The State Of The Jets | Unkillable Live Episode 41

The State Of The Jets | Unkillable Live Episode 41

like that. What’s going on everybody? Episode number 41 of Unkillable. I apologize for not being there Sunday after a win. My daughter had a soccer game and my son had a football game and there’s certain things that are just more important than even the Jets. Okay, so uh by the way, they lost the soccer game and they tied the football game. So maybe I should have done the buy. I’m kidding. All right, we’ve got a lot to get into. It’s kind of state of the Jets here, you know, getting ready for the buy. First win for Aaron and and and certainly some things I want to get into. I got to start with Nick Mangle. I listen, you know, one one of the struggles and I said this to S the other day. One of the struggles for me and I’ve always found this to be the case and I I just I don’t know how to work around it. So, I just come very honestly here. You know, when when when it’s tragic and and I don’t mean somebody who’s older in their 80s or 90s, while it’s still sad, but when there when there’s a tragic loss, I always feel as if it’s very hard for me to encapsulate what I’m really feeling. Basically, like it’s never good enough. It’s never meaningful enough. it it’s it’s never it’s never what’s in my head and necessarily what’s in my heart. So, it’s frustrating in that sense because you you really want to say the right thing and you you mean it. Um and I’ve always felt that way when somebody tragically when we lose somebody tragically and it’s it’s even more so for Nick just um just absolutely awful. um you know, first of all, as a player, which is clearly secondary to a dad of four and and a husband, just just unthinkable. But when you really think about the Jets, right, and and the great Jets, and as we well know, there’s a very short list of great Jets. There’s some good Jets. There’s not many great Jets who actually did a fair amount of winning, and he’s one of them. And there’s even fewer that are on that list that were drafted by the Jets and took every snap as a Jet and retired as a Jet. Like you think about, okay, Joe Nameoth obviously the only championship jersey behind me and that’s more of symbolism. I never saw Joe take a snap. But even Joe didn’t finish up with the Jets. He, you know, petered out with the Rams. Uh other names that come to mind, Curtis Martin. Curtis Martin was with the Patriots the first couple of years. Uh Derrell Rivas obviously he’s drafted by the Jets. awesome with the Jets, Hall of Famer, that’s what you know him as, but he won a championship with another team, so he bounced around a little bit there. And you know, Nick was just Nick Nick was very Nick was very unique. Nick was very, first of all, he was always happy. I mean, he was always in a good mood. And I interviewed Nick, I think it was August 26th, and I think that was the date. You guys can go and check it out. It’s on YouTube from my show with S. I was off that day and we had and I had Nick on and you know talking about the upcoming season, Aaron Glenn, all the things that you would think that we would talk about and what really struck like I’m very rarely stunned anymore. Um not that I’m desensitized. I’d like to think that I’m not certainly tragedy like this. No way. But it it takes a lot for me to get a text or to see a tweet and I’m like, “Wow, like what?” And I was actually at my aforementioned uh you know my daughter’s soccer game early on Sunday and I’m sitting there in my chair and I’m spitting seeds. Beautiful day. Sun’s out. You know Jets are playing later. Not expecting much quite frankly. And I get a text from my producer from the fan Pete Hoffman. Hop. You probably heard us right. You probably heard him. He does his own show. Good dude. And he shoots a text to me and Sal and it just said Nick Mangle passed away. And I was like I was with some other dads and I I spread the word and and nobody had known and I was stunned. Number one, I just spoke to him and you know, so that was a stunner. And then even when he announced the the kidney disease and and his affliction and his journey and his like all the impediments and and all the obstacles that he was about to face trying to find the donor, I don’t know, maybe I was naive, but I just thought that he would find one. And I certainly didn’t think that it was as immediate as immediate, pardon me, and as urgent as it as it wound up being. You know, I’m thinking, and again, maybe naive. I I don’t really understand the donor process fully. I I know that you get put on a list, and I know that you need a match, and you know, that complicates things right away. There’s probably a lot of people who were willing to do it, but they didn’t have a match. So, that deletes half the uh or maybe more than half the pool of potential donors. But I’m also thinking, well, you know, he’s revered at Ohio State, which has such a massive base of alums. I’m saying to myself, surely somebody’s going to step up and they’ll find that match. And if they can’t do it in Columbus, well, he is revered and and loved as a Jet. You know, somebody is going to be able to step up and and be the match required to to let him live. So, it’s just it’s heartbreaking. It’s it’s absolutely tragic. Uh, you know, that’s not anything that you haven’t heard said, but my god, Nick Mangle was an awesome player. He was so he was phenomenal. And you think about the success with Rex, and we could sit here and talk about, you know, Rex’s defense, which was amazing the first couple of years, and Revas, who’s