In our last post this past week, we made the case for why Giants owner John Mara was killing the franchise.
Jets beat writers & fans: Hold my beer.
The Athletic broke a story on Thursday about the Jets dysfunction. The lead in the story was so preposterous, I actually thought at first it was a joke. Apparently Joe Douglas, the now former GM of the Jets, was lining up a deal with Denver in the offseason to get WR Jerry Jeudy. The deal was about to close when it suddenly fell apart. Denver was shocked to find out that Woody Johnson killed the deal because Jeudy’s Madden NFL player rating was too low.
You can’t make this stuff up.
The article cites sources which say that Johnson is “over-involved, impulsive.” Douglas once quipped that “I answer to (Johnson’s son) a teenager.”
The Giants have structural dysfunction. John Mara is a slow burn. Comparatively, Woody Johnson is a house on fire. Apparently Johnson’s teenage kids not only provide free Madden advice to their father, they also have access to the locker room and provide free post game analysis to players on their performance. It’s the Lucky Sperm club +1 generation. Two generations of morons for the price of one! What could possibly go wrong?!
If I were a Jets fan, I’d be running a GoFundMe to raise the money for another Airplane banner: “WOODY: END THE MADDENESS. SELL THE JETS”
Dueling Dysfunction. One franchise is worse than the next. A race to the bottom. NY football is so bad. They sport a combined record of 6-22. Since 2011, when we chronicled the erosion of the fumes from Wellington, these 2 franchises are bringing up the rear of the NFL. The Giants are 78-130-1, while the Jets are 73-136. That is a combined 151-266-1. That is consistent underperformance. That is handing the rest of the NFL 115 wins net. Each team is, on average, roughly 6-11 EVERY SEASON. Terrible. Structurally there is something wrong.
Mara hurts the team in different ways. It is more subtle than the pure trainwreck of Johnson. In that sense, the comparison of Mara to Johnson really is not fair. Mara does not undermine his GM. Yet, as Parcells is famously quoted, you are what your record says you are. And the Giants have a grand total of 5 more wins over 13 seasons than a complete trainwreck. So you tell me if the Giants are functional? They are not. As I have said in the past, I do like Schoen, but not enough to support him when I know for a fact he is going to take a QB at 1.01 or 1.02 while that is not completely ‘a given’ should a new GM come in.
A couple of things make John Mara’s franchise performance collectively worse. (1) The second half of HOF QB Eli Manning’s career was completely wasted during this time. Manning masked the erosion. Indeed, the Giants two best seasons during this period (9-7 in 2012, 11-5 in 2016) were when Manning was still in his prime and holding the rest of the garbage together. (2) It is easier to understand Coughlin walking past John Mara at his farewell press conference, not shaking Mara’s hand. Coughlin is a class guy. Mara is the useless 5th wheel. It is pretty clear that Coughlin, who was hired by Accorsi and Wellington, was not at all happy with John Mara.
In the last 10 years, only the Jaguars have more losses than the Jets and Giants. NY is in 2nd and 3rd place in NFL losses. That is not the kind of list you want to be on. It starts at the top. I do think a QB can turn things around for the Gmen quickly. That will be Schoen’s pitch to Mara. Do we really want Mara making these decisions? I would feel much better if the organization had a true President, and an owner who was seen but not heard. Not a peep. Not a maddening peep.