Jets linebacker Bart Scott says the problem with the team in 2012 is easy to explain: A lack of talent.
Scott said on Inside the NFL that there’s nothing hard to understand about why the Jets went 6-10. That’s what happens when your personnel doesn’t match up with your opponents.
“You know what the problem was with the New York Jets this year? We didn’t have enough quality players to win. Simple as that,” Scott said, via Conor Orr of the Star-Ledger.
If Scott’s assessment is right, the decision to fire G.M. Mike Tannenbaum was correct. And the next general manager will have a difficult task ahead of him.
But Scott said there’s another problem facing the Jets: The media attacks wore the team down. Scott said the New York media go harder on the Jets than on the Giants, and that they crossed the line by, among other things, following Rex Ryan on vacation and taking pictures of his tattoo.
“I didn’t like the personal attacks,” Scott said. “A quick example now is the media following Rex down to the Bahamas. I mean, who does that? . . . I can’t imagine them going out and catching Tom Coughlin laid out. . . . We are in the same town but we are covered differently.”
One thing Scott should know by now is that the press is more likely to be critical when a team is losing. So the media coverage will get more favorable as soon as the Jets get more good players.