On Sunday, the Giants and Jets officially finished another forgettable losing season. Any expectation that things will change? Not from where I sit.
The Giants finished a 4-13 campaign with a 34-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium and a two-game winning streak to show for it.
After the Giants last won the Super Bowl in 2012 (the 2011 season), they managed only one playoff victory and missed the playoffs several times. They fired five head coaches and two general managers in that span.
Three hours later in Western New York, the Jets finished their 3-14 season with a 35-8 loss to the Buffalo Bills in the home team’s last-ever final regular-season game at Highmark Stadium. They wrapped things up with seven losses out of eight games while being outscored 188-54 in the final five losses of the season.
The Jets haven’t made it to the playoffs since the 2010 AFC Championship Game, when they lost to the Steelers 24-19. They currently hold a North American record of 15 missed playoff appearances and 10 losing seasons. Four executives and four coaches have come and gone in the process.
Why should we hold out hope for either team when they keep letting us down every year?
For Schoen, many questions, few answers (photo courtesy AP/Bryan Woolston)
Hard to believe, but the Giants are likely to retain Joe Schoen as general manager. He has been beyond terrible at the job. During his tenure here, has a single one of his draft picks ever elevated Big Blue? Why are things getting worse and not better? Enough is enough – Schoen’s been the team football boss for four years. Time’s up.
Jerry Reese built the team’s last two Super Bowl champions. But it hardly mattered – the previous great Giants executive was fired at the first sign of trouble because he had the gall to believe Eli Manning, John Mara’s quarterback, was washed up. Turns out he was right. Reese has every right to be bitter and feel betrayed by Mara for all this. It’s also fair to wonder if Mara’s influence has led the league to blackball Reese from being an NFL general manager. It’s a joke that Schoen keeps getting chances to fail while Reese was fired after his first misstep.
The Giants were right to fire Daboll for being awful as a head coach. The move made sense with Schoen seemingly on his way out, too. I, for one, believe the Giants’ general manager manages to hold on to his job since he lets Mara’s relatives, Tim McDonnell and Chris Mara, participate in the team’s decision-making. Need a reminder as to why the Giants have been disastrous for a decade? Look no further than this lunatic decision.
Who’d want to be Schoen’s head coach when he himself could be fired next season? What good can come from a new general manager inheriting a head coach he doesn’t want? It’s a surefire recipe for failure — ask Rex Ryan and John Idzik.
The Jets have a new regime, so no one can jump to conclusions after 18 games despite what WFAN’s Joe Benigno is doing. Some small solace for Jets fans: general manager Darren Mougey is adept at the draft — Mason Taylor, Armand Membou, Malachi Moore, and Azareye’h Thomas developed into productive players.
GM Moughey (L) and Head Coach Glenn (photo, North Jersey.com)
Mougey also saw a sucker in the Colts for taking the overrated Sauce Gardner in exchange for most draft picks. With plenty of picks to work with in the coming years, there’s sure to be a moment for Mougey to make his mark.
I don’t know what to make of Aaron Glenn as head coach. He’ll be the first to admit he didn’t do a great job this year. Well, guess what? That’s to be expected from a first-year head coach who inherited a rebuilding project from failed regimes unable to get the job done.
For Benigno and others calling for Glenn’s firing after just one year, it only makes the fanbase look foolish. If owner Woody Johnson were ever to act on this kind of impatience, he’d turn himself into a punchline and guarantee no head coach would ever want to work for the Jets. There’s a reason coaching candidates Ben Johnson and Liam Coen wanted no part of it.
Until the Jets draft a quarterback able to elevate the franchise, they’re going to be stuck in the same cycle year after year. If they had landed the No. 1 pick, we’d be having a very different conversation. Instead, the most brilliant move would be to avoid drafting a quarterback this year and focus on the most pressing needs — adding another playmaker to complement Garrett Wilson, reinforcing the offensive line, and finding a viable replacement for pending free agent Breece Hall.
Of course, even when the Jets appear to do the right thing, history suggests it somehow turns out wrong. We all thought Sam Darnold would lift this troubled franchise to great heights. Instead, the organization mishandled his development, and it took a fresh start in Minnesota for him to reestablish himself. This franchise has run through coaches and general managers like a turnstile.
To say things are going to get better with the Giants and Jets is disingenuous. To say it can’t get any worse is being lazy. Ownership has failed to get it right time after time. The only way things can get better is if fate finally smiles on our local football teams.
God knows we deserve it after a miserable decade that has become an awful gift that keeps on giving.
