but in the NFL anyone can make the playoffs once or maybe twice given the sheer amount of talent that's available each year.

What this organization needs is a proven winner, a man who consistently challenges for championships, a man who makes it clear from the first day of training camp that it's his way or the highway. The Jets need a guy who gnashes his teeth and spits when he yells, a man who hates division rivals as much as the fans do.

Cowher could very well be that guy. No, check that ... he is that guy.

Off the field, the Jets have shown a desire to be the best in the last year. They have spent money. They clearly know how to draft as evidenced by the likes of Leon Washington, Nick Mangold, David Harris and Darrelle Revis. They have raised the level of expectations. They have wasted little time ridding the organization of a regime that had simply seen its best days.

Johnson and Tannenbaum need to keep operating along these lines. They need to make Cowher an offer he can't refuse. They can't let him go to Cleveland, Detroit, Dallas, Cincinnati or Kansas City, assuming each have openings at some point. Various reports have indicated that Cowher does not have any interest in the Cleveland opening, but maybe that's because he doesn't see the Browns winning immediately.

The Jets are a win-now operation and will remain as such for the forseeable future. That, plus Johnson's boatloads of money would have to at least get Cowher thinking about relinquishing his hold on the CBS pre-game show and getting his whistle going again.

If Cowher is ever in the fold, we'll all be able to sit back and watch how an NFL coach is supposed to operate.

The results will come. There's not a Jets fan alive that would have a question in his or her mind about Cowher.

He's that good. He's got the ability to slay the curse of Joe Willie.

Favre or no Favre.

Send Jeff your thoughts

As For Mangini, Klecko Tells It Like It Is

So I was driving to Manhattan on Tuesday and listening to Joe Beningo and Evan Roberts on WFAN. Being the big Jets fans that they are, it's kind of a treat to get to hear them during the afternoon drive because they're normally on from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. They are a lot like I am when it comes to this team. We all subscribe to the "I'll believe it when I see it" mentality.

Joe and Evan managed to get former Jets great Joe Klecko on after 4 p.m. That was a real treat for me because Klecko was probably my favorite Jet growing up. Tuesday's guest spot on the FAN was the first time I had seen or heard anything from Klecko in a long, long time.

Then No. 73 spoke and my next blog entry was laid out right in front of me.

Klecko stopped short of totally feeding Eric Mangini his lunch, but he had lots of strong words about how he feels the Jets' coaching staff has not fully put this team in position to win week after week. He said the Jets' laid back attitude in the media, even when faced with important questions following stinging losses, has smelled an awful lot like something Mangini would do. In other words, in Klecko's opinion the Jets have taken on the persona of their coach.

And that, my friends, is not a good thing.

Now Mangini may just be the most even-keeled coach in New York sports history. It seems like he feels as if he has to be above chair-throwing or other assorted locker room tirades that should follow disgusting performances, or, more accurately, the type of efforts the Jets have put forth for the last month. However, the problem with that kind of thinking is you need to have truly great players and leaders on your team so they can police and motivate themselves.

The Jets may have talent, but they don't have anything close to that type of leadership.

While Klecko was right on with his assessments, he didn't openly call for Mangini to be fired. He did, however, make it clear he wouldn't lodge a protest outside the Jets' practice facility in Florham Park if Mangini were to be let go.

I'm sort of on the fence about this whole thing. Or I was on the fence and am now leaning more one way than the other. Initially I was really concerned that if the Jets let Mangini go they wouldn't be able to find a suitable replacement. Here is, by all accounts, a very smart, young football coach who has a lot to offer a franchise or maybe a college team.

He just doesn't have the stomach for New York.

Mangini is 23-24 in almost three full seasons with the Jets. As much as he deserved credit for the team's stunning 10-6 record in 2006, he was equally to blame for their 4-12 fall from grace last year.

That brings us to 2008. I have said all along this team has lacked leadership from its coach. It has felt like the players have been running the asylum over there. I'm not saying there are Dallas Cowboys-like internal problems with the Jets. By all accounts, they are a pretty tight-knit bunch. But their coach has been a bit player in everything. He has no personality. In fact, the play-calling reflects his personality.

Now that things have come crashing down with last weekend's abysmal 13-3 loss in Seattle, the hope was we'd see a passionate Mangini try to rally his troops for one last offensive against an enemy with bigger numbers. But all we really have heard this week have been sound bites of this Jets coach sounding an awful lot like an old one, Rich Kotite.

