What Can We Learn From The Silence?

When you run a fan site, you learn to love big splashy headlines.  They make for easy content and allow for lots of discussion.  When you are a die-hard Jets fan, you learn to hate big splashy headlines.

History has proven many of these moves to be short-sighted and have hurt the team in the long run.  Acquiring Brett Favre, trading up for Mark Sanchez, putting the team on Hard Knocks, trading for Tim Tebow and trading endless draft picks are a few of the big splash moves that the Jets made under the leadership of Mike Tannenbaum.  None of those moves resulted in a Championship.

So far this off-season, there has been a lot of silence from John Idzik.  The news about the Jets has been mainly about:

• Free agent defections:  Mike Devito, Dustin Keller, Laron Landry, Yeremiah Bell and Shonn Greene
• Darrelle Revis trade speculation
• What the Jets will do with Tim Tebow

There has been a surprising amount of silence coming from Florham Park.  They don’t seem to be in a rush to answer criticism.  They decided to bring a bunch of QBs to camp and let that play out over the summer. Rather than bring in an Alex Smith and potentially hinder the Jets cap situation in future years.  This approach is in stark contrast to holding a press conference for your backup QB.

What can we learn from the silence?

Some Jets fans think it means that the Jets are asleep at the wheel.  I am not in that camp, here is what I think the silence means:

1. Under the leadership of John Idzik the Jets are no longer concerned with winning the off-season.  They are focused on a long-term strategy that will yield results on the field for years to come.
2. Short term pain can lead to long-term gain.  The Jets won 6 games last season and they lost many starters.  We won 6 games with you, we can win 6 games without you.  That seems to be the approach that John Idzik is taking.  By avoiding big splashy moves, they can focus on the draft and improving the roster for the long haul.  Getting to 9 wins and a loss in the playoffs isn’t the goal.  Winning the Super Bowl is the goal, so if it takes some time to clean up the roster that is what the Jets have to do.
3. John Idzik refuses to blink.  As a GM of a NY sports franchise, you will be tested time and time again.  Your latest move will always be what you are graded on.  But in the case of the Darrelle Revis situation, Idzik has not blinked.  Time will tell if the Jets sign Revis to a long-term deal or end up trading him.  What is refreshing is that Idzik hasn’t rushed to a decision.  The Bucs are rumored to be very interested, yet Idzik is focused on maximizing value.

The silence is a refreshing change from how the Jets have operated in recent years.  It would be nice if they can find a way to get Rex Ryan to speak less as well this season.  None of it will matter if the Jets lay an egg on draft day, that is where John Idzik will ultimately be graded.  Until that time, the silence is a nice change of pace.

What does the silence mean to you?