Let’s say the Jets wanted to summarize the 2011 season with a series of highlights and action shots. Not many highlights…not many action shots! You know what there were a lot of… (say it with me!) three and outs! Game after game…quarter after quarter…drive after drive…coming to a screeching halt after just three plays. I remember the dejected looks and booing crowds ushering the New York Jets offense to the sidelines mere moments after cheering them onto the field.
The postgame wrap-ups riddled with the same old excuses for the same tired questions.
“Is their enough diversification in the offensive game plan?” “Can the QB execute the game plan?” Even after leading his team to two-straight AFC Championship games and making MetLife Stadium feel like home, starting QB Mark Sanchez had questions to answer about his effectiveness, his work ethic…even his ability to lead.
Enter the offseason.Locker room grumblings. Outspoken teammates. Your stadium co-tenants celebrate their second championship in five years. These are all good reasons to escape to the soothing and familiar trappings of the Golden State. Rarely heard from, the media is left to speculate on the hold Mark Sanchez has on his team. Head Coach Rex Ryan, speaking of himself, remarked that he had lost the “pulse” of his team by the end of the season…had Mark Sanchez as well? Had the Jets QB become complacent, maybe set in his ways, as he had no true competition in the reserve QBs on the roster?
As questions pile up about the Jets QB, The Colts make the ‘move heard round the NFL’ cutting long-time starter and future hall of famer Peyton Manning. We know the story. Manning choses Denver, and like a lightning-bolt thrust from a mile high, Tim Tebow lands in the Big Apple…as a Jet!
Forget the shabbily put-together presser Tebow handled as he handles everything, in stride and with class. Forget the comments by Rex, by Tannenbaum, by Sanchez. Forget the billboards and the media hype. #15 & #6 are going to have to work together to make the Jets successful in 2012, and prove to doubters that two are better than one.
From all accounts, Tim Tebow’s a hard worker and film-room guy. He hauls it in practice and is one of the best people you’ll ever meet…if only that could convert a third & three from the fifteen yard line! Adding Tebow to the roster as a wildcat QB was a shroud move by Tannenbaum & Rex, but also a strategic one. It’s been said Sanchez wasn’t being pushed by his former reserves…no one will be saying that now! Maybe the competition will be good for the Jets starting QB? We’ve seen Sanchez throw…we’ve seen Tebow throw; we’ve seen Sanchez win…we’ve seen Tebow win! Can they do what everyone says is impossible; can they make this work? Jets fans sure hope so. Maybe, just maybe the Jets 2012 season summary will have highlights, action shots…and a GREEN party at MetLife Stadium!
- Joseph Haas
