NFL Open Thread: Super Wildcard Part Deux
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Before we get to today’s games, let us marvel at the job search being conducted by the failson and his failsons:
The New York Jets are a very serious professional sports organization run by mature adults who totally know what they are doing and do not base their decisions on video games, ayahuasca hallucinations, Tarot readings or whatever the owners’ sons think will get them laid.
Need proof? Look at their tight, coherent list of head-coaching interviews and requests as of 4 PM on Monday: Ron Rivera, Rex Ryan, Josh McCown, Brian Griese, Arthur Smith, Brian Flores, Matt Nagy, Bobby Slowik, Vance Joseph, Aaron Glenn and Mike Vrabel.
That’s a team that knows what it wants: someone with experience. Or a newcomer. An offensive coach. Or a defensive one. A quarterback whisperer. Or someone who genuinely hates quarterbacks. Or some TV guy who coached them 15 years ago.
The Jets are also interviewing GM candidates: Alec Halaby, Ray Farmer, Jim Nagy (the Senior Bowl director; no relation to Matt), Mike Greenberg, Louis Riddick and Mike Borgonzi. That last name is a real person, not someone I made up, though Borgonzi sure sounds like a name I would make up. (He’s a Chiefs front-office deputy). It’s the usual collection of semi-anonymous Assistant This/Director of That types, plus Riddick, an exec from the late 2000s who has been a television personality for many years. Think of him as Rex Ryan with dignity. Though not enough dignity to turn down an interview with the Jets.
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But seriously … Bobby Slowik? I wouldn’t let him organize my sock drawer after what I saw from the Texans this season. Arthur Smith is just the Brick Johnson of overnight shipping. Ryan’s shtick grew tiresome a decade ago. So did Rivera’s no-nonsense detective sergeant routine, frankly. This isn’t due diligence. It’s blind darts. It’s randomly interviewing anyone with a recognizable name.
In other words, the Jets are doing what they don’t want to appear to be doing: looking like a team run by youngsters who have one hand on the PS5 controller and one eye on their DraftKings teasers.
One might be tempted to say that Slowik looks better, but the Texans offense looked awful for most of the first half until the Chargers finally pissed away enough good field position starts to let Houston run off, largely due to some impressive improvisation from Stroud. Anyway, it says at all that the Jets are looking at a collection of unimpressive individuals who are somehow still ess than the some of their parts. Imagine looking at the offenses of the 2022-3 Falcons and 2024 Steelers and wanting to hand you team over to FedEx Jr.
For today — keeping in mind that when you’re right 0% of the time you’re wrong 100% of the time — I like the Bills to win and, uh, I guess to cover (-8.5), the Eagles to win and, uh, I guess to cover (-4.5), and Washington to win outright (+3.)