Brian Schottenheimer 2.0

It's fascinating to me that fans of the New York Jets have managed to turn General Manager Mike Tannenbaum into former Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer. By the end of his tenure, Schottenheimer became such a reviled coach that nearly every offensive fault, real or imaginary, was blamed on him. He was one of, if not the, worst offensive coordinator in the National Football League. Yet, people assumed that his departure would immediately make our offense significantly better. He became an easy scapegoat for all of our problems.

The same is now happening to Mike Tannenbaum. People are assuming that his departure will immediately make our drafting and personnel movements better, simply by virtue of him being gone. They're blaming anything and everything on him, ignoring other causes of trouble, such as the insane number of injuries the Jets have faced this season. Blasting Tannenbaum has become an easy escape, and it seems that many people are now pointing at him as the root, or close to it, of all of our problems.

It just isn't that simple. As we saw with Schottenheimer, it won't magically get better just by getting rid of someone. By replacing Schottenheimer with Sparano, we replaced him with someone almost equally as bad. Schottenheimer was a big problem, but it's more and more clear that he's not the only problem. The same can very easily happen with Tannenbaum as well. There are many, many problems facing the Jets. Firing him won't solve them all.

I only bring this up so people temper their expectations and try to be realistic. Things aren't going to magically get better if he's fired, and it's not a quick fix by hiring a new general manager. Tannenbaum is a massive problem, but he isn't the only one. Try not to get caught up in the groupthink of scapegoating Tannenbaum, as we did with Schottenheimer.