Am not the biggest Lawless fan by any means but do feel he takes a lot of unwarranted flack from many. He also hits one out of the park every now and then, and this happens to be one of those occasions in my view. I wish to now sincerely apologize in advance to any of those I’m surely about to offend.
Frankly, I find that the conversational tone here on some days borders upon the bizarre. I believe this is because many of the opinions expressed here (and those displayed by many in the local blogosphere) come due unrealistic expectations. Most Jets fans I personally know conversely tend to actually be a rather pragmatic lot that had quite restrained expectations for these early relocation years; they don’t express the sort of beliefs apparently held by many here. Perhaps that is because I work in a business segment that involves very detailed planning, and is due that most of the adults I interact with are of an age that life experience has drilled into them the long-view of pragmatism. I also work with and personally know many quite successful people; those people do not express the sort of excessive negativity one can find here on a daily basis but rather tend to be folks that focus mainly upon the positive. They also tend to mostly be proactive people who plan and do not deviate from their planning based upon situational circumstance. They are not the sort to call for the coach to be fired in the preseason (for example, hello), and can see that TNSE have in-place a head coach whose task is to properly integrate their draftees, is to preach personal accountability, and is to stress defensive play in a conference that requires it; getting the latter from a group that has never previously faced that level of expectation was obviously going to be difficult at best. They’ll surely eventually change coaches when they no longer fit within TNSE’s plan.
This team was never going to do a rebuild; that is because they sold season tickets with attached multi-year commitments and those folks were owed at least the appearance of an attempt to compete while the organization was being built. Instead, management and ownership have stated from day one that they plan to build a team that will be competitive for the long haul and in this market that mainly requires drafting and developing in-house, while trading a key piece or two that doesn’t fit within the long-term plan, and by dispatching others via planned obsolescence as their contracts expire. They are building. We are still in the early stages here. A good analogy is that the foundation and basement work is now complete (they’ve built a minor-league feeder system where one did not previously exist) and they have just begun the framing work (draftees have now slowly begun to trickle into that system). What is to come over the near-to-intermediate period is likely to be more of the same. Some may counter that this process will be too slow and will not mesh with the developmental curve of the bulk of their core, but surely their planning takes that into account and is flexible due that they are not married to this specific core in perpetuity, but rather, key pieces can be moved when need be. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and it isn’t an oncoming train but rather is that the system is currently being stocked with competitive players of good character.
If your only response is one of witty hashtags such as “#fuelled by patience†or is to suggest that I am a victim of drinking their Kool-Aid, I’d counter by suggesting that you conversely are a victim of your own unrealistic expectations, and apparently were either unwilling or unable to fathom exactly how they told you this team was going to be built.
Sorry for the long rant. Carry on!
. I am not saying blow it up but I am saying action steps “at the next level†will be needed.
