The final month of the 2014 Jets season is now about one thing — the 2015 Jets season.
The move back to Geno Smith at quarterback is just one indication the franchise is in full evaluation mode. No one knows yet who the coach, or even the general manager, is going to be next year. We’ll get those answers soon enough. But the Jets also must figure out which players deserve to stay and which should go.
Former Jets wide receiver Wayne Chrebet, who is being inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor on Monday night, spoke to the media this week. He talked about his first two seasons, when the Jets were 3-13 in 1995 and 1-15 in 1996, and then how Bill Parcells turned things around in 1997.
“Yeah, a new coach, some new players and you turn things around. But, you’ve got to hang around,” Chrebet said. “You’ve still got to be on the team for that next year.”
Chrebet stood out as a promising young player on a bad team and then became a key part of the 1998 team that went to the AFC Championship Game. Will someone emerge on these Jets during these dark days?
“I hate to say it, but some guys are going to go through the motions, and some guys are going to look at it as an opportunity to shine in a bad season, and that’s what I did,” Chrebet said. “Sometimes it’s not too hard to stand out when people are going through the motions and thinking about just picking up a paycheck, and that’s sadly how it gets sometimes. Mentally, you’ve got to be strong.”
Unfortunately for the Jets, that is what Monday’s 38-3 loss to the Bills looked like — a lot of guys just going through the motions. For the first time in recent memory, the Jets showed no heart and no fight.
Coach Rex Ryan insists the team did not quit, but it was hard to tell as the Jets made the Bills look like a mix of the 1999 Rams and 1985 Bears.
Leadership is sometimes overrated in sports. We tend to point to the good teams and credit their locker-room leaders and rip the losing teams as lacking leaders. But this Jets team has felt like it needs some more leadership. Most of the best players on the team are quiet (Muhammad Wilkerson, David Harris, Nick Mangold) and the vocal players are either not as good as they think or too young to lead yet.
Whoever is in charge of the Jets next year needs to find some leaders for this team, in addition to finding talent. The locker room is in desperate need of a strong voice.
Beyond that, the Jets must figure out who on the current roster has done enough to stay. Harris, Michael Vick, Willie Colon, Kyle Wilson and Dawan Landry are unrestricted free agents. Harris is the only one who figures to be a priority to bring back.
They also must decide whether to hold onto wide receiver Percy Harvin, who has an unguaranteed $10.5 million salary in 2015. So far, Harvin has shown flashes of his ability, but the production has been lacking outside of the Chiefs game. The Jets hold an option on running back Chris Johnson that looks unlikely to get picked up, and cutting Calvin Pace would clear $2.1 million in cap space and get a malcontent out of the building.
That is not even getting to the quarterback. In these last five games, Smith can prove he deserves a chance to compete for the job, but not much more.
Current wide receiver Eric Decker echoed what Chrebet said when talking about what a 2-9 team has left to play for.
“Ultimately, what you put on tape is your résumé,” Decker said. “I can tell a lot about a guy with how he plays the game and how he finishes out a season regardless of the record. We’ve been through a lot.
We’ve worked our tails off. Things haven’t shaped up and gone the way we wanted to. We’ve got five opportunities left to showcase who we are as individuals and who we are as a team.”
The tryouts begin Monday night against the Dolphins. Who knows? Maybe the Jets will find another Chrebet among the wreckage of a lost season.