We usually hesitate to pass along pure analysis without new reporting from other sources. Making stuff up out of thin air is our racket.
Sometimes, however, a column is too dead-on to ignore. That's the case with Mark Cannizzaro's Wednesday New York article about New York Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum running out of scapegoats in New York.
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Brian Schottenheimer is gone. So is right tackle Wayne Hunter and even wide receiver Plaxico Burress. Tim Tebow has arrived to distract everyone from the fact that Tannenbaum hasn't been able to build a halfway decent passing attack since he became the Jets' GM in 2006.
It's a bad sign that Brett Favre's first three months in New York was the high point for the Jets' passing game since Tannenbaum took over. Mark Sanchez should be improving, but we would take the offense built around Sanchez, Braylon Edwards and Jerricho Cotchery over the 2012 model. Sanchez is not the common denominator to all the Jets' passing woes: Tannebaum is.
Rex Ryan avoids blame for the struggles because he so clearly sets himself apart as a defensive coach. That's a shortcoming, too, but at least Ryan's defenses deliver. Tannenbaum has been a teflon presence in New York under owner Woody Johnson, and he's signed through 2014. It's fair to wonder, however, if he'll get to pick the next Jets quarterbacks.
If Tannenbaum does manage to stick around, it seems like only a matter of time before the Jets scapegoat Sanchez and Tebow, too.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.