Mangini spoke of how the team "played hard" against Seattle and was "disappointed" with the result. He said the "effort was there." He said the Jets "were prepared to play."

Anyone who knows even the slightest thing about football would tell you there is no way the Jets were prepared to play Sunday in Seattle. No chance in hell.

How prepared are you when you let an opposing offensive line of second- and third-stringers who had never played together dominate you? Seahawks quarterback Seneca Wallace was not sacked and was hit just once.

How prepared are you when you let Wallace, a quarterback of limited ability, finish with a passer rating above 100? Wallace joined the likes of Shaun Hill and J.P. Losman, average at best quarterbacks who looked like All-Pros against the Jets.

How prepared are you when you come into the game with the second highest-scoring offense in the league and Brett Favre to boot and get completely shut down by the 32nd-ranked pass defense?

How prepared are you as a coach when you chicken out on 4th-and-goal from the 2 on the game's first drive?

All of this is really disturbing. I mean, it really is.

Mangini's decisions against Seattle were brutal. Not going for it on the first drive. Not letting Jay Feely try a 50-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter after a penalty nullified what would have been 45-yarder that would have been good from 55. Not punting from deep in your own territory prior to the 2-minute warning despite having all three timeouts.

This coach doesn't seem capable of making adjustments. For weeks now we have talked about how the secondary can't cover anyone. But I want to apologize to Darrelle Revis, Dwight Lowery, Ty Law, Kerry Rhodes and Eric Smith. An NFL quarterback who has 10 seconds to throw can pick apart any secondary. The Jets' defensive problems are solely because of the lack of a pass rush. Mangini should have figured this out four weeks ago.

The Jets' problems on offense all center around Favre turning 50 years old before he turned 40. Mangini, for his part, coddles this guy to no end. The coach acts like if he raises his voice to the star quarterback he may decide to not come back next year.

At this point, does anyone care if he doesn't?

Mangini should be taking Favre to task. He's no different than any other player because HE'S NEVER WON HERE. He doesn't deserve a free pass because of what he's done in the past or because of all the records he owns or because he straps it on every weekend. Right now, Favre is awful and maybe only his head coach can talk him through it. Do you really want Mangini doing it?

I think the Jets should fire Mangini if they don't make the playoffs. It's that simple. They should then back up the Brinks truck for Bill Cowher.

At least with Cowher we know heads would roll and efforts like we saw this past weekend would not be tolerated.

"Aw shucks" don't cut it with that guy.

 Send Jeff your thoughts

The Island Of Misfit Toys

I have worked for five different news organizations since I finished my days at Syracuse University in 1994. In that time I have often written about the Jets' missteps. I would venture to say probably 75-80 percent of the things I've written about them have had a negative slant, or have predicted doom and gloom or have tried to make light of what has often been dark days within this downtrodden organization.

Yet I have often wondered if my negative outlook on this franchise has been a bit over the top. I mean, I ask myself: do I sound like a whiner? Is it overkill? Or, is my anger justified?

The beauty of the Internet and blogging is it's a lot different than being a print columnist or a beat writer in that I have a little more license to speak from the heart and try to give a fan's perspective. Professionals who follow teams on a daily basis have to keep things in perspective and be somewhat objective, even when all the "facts" suggest everything they really want to say is justified.

As someone who is not officially paid to be the Jets writer, I have tried to be objective in the face of stupidity. I have given credit where credit is due and have criticized when criticism has been called for. I have tried to stay positive when common sense has called for me to scream at the top of my lungs "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ALREADY."

What the Jets did Sunday in Seattle pretty much sums up why this organization has been thought of as a total joke for the better part of the last 40 years.

They have no credibility. They have no leadership. They have no coaching. They have a loyal fan base that has to be questioning why it continues to bother with this team each and every week.

And it has pretty much been this way since 1969.

Sure, the Jets have their moments every so often. But facts are facts. With just 12 playoff appearances in 40 years, they are hardly worthy of praise, even when they do manage to do something right.

I know the Jets can still win the division. I know if they somehow beat Miami and New England loses in Buffalo (not out of the realm considering what the Bills did in Denver this past weekend and the fact that a victory in Week 17 would end their season at 8-8); the Jets will be the No. 3 seed in the postseason.

But it's scenarios like these that make you get old in a hurry. We've been in similar positions many times in the past. And often it hasn't worked out. That said, there's no reason to believe good fortune will suddenly come the Jets' way this time around.

