Continuing with SHK's thoughts

Well, SHK, you missed out on the conversation that Caribou, ManBeast and myself had at the cigar lounge the other night.  You also missed out on the cigars and Knob Creek, but not much I can do about that...

We covered most of your points and some others as well.

Let's start on points of agreement:

1) "The debacle that lies ahead."  Check.

I referred to it as the "4-12 trainwreck in the windshield."

2) "Wayne Hunter. Disaster".

Not much to add, except the fact that the whole premise of our offense is that our O line can dominate game in game out.  And our starting RT sucks.

Points of modified disagreement:

1) Sparano -- I'm not fawning over the guy, but lets face it, he did a decent job with just about ZERO talent on that team's offense (but I'd prefer to get D.C.'s commentary on Sparano, having watched him more closely).  Come to think of it, coaching the Fins, who haven't had a QB in years, was pretty good prep for this job.  But more importantly, I'm glad Sparano's there because it's like holding a lotto ticket.  If the right #s come up, maybe Ryan will be fired and a new HC is already waiting in the wings.  Dollar and a dream.

2) Which brings me to Ryan-- Ever since he came in puffing up his player's egos, and convincing Mr. T that he could turn around the bad apples of the NFL (where the average apple is pretty bad to begin with), you were kind of waiting for the implosion.  You got it down the stretch last season.

The complete meltdown against Big Blue, and then star players quitting mid-game with the season on the line.  But once Ryan admitted he didn't know Holmes had been benched, the gig was up.  This guy not only doesn't have control of his players, he doesn't even know what's happening on the field.  The team's core players not only lacked chemistry, they demonstrated they outright don't like each other, and won't play for each other.  The writing was on the wall that Ryan had lost this team completely-- both from a "vision" standpoint (where we're headed as a unit) and from a day-to-day managerial standpoint.  I argued at the end of last season he needed to go, and you guys know I'm not quick to pin failure on managers/coaches.

Predictably, this preseason is off to a circus start, with fights, and loudmouths saying loudmouth things.  So Rex holds his big presser, "we've got that out our system, I'm not going to have anymore of that." " Next day, more brawls.  Lollers.  HE. HAS. LOST. THIS. TEAM.

Completely.

I like how happy Rex is we're returning to "ground and pound" offense-- let's play smashmouth football in a league where the winningest teams always throw 60% of the time.

I'll throw this out there as an upfront challenge-- I don't want to hear people slamming the OC bcause we run 2/3 of the time, including on 2nd and 12 and 3rd & 7.  Sparano was brought in EXACTLY BECAUSE Rex (with T's consent) wants that kind of offense.   They hired him and told him to ground & pound.  And he will.  Give him credit for being a good employee.

3) Mr. T

He bought a lot of goodwill in my book when he came in with Mangini and built this team up via the draft, and especially his mid round picks where he focused on character guys.  Shonne Green, Matt Slauson, Eric Smith, Brad Smith were all character guys that he grabbed in the middle rounds--worker bees who not only produced (to greater or lesser degrees) on the field, but set a tone in terms of work ethic.

Of course, he also had many good early round cornerstone picks: Mangold, Brick, Revis, David Harris, Keller, etc.

But the goodwill is fading fast.  He's clearly altered his approach with Rex.  I'm fine with flexing to meet the coach's system, but when you're drafting or signing guys like Plaxico, Coples, Kenrick Ellis, Santonio and Cromartie, you're sending a message to your team that a "me-first" attitude is OK--maybe even rewarded.  That's a cancer that's very hard to cut out once it starts spreading.  And the Jets are like Stage 4 right now.

By the end of last season, it was clear Rex had to go, and T was either too blind to see it, or Woody just likes having the circus in town.  T must get some of the blame for the impending disaster.  Even if it doesn't cost him his job, I hope he learns from the error of his ways and returns to his earlier draft approach.

4) Santonio - There was a choice to pick Holmes over Braylon, but he wasn't chosen OVER Brad Smith or Cotchery.  The decision to let those two go were independent bad choices, so let's not muddy the water.

It's tough to say T was wrong in resigning Holmes, b/c Braylon's played about 3 downs of football since he left the Jets, and Holmes had multiple game winning catches the previous season.  Santonio has proven he's a gamer in big spots, but has now also proven he'll sulk and quit if he's not getting enough touches.

Note that he never quit when playing on the Steelers.  That's the difference when you're on a team with a good culture and a bad culture, and why a coach's impact has much more to do with building a culture of excellence than with the on-field choices we fans (read, arm chair offensive coordinators for 3 hrs a week) care about.

It's about setting expectations and getting guys to have their sights set on winning 365 days a year, working in the weight room, getting into camp, focusing, etc.   It's always the little things that aggregate up to winning squads.

So while I currently despise Santonio, the decision to keep him wasn't horrible, given the limited options and tight timeframe they were making those decisions.  With this group, the guy clearly doesn't work, and needs to go.  But then again--that's true of most of this team.  If Parcells came back, he'd turn over 80% of the roster and start over, because that's the only way to remove the "me first" tumor.

BOTTOM LINE: I'm not giving up on the Mets.  Riding them right until mathematical elimination in late September.  It's far more enjoyable than the s show, on the field and off, that the Rusty Propellers will be putting up over the next 5 weeks.