one of the best corners of all time, and and Bart Scott bringing that that Ravens edge and tenacity, and all the other players they had, and and the playoff moments, the some of the throws. I can I can Dustin Keller against the Chargers from Sanchez and Brilen Edwards on a bomb from Sanchez in Cincinnati. Um which he actually dropped the bomb in Indianapolis in the AFC Championship game which he caught and the Jets jumped out to a big lead and and all these these these thoughts about hey finally it’s our time. We’re going to go to the Super Bowl and and they never did but the the anchor of that team was the old line and Nick Mangle literally was the one who started it. So, you know, when Sanchez barked out to play, football didn’t start till Nick hiked it. And not only did he hike it, but who’sever in front of him, he was going to pancake. And technically, he was as sound as it gets, um, as intelligent as a football player that I’ve ever been around. I don’t profess to know Nick really well. You I had him on the show. I had him on a few times like in passing when I was doing stuff at SNY back in the day. Like, he would roll through and and so would Damen Woody was a really good guy. And it was really heart heart, you know, like the the outpour like when somebody passes away, you know, you read a lot of tweets and you see a lot of things and you’ll see some videos and you’ll see some columns that are written about somebody, but the way it poured out from every corner of the NFL and and former college teammates and college adversaries and former Jet teammates and, you know, Patriot adversaries and all the players and and all the luminaries of the NFL that it just it just tells you everything that you need to know about the man. We already knew what he was as a person, pardon me, as a player. And those of us who were around him a little bit, you know, how engaging he was and and how affable he was and how happy he was. In a lot of ways, you know, you think about an offensive lineman, you think u now I think old linemen get the short end of the stick. They’re their level of intelligence. It doesn’t compute for the average football fan. These men are brilliant. Like the defense, I’m not saying the defensive ends or the DTackles aren’t aren’t smart as well. I’m not saying that at all. But, you know, they are they are reacting. You know, a ball snap, their their 44 speed off the edge and their their strength and speed ratio is one thing, but to be an offensive lineman, you you have to be next level intelligent. So, um we miss him as a player because we haven’t really been the same since his prime. Yes, he’s a Hall of Famer. There is no doubt he is he’s going to be in Canton someday. multiple allp pros, you know, seven pro bowls, just an all-time great New York Jet, great person. That goes without saying, but it’s not hyperbolic to say that he’s one of the greatest Jet players of all time. He absolutely is. And then the uniqueness, the backwards hat, the mustache and the beard and, you know, the hair flowing out and, you know, some of those um, you know, it’s it’s just it’s it’s it’s incredibly sad. I was just thinking about some of those pictures which which really hits me as a dad and as a husband. Some of those last pictures with his kids. Um, no man. Um, rest in peace buddy. You are going to be incredibly missed. It’s It’s just brutal. It’s just brutal. Miss you big man. I’m going to miss you and we’ll always we’ll always remember you and we will always cherish you and we will always uplift your spirit and I know the amount of people that are going to reach out to your family and help lift them up and act as not as a dad because that’s irreplaceable. Uh but do the right thing by you because that’s how much people love you. It’s going to be there for the rest of their life. So, rest in peace. All right. I mean, absolutely impossible trans, you know, transition to make here. First win for Aaron Glenn. Now, you see, you talk about culture and it’s so easy to throw around. I got to change the culture. Ah, come on. You know, we thought we were going to have that with Robert Salah after the pushover and the complete circus that the that the Adam Gase era was and others before him as well. But like Gase didn’t just he didn’t project any leadership. So when Solid came in, I was into, oh, look at this guy. He’s jacked. I remember saying he looked like the bald bull from the Mike Tyson game. If you’re old enough to have played that bold bull, this guy’s tan and he’s yolked and he’s running stairs. And I’m saying, “All right, that is a culture dude right there.” And then you saw the way they played and then you saw the press conferences and then you heard how he never held anybody accountable and the vision did not match the execution. He just there was no culture. It was flimsy and it was weak and it was fake really and it was overstated to start. Wrong guy. But when you talk about culture like you you Yeah, you could get in front of a room, right? And you can say we’re going to do this and we’re going to do that and no tolerance for being late and play for the guy next to you and we’re going to be soldiers and you know it’s it’s a it’s a foxhole and we’re going to be in the trenches and we’re going to get after it every day and we’re going to take nothing for granted. You could throw out all the coach speak that you want, right? And you could project uh qualities that are that are that complement and are non-negotiable in ultimately leaders of men, right? You could sing it. You could put it on a grease