As I've said countless times in the past, we all know better.

With Christmas coming on Thursday, I feel it's appropriate to dust off one of my favorite fictional depictions of the Jets.

As you know, when the holidays come around it's a sure bet CBS will show the Rankin/Bass classics "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" and my personal favorite, "The Year Without A Santa Claus."

"Rudolph" is great theatre in Jets circles because he's a misfit and an outcast.

You know what happens. After being banished from the Reindeer Games due to his physical "imperfection," Rudolph sets out on a personal mission to find himself, meets up with fellow losers Hermey the dentist and Yukon Cornelius and ends up on the "Island of Misfit Toys." There he encounters all the toys nobody wants.

There is, among others, the train with square wheels, the Charlie-in-the-Box, the gun that shoots jelly, the boat that sinks and the cowboy that rides an ostrich.

Well, I like to believe the King Moonracer, the winged lion who sets off around the world looking for toys nobody wants, made yearly stops at Hofstra, Shea Stadium and Giants Stadium. This year, you gotta figure he'll be stopping in Florham Park, N.J., and grabbing some Jets who most certainly deserve to be exiled on that Arctic island, if not fed to "The Bumble," aka the Abominable Snow Monster of the North.

Newcomers this year will include: the coach who can't coach, the quarterback who can't pass, the offensive coordinator who can't play-call and the secondary that can't cover anyone.

And lastly, let us not forget the fan who foolishly believed that this year would be different.

Merry Christmas. Bah Humbug. Bumbles bounce.

Send Jeff your thoughts

How Are The Jets Sending 7 To Hawaii?

The Jets received some bad news earlier this week.

They have seven players named to the AFC Pro Bowl team.

Believe me, it's a bad thing.

Now the team with the most "All-Stars" HAS to make the playoffs. The Jets have no choice. When was the last time a team with this many Pro Bowlers didn't make the playoffs? I have no idea, but I can't imagine it has happened all that often.

Aren't things hard enough as it is? We, as fans, are already expecting the Jets to somehow shoot themselves in the foot over the next two weeks and then the voters go and pull this fast one.

Don't they understand there is just so much we can endure? Possibly not making the playoffs after starting 8-3, though not unprecedented, would be easier to swallow if the Jets had overachieved through 11 games and then the rest of the league caught up with them.

But that's not the case here. After they traded for Brett Favre, the Jets were supposed to be a borderline playoff team and right now that's exactly what they are, sitting at 9-5 and tied for the top spot in the AFC East with New England and Miami. And if it's one thing we know about this franchise it's that it doesn't react too well to added pressure. You suddenly tell seven of their players they are the best at their respective positions in the conference and that ratchets up both the expectations and stress meters.

Plus, maybe at most four of their players are deserving of the Pro Bowl nod.

1. Thomas Jones: Absolutely, 100 percent yes. He has 1,222 yards rushing and is averaging 4.6 yards per carry. He has 15 total touchdowns, including 13 on the ground. He's the AFC starter and has earned every bit of love he's received this year.

2. Kris Jenkins. Despite three so-so games in a row, the behemoth defensive tackle will still probably be a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year. The Jets have dropped to sixth against the run, but if Jenkins can find his second wind, they could get back to that suffocating style they showed during the Jets' run to 8-3.

3. Leon Washington. The most dynamic player maybe in the entire conference. He does it all. The best kick-returner in the game. Eric Mangini and Brian Schottenheimer still do not get him the ball nearly enough from scrimmage, but he's every bit worthy of his trip to Honolulu as a special teams player.

4. Alan Faneca. He's in the Pro Bowl every year and a case can be made that without him the Jets' running game would be a shell of what it is. He's the best interior offensive lineman in football and one of the Jets' best free agent signings, maybe ever.

The next three selections make little sense to me:

5. Darrelle Revis. I will be first to admit I've even said he's one of the best cover-corners in the NFL. When his name isn't mentioned on telecasts that means he's having a stellar game because the opposition's top receiver isn't coming close to sniffing the ball. But at the end of the day the Jets are 28th against the pass. Their secondary has been an unmitigated disaster. They have made average at best quarterbacks like Shaun Hill and J.P. Losman look like stars. Seneca Wallace gets his chance this weekend in Seattle. It's hard to justify a Pro Bowl nod for a member of a unit that has been as bad as this one.

