John Idzik: I Don’t Think We Anoint Anything

Dec 8, 2013; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets general manager John Idzik walks off the field with the ball after the game against the Oakland Raiders at MetLife Stadium. The Jets defeated the Raiders 37-27 Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The mantra from the moment John Idzik came on the scene has been “competition”. Competition makes everybody better. No matter what the position, nobody was safe. Everybody had to earn their spot. And it worked, as this team fought, and fought, and fought, all year-long.

This will be how things continue. At yesterday’s end of the year press conference, John was asked about if some guys go into camp as starters:

I guess what we’re saying is, we don’t draw any assumptions. Again, maybe it’s a little difficult to conceive, but there are certainly veteran players that are very good at what they do and they’re going to start for us, but we don’t look at it that way. We look at every day (with the mentality), ‘Is there is a chance to get better at that position?’ I don’t know what free agency, what the draft (will bring) and even how our players come back. When I say the gavel has dropped on 2013, we expect our players to come back better. We expect them to come back raring to go in our offseason program. We won’t know that until we get to the start of that program in April. We won’t know until we get to OTAs in May and mini camps in June. I guess what we’re saying is, let’s just let this thing unfold. That’s been our thought process all along. Yeah, we’re satisfied with the likes of D’Brickashaw Ferguson and Nick Mangold, we’re satisfied with Geno. By that, I mean we’re happy that they’re a part of the Jets. I don’t think we anoint anything (yet). Let’s just let 2014 take its shape and then we’ll be able to assess that as we go forward through training camp and eventually as we get into the regular season.

There is no reason to let any player feel too safe in his job, unless his last name is Manning, Brady, Rodgers…etc. Everybody else will get the most out of themselves by constantly competing. I love it, and can’t wait to see more of it.