New York Jets Fans Should Thank Eric Mangini For Helping Them This Season

The New York Jets are standing on the welcome mat to the Super Bowl and if they can beat the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, then they will be in the big game.

Jets fans need to recognize that the reason their team has been successful is not because of current head coach Rex Ryan, but because of former coach Eric Mangini.

The following are reasons that Jets fans should thank Mangini for what he did to help the Jets this season.

-Mangini got fired allowing the Jets to hire Ryan as their coach.

-Mangini got hired by the Cleveland Browns and took all of the dead weight off of the Jets' roster and depth chart including: defensive end CJ Mosely, linebacker Eric Barton, linebacker David Bowens, and cornerback Hank Poteat.

-Mangini needed more draft picks on draft day, so he traded their pick with the Jets so they could draft quarterback Mark Sanchez, and took more unwanted players off of the Jets' roster like quarterback Brett Ratliff, defensive end Kenyon Coleman, and safety Abram Elam.

-Mangini then did not want disgruntled wide receiver Braylon Edwards after he got into a fight the evening after a loss, and traded him to the Jets two days later for more roster backups in linebacker Jason Trusnik, receiver Chansi Stuckey, and a couple draft picks.

-To give Mangini some credit, he was a disciplinarian and left Ryan a very disciplined team.

There may be a few other things that Mangini helped the Jets with, but this journalist can only think of these things right now.

Bottom line, whether you liked him or hated him, Jets fans need to send a thank you note to Mangini for helping their team get to the AFC Championship game by means of purging their roster of players that were irrelevant.