6. Nick Mangold. Again, he's very good and getting better. He's proof, along with Revis and Washington, that the Jets know how to draft. But is he really the elite center in the AFC? Really??

7. Brett Favre. This is the most embarrassing selection of all, which is a rather wild notion considering the player involved. Favre has an AFC-high 17 interceptions and has thrown for a pedestrian 3,052 yards and 21 TDs. He has had his moments for sure. He was amazing during the Jets' five-game winning streak, with a passer rating well over 100. Over the last three weeks, though, his passer rating has been in the 60s. His press conferences have been just as inconsistent. He's too busy talking about how old he is but still expects the Jets to make playoffs. The poking fun at himself stuff has to stop. It's time for Favre to get serious, both on the field and off.

We are going to learn a lot about the Jets this weekend against the 3-11 Seahawks. There's not a Jets fan alive right now who actually thinks just because they won last week they've turned a corner. They have problems and last week Buffalo gave them an early Christmas gift.

The pass defense and lack of pressure on the quarterback we know about. There's just so much that can be done. It's the disappearing act the offense pulls from time to time that has me most worried this week. Wallace is not Peyton Manning, but Seattle is a tough place to play and Mike Holmgren will be coaching his final game.

Favre will have to win this one.

The Jets just have to play a complete 60 minutes for sanity's sake. We'll deal with the winner-take-all Miami game next week.

 Send Jeff your thoughts

Paging Dr. Manginius ... Dr. Manginius?

While it would be easy to point the finger at the Jets' latest descent into hell as being the fault of a non-existent secondary, powder puff pass rush or even a suddenly washed-up looking Brett Favre, this team's problems run much deeper than that.

Eric Mangini is a rather unremarkable 22-23 during his nearly three-year tenure as Jets head coach. He started with a bang in 2006, going 10-6 before his team fell apart in the second half of its first-round playoff game against New England.

With that rather shocking season came accolade after accolade for Mangini. He was the next coming of Bill Parcells, a clone of Bill Belichick, the man who was finally going to take the Jets to the heights they reached with Joe Namath.

But in 2007, with largely the same team he often looked lost on the sidelines as the Jets bumbled and fumbled their way to a 4-12 finish.

Then came all the promise of this past offseason. The shocking trade. The Yankees-like spending spree. The hope. The optimism.

The 2008 season began with a seemingly expected 3-3 mark as Favre adjusted to hunting in New Jersey, the run defense developed and all the high-priced talent brought in got acclimated to life in the fishbowl that is the New York City sports scene.

Then came five straight wins, including stunning victories in New England and at 10-0 Tennessee. The Jets could do no wrong. They were the darlings of the national media and a lock to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. They'd face the vaunted Giants and all of the tri-state area would go into apoplectic shock.

Alas, three weeks later here we are in that all-too-familiar position of worrying if this team will even get into the playoffs, let alone slay the Giants with a bunch of green and white stones.

The late-season swoon is once again begging to ruin the Jets fans' year. The wheels have come off this bus so fast everything this team accomplished through the first 11 games is beyond a distant memory.

Sure, the players are all saying the right things. They are going to "re-focus," "get back to basics" and "re-dedicate themselves" to the pursuit of a division title and playoff glory.

We know better.

The only way this ship is righted and the Jets end up in a position to play meaningful January football is if Mangini makes something happen.

It's that simple.

The name of the game for this 8-5 team over the last three weeks is adjustments. The Jets didn't make any against either Denver or San Francisco and went on to lose games that jettisoned all their friends in the national media and alienated more of their fiercely loyal fan base.

The loss to the Broncos was bad, for sure, but last week's debacle against the 49ers was far worse. The entire league now knows that to beat the Jets, or throw them off their game to the point where they look like a high school team, you have to use the intermediate passing game and hammer their receivers at the line of scrimmage. Every Jets fan knows this as well.

Then why is it that Mangini hasn't made the adjustments necessary? Why were four Niners running wide open on seemingly every play? Why is Favre throwing bombs into triple coverage? Why isn't Leon Washington getting the damn ball more than five times per game from scrimmage?

Not once this season has this team been called "Eric's team." It has been called "Brett's team." Kris Jenkins has assumed ownership on occasion and even Thomas Jones has been called the one with broad shoulders.

Mangini, for his part, has seemed like more of a supporting actor. The problem is, even as the man with the supporting role he hasn't been given too many lines.

