New York Jets owner Woody Johnson has some decisions to make with Black Monday less than three weeks away.
He can either blame this 2-11 debacle on his beloved head coach, Rex Ryan, or his new general manager, John Idzik. He could always get rid of them both, though it would force him to admit several grave missteps along the way that set the franchise back another half decade.
Either way, he does not sound like an executive ready to sit on his hands.
"It's not a question of fondness," Johnson said at the league meetings Wednesday, via the New York Daily News. "I've always thought he's a very good coach. He's an excellent coach, excellent teacher. The fans are going to want to see something different. They're not going to let us get along and I don't want to do exactly the same thing."
So it's going to be either the way we coach or the way we approach it. It could be with the same people. It might be with different people. That's the case each and every year."
Johnson will always appreciate Ryan for his ability to yank the franchise into immediate legitimacy. In each of his first two seasons with the Jets, he reached the AFC Championship Game. Since then, Ryan's inability to develop a quarterback has proven itself detrimental. His choice of offensive coordinators has also been less than inspiring.
Idzik, on the other hand, came in and traded the face of the franchise, Darrelle Revis, but balked at a golden opportunity to re-sign him this past offseason and bring Ryan's defense full circle. He also squandered almost a dozen draft picks in 2014 and sat on a surplus of salary cap money.
At this point, if Johnson truly has yet to make his decision as he claims in the article, it is going to be difficult to orchestrate a full-scale rebuild. The Jets are not quite considered a destination for emerging executives, and they would need to slog through another lengthy GM search before finding the person who would eventually select the next head coach.
Basically, it might be too much to undertake for one offseason, which means Johnson needs to make up his mind.
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