board. You can, you know, leave poems or words of an inspiration on these stools of of players by their lockers. You know how you really start the culture going? You win a freaking game. That’s how you start it. Like that’s the chain reaction of changing the vibe and the mood and more importantly the belief the belief in the building. Because let me tell you what’s happening now. The Jets aren’t going to win a a lot of games this this year. They’re not. I mean, what? Maybe three, maybe four. Maybe beat the Browns, maybe beat Miami at home, whatever. Maybe, you know, but it will not be reflected in the sheer totality of wins. But what’s going to change after that win, and I know the Bengals defense is awful, and you want to say, “Wow, 39 points, big damn deal.” I’m not even getting into the weeds of the game, although the pass blocking was phenomenal. And I’ll get into some personnel personnel matters in a moment. But when you win a game unlike the se seven previous weeks, you come into the building and you could put on a brave face and you could say the right thing and you can stand in front of your locker and you could take it on the chin and you could project a resilience and you know you can try to uplift your teammates and you can be a dog in practice and I don’t doubt that some of those men because I’ve heard what they’ve said and I’m not on the practice field but I know that there’s guys on that team who are pushing and pulling the rope in the same direction trying to will this thing it would to get some traction and ultimately some momentum and then start going downhill. Right now it’s still uphill, right? But when you get the first win now, whatever Aaron Glenn’s espousing in those meetings, in those huddles, in practice, you know, on the grease board, during film session, now it resonates a little differently because now there’s some tangible evidence that, oh, okay, we got to win. We’re not a laughingstock. We’re not a joke. We’re not going to go 0 and 17. We’re not going to threat threaten futility on the on the, you know, most painful historical level. Not going to happen. That’s not going to happen. Now, the other thing the players don’t do is they really they don’t they don’t look at it the way we do right now. There were some Jet fans who or even even people who do what I do for a living. There were a lot of people said, again, big deal. The Bengals defense is atrocious. The one really good player that they have, he got hurt. He left the game. Yeah, you’re going to score some points. All right, maybe you got a little bit lucky. Bree Hall throwing the ball to Taylor. All right, you want to say they can’t tackle the Bengals, so Breeze Hall ran wild. Fantastic. Those things are true because the stats reflect that when you talk about the Bengals defense. That doesn’t matter to them. That is part of the story. Uh and and factually speaking, that again that’s true, but that’s not what these young men are thinking. They’re galvanized right now. And when you are galvanized and you come together just a little bit, you know, listen, they didn’t win. They they didn’t just secure a wild card birth, so I’m not trying to overstate this, but one win, even though it’s only one more than zero, is incalculable in terms of the mood and the push and the feel and the direction in the building. So to me to minimize a win against another team that’s not going anywhere, didn’t have Joe Burrow, whatever, that’s not what I’m doing. I do not look at it that way at all. Which gets me to this, right? There are some of you now. I I have done this in the past, but applicable to now, it’s not. And what some of you still do, and I’ve heard this, and I’ve read this, and I’ve seen this all over social media. All right? Even heard it on the radio a little bit, bouncing around some takes. So to me, the the term tanking has been hijacked. I never once heard the term uhh tanking when I was when I was younger. Like when the Jets in 1995 under Kotite year one when they were three and 13, I wasn’t sitting there thinking towards the end of the year, hey, lose this game and increase your chances at the first overall pick or obviously in in 96 before Parcels comes year two and thank god it was only two years of goite when they go 1 and 15 when it was a 16 game schedule back then. Yeah, I I knew about Pton Manning. So So maybe that was a an elevated awareness of maybe who they could get. All right, maybe if he decided to come out, which of course with the Jets lucky, he did not. And we get Keshan, who was good, but ultimately traded four years later, whatever. The the term tanking is really twisted and so improperly used. First of all, and I I know most of you know this, but for those who don’t in the back of the room, please get this through your thick heads once and for all. There is not a single player who walks on a field, especially a football field where you’ve got guys who are 6’2, 63, 6’4 and bigger. 