The truth is, Mangini has to be the lead. He has to be the focal point. Everything must flow through him, not take a detour to Favre or Jenkins or Jones. It's Mangini's calls that should win games; not Favre's ability to improvise or Washington's smarts when it comes to knowing obscure rules about kickoffs.

If the Jets are to turn things around, Mangini has to do more than simply having indoor practices, as he did this week, or deciding to leave for Seattle one day later to "change things up."

He has to do what we all already know. The Jets have to run the football with reckless abandon, use play-action all over the field and blitz like their lives depend on it to lessen the burden on the beleaguered secondary.

This isn't about throwing curveballs at the opposition. Case in point, back in Week 7, the Jets ran the ball just 20 times against Kansas City, which had at the time the worst run defense in the NFL. Favre dropped back 40 times. Why? Sure, the Jets won the game, but they should have won it by more than four points and shouldn't have had to put their fans through that frantic last-minute Chiefs drive.

Why ignore Washington on offense? He's only the most dynamic player in the AFC. Can the guy carry it 10 times a game and maybe have five or six passes thrown his way?

Why not blitz more? Does Mangini have so little faith in guys like Darrelle Revis, Ty Law, Kerry Rhodes, Eric Barton and David Harris to think they can't read and react to a quick slant or screen pass?

It's decisions like these that will ultimately bury this team. The fans already think the other shoe has dropped. We are CONDITIONED to think this way because this franchise has rarely given us a reason to think otherwise.

Only Mangini can re-educate us.

To truly be a "genius" in this town, you have to win when you're not expected to win and then win a lot more when you are expected to win a lot more.

Parcells? Super-genius. Joe Torre? Super-genius. Al Arbour? Super-genius.

Tom Coughlin. Genius. Mike Keenan? Crazy, but a genius nonetheless.

Mangini? Hmmm … the only thing that's certain about him is if his team loses to Buffalo on Sunday he'll be wearing a dunce cap … and will probably be looking for work come 2009.

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There Are No Parachutes Left

I say, shame on the national media for jumping off the Jets' bandwagon. These people will never be fans of the green and white, but think they actually understand the pain involved with rooting for the team that used to call Flushing home.

Sure, the Jets stunk up Giants Stadium last weekend. They got abused by Jay Cutler and the Denver Broncos. But does that result mean Gang Green is no longer a serious player in the AFC race?

Hardly.

Shame on you, Cris Collinsworth. Shame on you, Chris Berman. Shame on you, Keyshawn Johnson.

Shame on anyone who calls himself a national NFL authority, and that includes everyone who works for ESPN, the NFL Network, Showtime and even Fantasy Football Daily (if that one actually existed).

It was amazing. On Monday and all through the week, the world jumped off the Jets coat tails. They had won five in a row and were the darlings of the NFL after beating up Tennessee. Yet, one sub par effort later and everyone – and I mean EVERYONE – suddenly thinks that everything that they had accomplished through the first 13 weeks of the season was simply an aberration.

The Jets sported the third-ranked rush defense in the NFL. Now, because little-known Patrick Hillis rushed for 129 yards in Denver's 34-17 win last week, suddenly Kris Jenkins is no longer a beast in the middle. The Jets run defense must be a joke. Forget for a second that Denver churns out more 1,000-yard backs than anyone. Forget the names Mike Anderson and Olandis Gary and Mike Bell and whomever else you'd like to throw out there.

The Jets lost -- the pundits say -- because they are overrated; not because Mike Shanahan and the system in Denver are vastly superior to most any in the NFL.

WHATEVER.

I got news for everyone: The Jets will rebound this weekend in San Francisco. They will win their last four games and finish 12-4. They will win the AFC East and maybe be the No. 2 seed in the playoffs. They will make their mark in the playoffs.

Everyone wants to kill the Jets because they don't take them seriously. This is the NFL, teams don't win every game. If the Yankees lose six in a row, things are bad, but it's never the end of the world. The Jets, by contrast, lose one game and suddenly they aren't that good. They are beneficiaries of a last-place schedule. They are a dink and dunk offense and a defense with more holes than the Republican Party.

Again, WHATEVER.

Why is it that Dallas, at 8-4, is suddenly this force to be reckoned with, so the "experts" say? Why is it that the Cowboys are the only team that can actually compete with the vaunted Giants?

I look at the Jets and the Cowboys and I see one team with tremendous upside versus another that's a ticking time bomb.

Who in the AFC actually wants to play the Jets when it matters?

