Scouting Report
1 - New York Jets
Retro is the hot look in the
Meadowlands, as Bill Parcells continues to apply the formula
that made him a two-time Super Bowl
winner
| |
Foley takes over an offense that mirrors Parcells' teams of
old.
(Damian Strohmeyer)
| You see
the sleek
new white helmets, and the spark-plug quarterback whom
coach Bill Parcells wants so badly to succeed, and the
franchise receiver who
hasn't yet been worth the megabucks he's getting paid and
the new franchise back whom Parcells
doesn't want to run
into the hospital. You
don't see conservative-to-a-fault quarterback Neil O'Donnell. So
naturally the temptation is to
think: The Jets are going to fling it
big-time in
1998.
Not so fast. Parcells did not take a liberal pill this
off-season. He had been hearing all the theories going
around about the rise of the West Coast offense—from,
he grumbles, "all those offensive coordinators who
want to be head coaches so bad"—and
how the short-passing game was now the most important element
of a winning NFL offense. Parcells
didn't see that, and so he checked the
numbers.
"In the last three years, passers who threw for 300
yards in a game won 51 percent of the time," Parcells
said one day at the Jets' Long Island training camp.
"In the last three years, teams with a 100-yard rusher
in the game won 70 percent of the time.
So I say, Parcells, what's the smartest way to play? I'm
just a phys-ed guy, but it seems pretty obvious to
me."
In other words, welcome back to the
future—back, in so many ways, to Parcells's early
teams with the Giants. In 1984 Giants quarterback Phil
Simms was coming off four injury-plagued years during which
he had yet to prove himself; in 1998 the Jets are
going with quarterback Glenn Foley, who has thrown just 244
passes in his four NFL seasons. In the mid-'80s the Giants
won with a smashmouth running game led by rising-star
tailback Joe Morris, crunching fullback play and a nameless
but effective
offensive line; the 1998 Jets have
$6 million-a-year free-agent tailback Curtis Martin, 250-pound
fullback Jerald Sowell and an offensive line boosted by the
free agency signing of ex-Seahawk Kevin Mawae, now the
highest-paid center in the
league. True, those Giants had a better defense than these
Jets, and there is no Lawrence Taylor in sight this time
around. But in one year Parcells and special teams coach
Mike Sweatman have built a much better special teams unit
than the mid-'80s Giants had. Last year the Jets excelled
in two
field-position
categories vital to Parcellsball, leading the AFC in average
drive start and tying for the lead in opponents' average
drive
start.
| Schedule |
| Sept. | 6 | at San Francisco |
| 13 | BALTIMORE |
| 20 | INDIANAPOLIS |
| 27 | OPEN DATE |
| Oct. | 4 | MIAMI |
| 11 | at St. Louis |
| 19 | at New England (Mon.) |
| 25 | ATLANTA |
| Nov. | 1 | at Kansas City |
| 8 | BUFFALO |
| 15 | at Indianapolis |
| 22 | at Tennessee |
| 29 | CAROLINA |
| Dec. | 6 | SEATTLE |
| 13 | at Miami |
| 19 | at Buffalo (Sat.) |
| 27 | NEW ENGLAND |
|
|
| |
The major question for the Jets concerns Martin, the
expatriate Patriot. Twice in the last four years—as a
senior at the University of Pittsburgh in 1994 and as New
England's featured back last year—the
5'11", 203-pound Martin failed to finish a season
because of injury. If Martin plays all 16 games this year,
he'll be a 1,400-yard back, and the Jets will be a playoff
team; if he plays half the year or less, here comes
6-10.
Now that the Jets have their rushing identity, they'll need
to find one in the passing game. Foley has never
quarterbacked a complete-game victory. He has solid threats
in wideouts Keyshawn Johnson and Wayne Chrebet,
and this may be the season Johnson earns his high-priced
keep. But Parcells has little faith that tight end Kyle
Brady, a 1995 first-round pick, will become his new Mark
Bavaro. Brady has complained about not getting enough balls
thrown his way in his
first three years, and as he mishandled a couple of passes in
one practice early in camp, Parcells yelled at him, "I
keep reading about all those opportunities you missed.
There's two more you missed right there!" Fred Baxter
could replace Brady. Either
way, as befits this Giants look-alike club, tight end will be
a power
position.
The same was expected of the linebacking corps, but that
was before middle linebacker Marvin Jones suffered a
season-ending knee injury in training camp. The Jets then
signed outspoken free agent Bryan Cox, and though the
seven-year veteran was lining
up on the outside during his first several days of camp, he
might compete with Dwayne Gordon and the rehabbing Pepper
Johnson for playing time in the middle. Yes, that's the
same Pepper Johnson who started on the Giants' second Super
Bowl
winner.
"That Giants defense was the best I've ever played
[against] in all my years in this league," says
13-year veteran fullback Keith Byars, who faced those
Parcells teams for five seasons as a member of the Eagles
and who joined the Jets in the off-season
from New England as a free agent. "But we've got the
nucleus to have a very good defense. Offensively, we're not
asking Foley to win the games, just play a role. We're
going to ride Curtis, not kill him. And hopefully Brady or
Baxter can be Bavaro. But
it does look pretty familiar around
here."
It'll look even more familiar with Parcells bundled in a
parka, patrolling the Meadowlands sideline in
January. —Peter King
By the Numbers | Inside Slant | Lineup
|
