Youth is the right way to go for Jets

The New York Jets are correctly building their roster for the future. Their approach of making the team younger is the right way to go.

Head coach Todd Bowles and general manager Mike Maccagnan have a lot of work to do, and they have one of the youngest and most inexperienced rosters in the NFL. The average age of the New York Jets is 26, and the average number of years in the NFL is three.

Many people will look at that as a negative, but it’s actually a positive. In the case of Bowles and Maccagnan, they tried the win-now approach as a first-time head coach and a first-time general manager, and it blew up in their faces. But why did it get to such a situation?

Basically, they tried to build a veteran-laden team. There are two problems with veterans:

1). You pretty much know what they are2). It’s very difficult to establish a culture with guys who are entrenched in the league

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It will be much easier for Bowles to establish a culture with young players. Therefore, they can actually build toward something, rather than remain stagnant, or even worse, fall backward.

In addition to the young players, he does have some veterans who have played with him for two seasons. Consequently, that will help him in developing the culture he wants with the youth in this organization.

Bowles undoubtedly has to gain control of this locker room. He can do that with the veteran presence, and he has young players to mold for the future.

The current young players can then impart their wisdom on to the next crop of young players in 2018. Thus, the seeds of a culture are born.

Bowles and Maccagnan made the mistake of trying to build a championship team with players who didn’t totally buy in. Now it’s time to establish a new culture in New York, and youth is the way to go.

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