210, 220, 240 and bigger, who run 45, 44s and faster, who are looking to dislodge the ball from you, okay? or block you five yards backwards and make take a grown man off where he’s standing and literally impose his will with such force that he pushes you back and he wins that rep like this is not like going on the basketball court and and and being halfassed and you know game 74 no disrespect like to the Nets this year right Nets are going nowhere Nets will win 10 11 12 games they’ll be absolutely wretched and they’ll have one of the top two top three picks again if not first so you’ll see at some point. Even though there’s a lot of kids on the team, you’ll see an element of disengagement to an extent where you’re not getting back on defense. Fourth quarter, third, down by 30, chucking up threes, trying to get some points, trying to, you know, try to make a little name for yourself around the NBA. You can kind of do that in the in the NBA. Not that you can’t rip up a knee, but you’re not going to get hurt because somebody’s trying to physically beat you. If you walk on a football much like the UFC ring, the octagon or boxing ring or anything or do jiujitsu, anything where there’s hand-to-hand physical contact, if you try to do, if you go in there with anything less than absolute focus and want, number one, you’re going to get hurt. Number two, you’re going to get abused. Number three, it’s on tape the rest of the league sees it. And that’s your resume. So players don’t tank. That’s a fallacy. All right. Number one. Again, that’s basic for a lot of you, but those who don’t know, hopefully you know it now, or hopefully at least you believe me now and understand it better than you did before I said what I just said. Now, the one element of tanking that that does apply, and you see this a lot in the NBA, this is different from players trying to lose. They don’t care about next year. They’re thinking about, especially with non-G guaranteed contracts, they are not thinking about, well, hey, if we suck, can we get this kid from, let’s say, Mendoza from Indiana, you know, he’s gonna elevate it. They’re not thinking about that. They’re thinking about getting the tape right so that whatever contract they have is not restructured or they’re not cut or if they’re up for a contract and they’re a free agent, somebody else wants him or the Jets want him. All right. Now, in terms of the management, yes, you do see, hey, let’s trade this guy. Let’s reset the finances. Going back years ago, Zion Williamson is coming out. LeBron’s coming out. You know, Tim Duncan’s coming out of Wake Forest. I’m just throwing random Patrick Euing coming out of Georgetown at 85 where you know you might dismantle the roster if a guy who is your leading scoreer is a little bit banged up at the end of the year. H you know what sit out uh we’re we’re we’re not going to win. We’re going nowhere. Don’t push it. There’s an understanding in terms of how front offices build teams when they are trying to lose or reset the finances or both. All right. Now, my juggle with again not tanking but hoping that the Jets lose and I’ve been there before as I’ve gotten older like I’ve got wi-i with with this team and it’s impossible not to get callous almost to the point where there’s apathy but the only thing that we really have to look forward to is who we’re drafting and all that other like the ancillary stuff not pertaining to watching games in the moment. All right. So, there have been times and I have said this and some of you don’t like it and I don’t care. Like when the Jets aren’t good and which is pretty much always the last 15 years and we’re in December and I know they’re trotting out either a quarterback who’s highly touted but stinks or you know, no shade, Greg Mroy or some some of these other guys that play one game and then they disappear like a Kell Clemens even though he played more than one. Somebody like that and I see a favorable betting spread. I’m like, you know what? They’re not gonna win. I may as well try to make a few bucks. That’s different. To to think that way now, you know, not even at the absolute mathematical half point of the season is is ridiculous and pathetic. It’s absolutely unacceptable. This isn’t week 15. And by the way, Mendoza is my guy now. Like if the Jets are 0 and 15 and let’s say the Tit Well, the Titans wouldn’t take a quarterback anyway because they have Cam Ward Browns. Let’s say, well, they’re playing each other, so that might not work out. Just say for the sake that the Jets are playing the the Jets and the Browns have the same record. It’s week 15, week 16, whatever it might be. They’re both vying for the number one pick. I want Mendoza. The Browns like Mendoza. Mendoza further establishes himself as the first overall consensus pick. And the Jets win a meaningless game. Like when they beat the Rams years ago, somehow they won that game in LA. Well, okay. Now that is a problem because now this complicates what I can do to accelerate my future and fortify my future. That’s different. So to to already be in the bag, the tanking bag, the tanking mindset, I cannot relate to it at this point. I’m not saying that I enjoy these games. Although last week was fun. I admit it. I was able to suspend the reality of the season and the record for a little bit and enjoy football. Actually see almost 40 points and really enjoy it. My son goes to me, he says, “Death.” He said, “Imagine if the Jets could do this every week, like score points.” I’m like, “Yeah, I mean, it would be pretty fun. I mean, some teams do. I mean, the Buffalo Bills do now. They give up a lot, but Josh Allen gets them in. Mahomes gets them in. A lot of teams score. Generally, the Eagles score some points, right?” Yeah, I get it, son. It’s fun. But usually, and here I go, because I do this every punk. I sit there and I watch the games like this after I eat my roast beef and mozzadel, whatever else. I got my notepad which I have in front of me now, right? Why do challenge this fumble sauce this penalty this bad call whatever drop pass and I will sit there lifeless and and largely expressionless pertaining to the game and pertaining to the more of the macro