Indianapolis? Yeah, 10-6 with a defensive TD winning the game in Cleveland really scares me. Peyton Manning is a legend but his team this year is hardly legendary.

Baltimore? Great defense no question, but does anyone trust rookie Joe Flacco on the road in the playoffs? How about LeRon McClain?

New England? The Jets already won up there. Are all their injured players coming back for the postseason? Where's the running game?

Miami? Chad Pennington and who exactly? Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown unearthing the Wildcat now that everyone and their mother knows it's coming?

I am leaving out Pittsburgh and Tennessee because if the Jets actually face either, this blog entry will be null and void because either matchup will take place long after this team's demise would be expected.

I'm not worried about a late-season swoon. Why? Because this team is too talented to fall apart. Brett Favre simply won't allow it to happen.

The Jets will win Sunday in San Fran … and win big. Then, the crazies will be out next weekend in East Rutherford for Buffalo. After that, they'll bury Seattle in Seattle and then abuse Miami once and for all.

Why? Because these Jets haven't let me down yet. I have no reason to believe the ghosts of the past will suddenly show up just because this team wears green.

And if you believe that, I have a newly tolled East River bridge to sell you.

Seriously folks, call it gut instinct. Call it wishful thinking, but I have no doubt Santa will not be making a stop at Misfit Island this holiday season.

And in one sense that's a shame because my 6-year-old was really looking forward to getting the quarterback that rides and ostrich.

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Better Hope This Was Just A Blip

One week after playing their best game of the season, the Jets suffered an emotional letdown Sunday and looked ordinary. That is, the team looked ordinary. The pass defense looked ridiculously awful.

The result was a bad 34-17 loss to Denver that has to get even the most ardent Jets optimist thinking at least a little about the annual late-season swoon which has wrecked many a season over the last quarter century.

Coach Eric Mangini better hope this was an aberration because easy schedule or no easy schedule the rest of the way, the way his team lost Sunday was especially disheartening.

We all knew the Jets' pass defense was suspect, but on Sunday it was nonexistent. While they can get away with their deficiencies against quarterbacks like Matt Cassel and Kerry Collins, they clearly had no clue how to stop the Broncos' Jay Cutler.

The gunslinger out of Vanderbilt torched the Jets for 357 yards and two TDs. He wasn't touched all afternoon.

Part of the reason for the Jets' failures to put pressure on him had to do with the Denver offensive line. Though on the smallish side, the Broncos keep their line active better than any team in the NFL. They are constantly moving and, thus, kept the Jets' third-ranked run defense off balance. Fullback Peyton Hillis was the beneficiary, rushing for a career-high 129 yards and a TD.

So, with the Jets struggling to stop Hillis, Cutler had ample opportunities all over the field.

Safety Abram Elam and cornerback Ty Law had particularly bad games. Then again, when you don't put any pressure on the quarterback, even your better defensive backs are going to have problems.

And before anyone tries to blame the weather – yeah, it was awful – forget it. The driving rain and raw conditions didn't cause Eddie Royal's 59-yard TD reception and played no role in the big gamble that resulted in Brandon Stokley's 36-yard scoring catch that put the game away midway through the fourth.

The conditions were also no excuse for Brett Favre's lackluster performance. He threw for 247 yards, but didn't throw a TD and was intercepted. In fairness to Favre, Jerricho Cotchery looked lost at times Sunday and Laveraneus Coles somehow got held to just two receptions for two yards.

Thomas Jones provided the Jets with their lone reason to smile, rushing for 138 yards and two scores. However, his exploits ended up getting lost in the confusion that was the Jets defense.

There was some additional good news Sunday. New England got steamrolled by Pittsburgh so the Jets maintained their one-game lead atop the AFC East.

Yet that seems to ring a bit hollow right now. The Jets' remaining four opponents – San Francisco, Buffalo, Seattle and Miami – are a collective 19-29 and do not have a quarterback at the level of Cutler.

But somewhere down the road, the Jets are probably going to face someone that does – maybe a guy named Manning, or a real pro named Roethlisberger, or maybe even an up-and-coming stud by the name of Flacco. Sure, the Jets could be 12-4 by season's end, but it won't mean much if they don't improve their pass defense and improve it immediately.

If Shaun Hill of the 49ers lights them up next weekend, you'll officially be able to press the panic button without fear of being labeled as someone of little faith.

Mike Singletary will have his troops ready to play next week. You can count on that.

