Woody Johnson Must Keep His Emotions in Check and Do What's Best for the Jets

I had a dog. His name was Bogie. He was a golden retriever-yellow lab mix. When he was young, he had all the youthful exuberance you would expect from a dog of his breed.

I loved that dog. But a time came when he was too sick, too worn down and too old. The memories were fond, but it was time to let our little guy go.

I imagine New York Jets fans feel the same way about head coach Rex Ryan.

For the past half-decade, Jets owner Woody Johnson has also felt that way. He made keeping Ryan a requirement when searching for a new general manager after firing Mike Tannenbaum following the 2012 season. He extended Ryan's contract for an extra year after the Jets won three of their final four games to finish 8-8 last year—despite it being their third consecutive year out of the playoffs.

Now, though, Johnson's tone seems to be changing, and he's hinting that some other things could be changing soon as well.

As Johnson said in an exclusive interview with Gary Myers of the New York Daily News: 

"

It's not a question of fondness. I've always thought he's a very good coach. He's an excellent coach, excellent teacher. The fans are going to want to see something different. They're not going to let us get along, and I don't want to do exactly the same thing. So it's going to be either the way we coach or the way we approach it. It could be with the same people. It might be with different people. That's the case each and every year.

"

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Ryan or for current general manager John Idzik. Johnson may be trying to sugarcoat his true feelings by throwing out hypotheticals, but this statement is as transparent as cellophane. Something is going to change, and whatever it is, Ryan is likely to be a part of it.

2011-2014	Jets	NFL rank
Record	24-37	T-24 (3)
Playoff wins	0	T-21 (12)
Playoff appearances	0	T-13 (20)

As mentioned earlier, Johnson kept Ryan through the firing of Tannenbaum. Is there any way he could justifiably keep him yet again through another change in general manager?

The fans probably wouldn't accept that, and it sounds like Johnson won't, either:

"

I'm a fan, I represent the fans. We're both frustrated by this. Ultimately, I am going to have to look for something that I believe is going to right the ship, whether it's the current way, the way we are doing it now with the people we have now, or going down a different pathway. I'm looking at everything. I'm analyzing what's happened and why it's happened.

"

What's happened? The Jets have gone 43-45 under Ryan and are well on their way to their fourth straight season out of the playoffs. They won with a neophyte quarterback and a balls-to-the-wall defense. But the Jets failed to round out their roster, and Ryan failed to round out his game as a head coach. 

Coupled with an inability to develop a quarterback or to develop young talent through the draft at many major positions on the roster, the Jets have been left unable to replenish a roster that was aging in the years leading up to Tannenbaum's dismissal. 

Ryan's bravado has earned him quite a bit of goodwill with Johnson in the past.

That act wore thin quickly. It didn't take long before Ryan began toning down the bravado in his press conferences. Gone were the steady stream of guarantees of Super Bowl appearances. Gone were the days of telling people he wanted to kick New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick's ass. 

The Ryan era started loud and is ending in a whimper.

Since the Jets' last trip to the playoffs, 20 teams have played in at least one playoff game, and 12 teams have won at least one of those games. The Jets appeared bound for Super Bowl glory just four years ago, but now they could be headed for a top-five pick in the draft.

Julio Cortez/Associated Press

Who can blame Johnson for wanting to move in a new direction? As he told Myers: 

"

It's safe to say you got to do things differently that you did to get you to this point. The thing about football is that after every season, everybody is up for grabs. You take a look at everything. You're trying to get to the Super Bowl. It doesn't sound like I should even be saying that at this point. But that's what my goal is. That's what the fans want. They want to have a clear direction in terms of how they get to where they want to go. I have to give them confidence they are going to have a chance to get where they want to go.

"

Johnson has three options for how to proceed from here (in descending order of logic):

1. Fire everyone. This is probably the move that most fans would like to see. The Jets have tried a couple different methods for halfway resets; Tannenbaum was given another chance as GM after former head coach Eric Mangini was fired, and Ryan was kept after Tannenbaum finally got the axe. 
2. Fire Ryan and keep Idzik. Fans have soured on Idzik rather quickly, but he's only had two years to fix a roster that was completely bereft of depth when he arrived. Johnson could easily justify keeping Idzik and hiring a new head coach, although this would leave the Jets' next head coach in the precarious position of being hired by a GM who is already on the hot seat.
3. Fire Idzik and keep Ryan. This would be tough to accomplish, as it would require yet another GM to come in and accept Ryan as his head caoch rather than having an opportunity to hand-pick his own man to carry out his vision for the team.

Firing everyone may seem like a knee-jerk reaction with regards to Idzik, but can Johnson really afford to take a chance that Idzik will suddenly take an aggressive approach to team building after he was so passive last year?

There are still a few games left to play, but even on the off-chance that the Jets are able to sweep those three games, not much will change. The way this season has gone, and the way the Jets have played the past few years, there may be no other choice.

It's time for Johnson to jump in with both feet.

Follow @ErikFrenz