feel of where the team is. I just don’t get now doing that. I will give you one caveat. one at this point and this juncture early in the season where you you are rooting for losses aside from like a Pton Manning type somebody like that like some transcendent alltime Andrew Luck somebody you know is going to be just phenomenal if you have a coach who you can’t stand but maybe not even to make it personal that you don’t believe in that you really just think is awful schematically awful with the media players don’t respect him and you want them out like Gates in year two or for me Salah last year. That’s different because now you’re not rooting you’re you’re rooting for losses because really it’s you hope it becomes the stabilizing force and the impetus for change. And from a Jets perspective, we’ve recycled these people over and over, GMs and coaches. I get it. But to me, each new general manager, and I’ll get to Muji in a minute, and head coaching hire represents positivity until until it proves otherwise. All right, they got the wrong guy. All right, they like IDs the magnet. All right, they hired the wrong GM. We’re screwed. Let’s get through it again. And if if you’re if you’re there in year one with Aaron Glenn, meaning you’ve already determined that he’s like Gase or he’s like Salo or he’s like Kotite, I think you lost. I think number one, with all due respect, I think that you understate and completely minimize just where this team is, especially without Garrett Wilson. I mean, it’s a minor miracle that they scored, forget about 39 points. If they would have scored 21, even the even with the Bengals poorest defense, I would have been stunned. I thought they were going to lose 30 to 10. I really did. 30-13, 34 to whatever, 17 if if they really went nuts. Like, there’s just there’s nothing there. There’s nothing there. You know, the defense is grossly overrated. We know that by now. That’s not even overrated. Now although it’s played better the last couple of weeks Bengals game aside that was a step back it it’s not what it was under Salva like at least under Salva the defense was really good it’s it’s not that unit and Bryce Hup is gone and you know c Germaine Johnson’s not the same with the Achilles and you know Mosley’s gone so it’s not the same but I just don’t get it so I’m not telling you what to do if you want to continue to root for losses go for it that’s not where I’m at all right last thing here Muji let me tell you something about our general manager right now you can still be and and I am still in the evaluation mode of Aaron Glenn. Obviously, he’s coached eight games, right? And he’s had some contentious exchanges with the media. So, hopefully that smooths it itself smooths itself out and he becomes a little more maybe a little more thick skinned. Although, there’s a part of me that actually likes the bite and the push back because he’s doing that as a quick aside. He’s doing that not to be mean to Rich Samini who he knows forever or Canazaro or or Connor or all the other all the other great journalists who covered the Jets. He is talking not to me, not to you, not to S, not to the writers. He’s talking to his locker room. And if their leader is projecting a forwardness and I’m in charge and no, I don’t have to answer that. I’ll tell you who the quarterback is what I know. Yeah, I’m not Rich, you could ask me 50 more times. I’m not going to answer you. Like that is that is leadership. Now, that might be uncomfortable for some. That’s your problem. Get over it. It’s football, you know? So, I I just think that he he’s talking to his team. So, now anyway, back to Darren Muji, right? So, I got to put the glasses on for this one because the writing’s small and the it’s a little dark in my office, my home office. Now, let’s run through what Darren Muji has done. Number one, he drafted an absolute stud in Meu. He is not good. He’s not. Well, maybe he’s got a chance to be a player. He is an absolute beast. And by the way, so is old fashioner who was drafted by a different regime. Now again, you got to say this because you got to weigh it with the merits of the opponent. All right? But it’s still the NFL. It’s not college where Alabama’s playing Akan where there’s such a disparity in talent. These are still NFL players. Last week, all right, against the Bengals, Meu had 37 pass blocking reps, zero pressures, not sacks, pressures, but really, yeah, that’s Meu. All new fashion had the same amount, obviously, 37, and he gave up zero pressures and zero sacks. So, if you want to tell me, if you want to ask me what’s the quickest way to stabilizing this morbid, lifeless, sad, sack franchise, well, think about what I was just talking about with the great, rest in peace, awesome Nick Mangle. How did it change for them? Started with Brick on the left side and it started with Big Nick in the middle. That’s how you started. And then eventually, if you, you know, you get a shut down corner and and S does shut down in terms of the passes. I wish he made more plays. You know that. Uh, they’ve got to get another linebacker. They’ve got to get some more. We all know this. But the Jets offensive line and Titman graded out very well too and he’s been very good. But the drafting of Arman Meu was a home run star absolute building block lynch pin of what ultimately will be, I know it sounds nuts, very good Jet teams eventually. Whenever it is, whomever the quarterback is, hopefully Glenn’s still the coach. Boom. first pick, new general manager, crushed it. Now you look at the second pick, Mason