Mangini better do the same or talk of a swoon will swallow whole any notion of a Subway Super Bowl.

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Jets Lead The NFL In Unsung Heroes

Here's reason 6,578 why the Jets have developed into a true team: Role players.

This may indeed be Brett Favre's team, but there is no denying the fact that the Jets would not be in first place in the AFC East -- and thought of by many as maybe the most complete and balanced team in the conference -- without the contributions of every player on the 53-man roster.

Heading into this Sunday's tilt against visiting Denver, the Jets are 8-3 and we've learned a lot about their stars. Favre, Thomas Jones, Kris Jenkins and Leon Washington are all likely bound for the Pro Bowl regardless of how this season turns out.

But the Jets have been truly a sum of their parts. Favre doesn't do what he does without the protection of his offensive line and the route running of his receivers. Jones probably owes his green and white career to the line and his fullback. Jenkins will be a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year, but if not for the prowess of his fellow linemen, he'd probably see even more double teams. Washington is lot like Jones in the sense that he's had big holes to run through. That's even the case on special teams.

Sure, the faces of the Jets will get the most media attention, but some of the following players may also find themselves in Honolulu in February.

* Offensive line: Free agent acquisitions Alan Faneca and Damien Woody, along with home-grown Nick Mangold, D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Brandon Moore, may be the best unit in the AFC. Don't be surprised if one or two of them are also invited to Hawaii.

* Wide receivers: Laveraneus Coles and Jerricho Cotchery have developed into one of the better receiving duos in the NFL, combining for 107 receptions, 1,265 yards and 10 TDs. It's still possible they both finish with 1,000-yard seasons.

* Defense. There's free-agent speed rusher Calvin Pace and shutdown corner Darrelle Revis, plus standout safety Kerry Rhodes and up-and-coming star Abram Elam. We all know how good the run defense has been led by Jenkins. We are going to find out a lot more about the pass defense over the season's final five weeks.

Despite all this newfound star power, the Jets have several unsung heroes to thank, the types of players who make all the difference between championship and playoff teams. Here are five players who have been every bit as valuable as the faces of the franchise:

* Eric Barton: Is there a linebacker out there better suited to play in the 3-4 scheme? Probably not. The 10-year veteran has quietly put up All-Pro numbers while solidifying the Jets' fourth-ranked rush defense. The locker room's vocal leader, Barton leads the Jets with 80 tackles, including an incredible 17½-tackle performance in the win in New England three weeks ago.

* Tony Richardson: For 14 years, Richardson has been doing all the dirty work while players like Priest Holmes and Adrian Peterson have received all the accolades. Now the road-grating fullback is making life easy for Jones. After rushing for just 1,100 yards and scoring just one rushing TD last season, Jones is on pace for the greatest season of his nine-year career. He can thank Richardson and his offensive line for opening massive running lanes.

* Dustin Keller: The Jets traded up to get this pass-catching machine at No. 30 in this year's draft. Early on, many couldn't understand why the Jets would waste a first-round pick on a tight end. Now, we're all seeing why. The 6-foot-2, 250-pounder out of Purdue has developed an incredible rapport with Favre. Keller has 33 catches and 383 yards in 11 games, but 20 of those catches and 236 of those yards have come in the last three weeks. Is Keller the next coming of Tony Gonzalez? Well, he is as long as Favre sticks around.

*Jay Feely: Recycled off the scrap heap, Feely has basically made Mike Nugent a non-issue. Feely has earned the right to remain the Jets' starting kicker, regardless of Nugent's improving health. I mean, how can the Jets cut a guy who has made 20 of 24 field goals, including a 52-yarder to force overtime in Oakland and a 55-yarder against St. Louis, and gives you as a fan a feeling of confidence every time he steps on the field?

* Bryan Thomas: Remember when this guy looked completely lost on the field, sort of like how highly touted rookie Vernon Gholston is performing now? Thomas has been tremendous, registering 42 tackles and 4½ sacks. The Jets are fourth in the NFL with 35 sacks – after getting 29 all of last season – because Thomas, Pace and Shaun Ellis have all been on top of their games.

Because the Jets have so many contributing parts and have such a favorable schedule down the stretch, it appears less and less likely they could suffer through the type of late-season swoon that has plagued this franchise over the last 25 years.

Then again, this is the NFL and anything is possible.

But considering this team's penchant for team play and its amount of veteran leadership, you have to be very confident going forward.

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