New York Jets: 2017 Draws an interesting 20 year parallel

For the New York Jets, history may be repeating itself after twenty years.

They say that sports run in cycles. If you look at how a team performs over a period of years, it’s up, it’s down, and back up again, forming a circle. History often repeats itself as well, and for the New York Jets, that may be happening in a twenty year cycle. The idea to explore this came from a terrific Jets podcast called Play Like a Jet. In it, Scott Mason and “Big John” look back at important moments and seasons through Jets history. Subscribe if you haven’t. But they provided the motivation to talk about this parallel today.

Let’s look at the culture surrounding the Jets heading into the 2017 season. One could argue that for the previous ten years, it had been all about putting together a roster that could be the New England Patriots. Going back to Eric Mangini, the team brought in young players like Darrelle Revis and Nick Mangold. They also brought in Calvin Pace, Alan Faneca and others. It was always about competing for the division immediately.

Bring that down through the Rex Ryan era and it was the exact same thing. We know how much he wanted to beat New England. At times it appeared more important to do that than win the Super Bowl. We all remember the names. It kept happening right on through the first two years of the Todd Bowles era. “Fitzmagic” anyone? The Jets were loaded with veterans set to win immediately but without an eye to the future.

How did that turn out for us?

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So this year the Jets changed things up. Instead of bringing in the big veterans, they sent them away. There are three players on the current team over the age of 30. That is a far cry from the past.

In their place are young, hungry players looking to make their mark on the NFL. They just want to compete and get better. What the Jets are doing is rebuilding the team from the ground up in order to create success they can sustain for many years.

It’s a new era for the Jets. They are changing the culture from the team that puts it together without a plan to one that makes a plan to get good and STAY GOOD.

20 years ago the Jets went about another change in culture. A new era began in 1997 as well, of a slightly different nature. Let’s go back there.

Prior to 1997, the recent list of coaches included Bruce Coslet, Pete Carroll and Rich Kotite. No, my young readers, this is Carroll prior to him being ready to lead a team to a title. This is the Pete Carroll that didn’t have his team prepared for this:

My apologies to those who remember that. It turned my stomach too.

The above trio of coaches produced one playoff game (loss), and a combined record of 36-76. It was all punctuated by four wins in two years by Rich Kotite. All in all it was a culture of losing. The team was known as losers and the organization was known as losers.

That all changed in 1997. After fighting famously with New England over his services, Bill Parcells was in town. Everything that came with his reputation was here along with him. This was the man, and the staff, that went to three Super Bowls and won two. He was the disciplinarian and the guy that knew how to get the most out of players.

Most of all, he was a winner. His arrival meant a new culture with the Jets. A culture of winning, and it was time to take the Jets seriously. Two years later the team produced one of the best seasons in franchise history on the way to the AFC Championship game.

Sometimes culture change is good.

Next: Three mid-level moves by Maccagnan that paid off in week one

Isn’t it interesting how history comes back around like that? It’s very symmetrical. It took 20 years for the Jets to make a culture change once again. Clearly it has worked in the past. I don’t think anyone is expecting as fast of a turnaround this time, but a new culture of players isn’t a bad idea. They don’t know the errors of the past. That could help in the long run.

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