Taylor. Okay, now I I’m not going to go nuts and say he’s going to be a KD or a Kelsey, but I’m not going to say that he’s not going to be like that. I mean, when I first started watching the Jets, it was very different league, early 80s, obviously, Sack Exchange, Kleco, and all those guys, Gastano, Marty Lines, Abdul Salam, and Mickey Schuler was the tight end. And now Freeman was the central figure in the running game. And Wesley Walker, who I know real well, shout out to Wes. Love him. Great dude. Was I mean just a beast going deep and made a million plays for this team, right? Mickey Scheler was a really good tight end. He could block, but he can receive the ball and he was a threat. He wasn’t going for 80, 90 catches because they it was a different NFL, right? But he had years. I’d have to double check this. 50 60 catches, couple of touchdowns. Scheler was a matchup problem for the, you know, the slot corners or linebacker dropping back and coverage on him. So Mason Taylor, all right, number one, his dad played in the NFL, which guarantees nothing, but he’s not in awe of the NFL because he’s been around it. His earliest recollection was what his dad did for a living, which is completely abnormal for the rest of us, was completely normal in his world. Oh, dad’s got a game today. Oh, dad just sacked Tom Brady. Oh, my dad’s awesome. Right? So Mason Taylor was never going to be overwhelmed by the stage in the NFL. And again, I’ll let guys like Baldi, who we have on the show every week, BT and Sound on the Fan, he’s the best breaking down film. And there’s others who are good, but I dove into some of the tape from him and others with Taylor in college. And I saw so many things I liked. The one thing I wasn’t sure about and and and same with some others who loved him as a receiver, would he be stout enough at the point of contact to at least be a serviceable blocker? Well, see, here’s the deal. If you want to be a a decent blocking tight end, I think everybody still associates like girth and like sheer, excuse me, sheer um size and and and like a level of physicality, which obviously helps provided you can run and you have good hands. But to me, to be a good blocker, it starts with a willingness. If you’re not willing to stick your beak in there, you’re not going to be a good blocker. And I don’t mean where you just, you know, pancake somebody and put them on his behind. That’s nice. But I mean where you are you you understand angles and depth perception. You know the playbook. You’re intelligent. You run the proper route to a dime. You know where your guy’s going to be. You know where the ball’s going. And when the ball goes there, well, you’re in the right spot. And all you have to be really is a deterrent to the linebacker or the nickel or a corner or a safety coming down, whatever it might be. You don’t have to put him on his ass. As I said, just get in his way. Just, you know, hit him in the pads. You want to, you know, grab him a little bit before he turns. Let go so it’s not holding. And Mason Taylor is doing that. And, you know, he’s got a nose for, you could see it. You saw it game one, game one and two, you saw it right away. He’s got a nose for getting open and he’s got a he’s got good hands. So, let me get this straight. The left tackle, pardon me, on the right side with Meu home run. Bang. He crushed it. Muji. Now, the second pick, tight end, crushed it. I’m not going to say he’s going to be as as good of a tight end as I think Meu might be as a t as as a tackle, but again, I’m not saying he won’t be, but think about, and that’s why I started with with Mickey Scheler, think about all the other tight ends that we’ve had. I mean, Kyle Brady was drafted out of Penn State and he was that big brrawn like an offensive lineman, you know, he wasn’t a threat downfield at all. He he didn’t have an ounce of wiggle and you know, real real Jet fans, and if you’re watching this, I’m assuming you’re a real Jet fan. Remember Jason Amaro from Texas Tech? He had like 120 catches in college, but he fizzled out. Think about all the tight ends that they’ve tried, the guys they brought in. Even Conklin and some others like he was okay, but you know, you trade for him or your free agency, you’re just throwing darts, right? They have never never drafted a guy and developed him in the modern NFL where he’s actually a threat to go for 60 or 70 catches. By the way, Taylor’s going to wind up with 55 or 60 this year. You know, maybe 600 yards, maybe a little bit more, you know, five or six touchdown, maybe four or five touchdowns. That is a guy who ultimately is a weapon and an asset and a plus tight end. Check Muji two for two. Now, you get into some stuff that’s a little less obvious. Now, thank you Tennessee Titans for allowing uh and being stupid enough for the Jets to fleece him for Brownley in a trade. You gave up almost no draft equity. He’s making basically peanuts. I think his guaranteed money next year is like a million dollars. You’ve got a starter who who really and the knock on him was he’s terrible in pass coverage, but he’s a pretty good tackler. All right. I’m not saying he’s he’s he’s an amazing uh cover guy, but he has brought like a viciousness and a tempo and and a like a trait to this defense that they really didn’t have before he arrived. No coincidence, he got more reps. Jets defense has gotten better aside from the Bengals where they gave up 38. So Brownley was a very astute train. Now, anybody can really I mean, although the Jets have messed messed this up a million times as well, anybody can have a top 10 pick and draft somebody who’s going to be a starter. I mean, I could do that. I could do that. You know, I could I could have drafted Darnold or or Wilson or maybe gone in a different direction. When you’re drafting in the top 10, there’s only, you know, depending upon needs and position, there’s only so many names to choose from. So again, but you still have to do it. But as you get in the weeds and the micro stuff of a GM, this is is what why Roseman’s phenomenal with Philly. You start looking at stuff like this. Even Cashman, who I have a lot of issues with with the Yankees, he is very good, very astute, very very forward thinking of finding bullpen arms and and guys like that. A little different with the offense, you know, but that’s a great skill that a lot of other GMs don’t have. So, he’s already shown the ability to do a low-level trade that nobody blinked at. Nobody even blinked at that now is looking really, really good. Okay, you’re going to laugh at this one. Are you going to talk about a punter? You bet your ass I’m going to talk about a punter. The Jets have a punter who’s going to be punting for the Jets for the next 10 years, if not more. He’s 24 years old. McNamera is phenomenal. He was a free agent signing. Was not drafted. Okay. So, and and he and I and I listen, I’d be lying if I said the day that he signed them. I was excited. Number one, the punt punters don’t excite me unless it’s Ray Guy back in the day. And that didn’t even really excite me because he wasn’t on my team and I was really too young to care about punting. But I did some digging on him. He was the number one punting recruit out of high school. All right. And with this, and I see this with my son and my daughter who’s getting there now, and all the kids that play like highlevel um certainly travel baseball, like there’s a specialization. All right, that’s why kids are throwing harder, hitting more home runs early because they specialize in one thing. So, I do think that there’s a lot of kids around the country now that can pump the hell out of a football. I mean, that can crush it. His hang time is phenomenal and and even I think that you can get that with the specialization of punting. Same with long snappers, right? That’s even that’s taken off in the last 10, 12, 15 years because there’s NIL money and there’s scholarship money behind that and and parents are motiv motivated by that, which I get, but McNamera not only bangs it to the moon, but when he has a chance to when like a directional kick or pin it in like when he’s at a favorable I don’t mean if he’s at midfield. Well, actually, yeah, I mean, really, midfield or really anywhere. I guess what I’m what I was trying to say was if he’s at his own 20, he’s not going to bang one inside the 10. That’s what I’m saying. But when he’s at a on a spot on the field where he’s got a chance to pin it inside the 15, and there’s stats for this and he’s number one, he’s number one in hang time and he’s number one punts down inside either the 10 or the five, but incredibly favorable metrics. McNamera, home run. Home run for Muji. You watch this. I don’t even know what he signed as a free agent, you know. I mean, rookie minimum, whatever the hell it is. In the next year, maybe in the next few months, the Jets will announce a three-year extension for McNamera. I don’t even know punting money at this point, you know, $6 million, 8 million, whatever the going rate, $9 million in total. I don’t know if he’s gonna get $3 million a year, but let’s say three years, 6.2, three years, 5.4. He’s wealthy. you know, if he if he invested properly, he’s pretty set for a while, if not for life. And the Jets have a position of need because they’ve always looked for a punter. And he’s going to be phenomenal. Who found them? Muji did. And the last one, and I was crushing this guy early on. I’ve got to take a little bit of an L here. Uh Brandon Stevens, who we signed as a corner to um you know, to come in and help out the defense. And he was really, really bad. I’m like, “Wow, he Okay, he missed this.” And listen, to be fair, too, there’s other names that I’m omitting that and and some positive, but these are the ones that really jump out. But there’s also ones where he took a couple of swings and it’s like, low-level, lowrisk, um, nominal money, not a lot of time attached to the player. Let me kick the tires. My talent base is weak. I’ve got to get creative. Not all of them work out, obviously, because if the players that he took a swing on were that good, their previous teams wouldn’t have let him go. All right? So, he’s not perfect. I’m not saying that. But think about the first year general manager who oh yeah by the way was also with the Denver Broncos. How are they doing these days? Looked pretty good. Now I’m not saying that he ran the entire show from the first day that he was there. But it it it it says something when you are in a room with Shawn Payeyton and other intelligent decision makers and a franchise that historically is a million times better than ours. Generally they’re not down for too long, right? They find a way to regenerate and at least be competitive. And you’re in those meetings, personnel meetings, draft evaluations, free agent evaluations, and you learn stuff, man. And then you come here and now you get to be you and you get to do things your way. But I promise you, I promise you that he has taken principles from Denver and he’s now brought them to the Jets. And over time, you kind of plant those seeds, you sprinkle some water, eventually you start to see something nice. All right? Rather than weeds uh in the parking lot. So again, you know, whether it’s Meu, whether it’s Mason Taylor, whether it’s Brownley with the trade, you flee Tennessee, whether it’s Brandon Stevens, whether it’s McNamera who’s 24 years of age, you get him as a free agent punter. I mean, that’s foresight. That is vision. And that portends great things for the future. It really does. Now, there’s a long way to go. There’s a lot of lot of steps to climb here, but as a state of the Jets, as I wrap it up, all right, as I wrap it up, the first win, it’s paramount. You can’t you you could the more they had that donut, the more contentious it would have been. The more people would have bagged on Glenn and checked out on him as a possible co. There’s a lot of coaches out there, by the way, who started awful. Look at Bill Parcell’s first year with the Giants. What do he three wins? I think he was like, I want to say 312 and one, you know. Look at Bellich. I’m not saying that Glenn’s going to necessarily be these guys, but Bellich very humble beginnings with the Browns. This is, you know, this is not uncommon when you go to a team with zero winning culture, a talent base that is as low as anybody top to bottom in the NFL. It’s going to take time. So, I’m I’m pumped that they won. I enjoyed it. It’s not about tanking for me. I hope it’s not about tanking for you. I would encourage you, hey, formulate your own opinions. I’ve watched Mendoza play, let’s see, I watched the Oregon game against Dante Moore. That was about a month or so ago up in Oregon. He played better. He beat him. Moore was awful. I think that’s an outlier. I’m not giving up on more yet, but Mendoza clearly was the better player and Oregon has more talent even though Indiana’s defense is great. Um, they’ve got more NIL money, all that stuff. The game against UCLA last week, I watched that. He was really, really, really, really good. He’s 6’5. He’s 220. He moves more than like he’s not, you know, he’s not he’s not going to be Josh Allen, but he does move. He’s not a statue. And I the one thing that that I noticed with him, and I encourage you to do your own evaluations, and there’s a few other quarterbacks, but to me, it’s Dante Moore Mendoza right now. Mendoza won. Watch how he manipulates the pocket. And I think Jackson Dart, who’s a better athlete, is a great athlete. I think Mendoza is a good athlete. Jackson Dart has this trait which is so identifiable and so I mean the Giants have their star of the future. There’s no question. And Tom Brady did this really well. Now Tom Brady Brady had to do it because he was he couldn’t move. He was a fire hydrant. He had zero quickness like running you know trying to get turn the corner get a first down. But what Tom Brady and Payton was this way as well as a non-athlete relative to his peers. They were able even Brady more than Pton. Think I think Brady I think Pton’s mind at the line of scrimmage was better, but manipulating space and carving out that extra tenth of a second to step up, feel the pressure, slide quick to your right, slide quick to your, you know, backwards just to give you that little teeny tiny w, excuse me, to make a throw, move the sticks, eventually score touchdowns. Brady was the Jedi at that, the master. And I see some of those. I know somebody’s gonna hijack, oh, he said he’s gonna be like Tom Brady. No, I’m not. But he’s got that quality. I know he’s got the arm strength like the measurables. Anybody can see he’s big and he’s two he’s 220 and he’s 6’4 6’5 and he’s got a good arm. VO’s there. It’s the other because Zach Wilson had a good arm. He just couldn’t read a damn thing in front of him. Right. So, do your homework on the quarterbacks. Formulate your own opinion. Enjoy the win. Enjoy the buy. Let’s make it two in a row. Uh and the next podcast that I will do and I’ve got to find the right person. I’ve got a few ideas. I’m gonna have somebody come on and half is going to be about our buddy number 74 Nick Mangold and the other part’s going to be a continuation of the state of the Jets. You know, early read on Glenn, early read on on Muji from somebody who was on the Jets. Could be Crebette. Um, you know, I don’t know Damen Woody who who I who I used to see a lot who’s ESPN. I’m not sure if he’s allowed to come on. You know, Bart, who I did TV with for a couple of years and is is a great dude. He’s on a different radio station. I don’t know contractually he could come on, but I’m gonna get somebody and I’m going to talk about this and we’re gonna do it the right way. So hopefully you guys enjoyed this. I appreciate you guys hanging out. All right. Hopefully you really hopefully I didn’t you know I needed to do this like it’s one thing to come on after a game and let it rip which is fun. We had to go a little deeper here. Number one for our guy Nick, but for the other stuff which big picture is much more important. So let your buddies know. If you got Jet fans in California, out in Texas, wherever they might be, up in Maine, let them know about the podcast. Obviously, Monday through Friday, 10 to two on the fan with S. Uh, Apple, Spotify, you know where to find the pod. I appreciate you guys. I appreciate your support. And I will catch you tomorrow at 10 on the fan. And I’ll catch you in a couple of days on the pod. We’ll see you soon.

On this episode of Unkillable, BT remembers Nick Mangold, and speaks on the outlook for the rest of The Jets season following a win against The Bengals.

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