They did.
Thats why Mangini was fired and Favre left town.
Last year was a rebuild that ended with a Medicore Card berth.
This year they APPEAR to be in a situation where they have some of their top players under expiring contracts that mean they will have a lot of cap issue to deal with next year.
From my perspective, living in Manhattan for nearly 20 years, that's pretty close to the target, though I'll let Miguel opine on "all things cap."
What I think I can add to this discussion is a perspective on the pressure the Jets organization is under.
This is an unforgiving town. The Yankees just bought their 27th World Series title, the Giants have been to four SB's, have won three and are known as a class organization under the Mara's and folks like Parcells and Coughlin [and Belichick, who made no secret a decade or more ago that his "dream job" (at the time!!!) was in the Meadowlands as "HC" of the team in Blue and not the one in Green]. The Knicks have fallen on hard times and the media has scapegoated the Dolans and Isaiah and, to some extent, Checketts II, but the Ewing/Riley days are in the not too distant past and the glory days of Reed, Clyde, Bradley et al still resonate.
The Mets and Jets are out in the cold...but even the Mutts have been to a World Series this century and, as we all know too well, won in 1986. There is little patience left for the Jets.
It starts at the top. Woody Johnson alienated the fan base seriously with outrageously priced PSL's that led to Tabloid stories of heartbroken fans who could no longer afford tickets in the new stadium. Johnson is not media friendly and comes across as a petulant rich guy with a dysfunctional family who has never had to work a day in his life; he recently threw a hissy fit in the media over Goodell's coin toss for whether the Giants or Jets would get to open the new stadium. He is nowhere near the company of Laurie or Jones or the Rooney's or the Maras or Krafts when it comes to being among the elite of NFL owners.
I read the Sports sections of the tabloids and NYTimes every day. The support for Rex and the Sanchize is a mile wide and an inch deep. Ryan is a bad five game stretch from tabloid fodder. Writers and intelligent fans alike are smart enough to realize that they don't know what they have in Sanchez, whose acceptance by parts of the fanbase is lukewarm at best.
Make no mistake: the stereotype of a Jets fan as a braindead drunk shouting at girls to expose their breasts at halftime in New Jersey is true of many (ok, most) who attend their games and vomit on the sidewalks outside the bars across the five boroughs on Sunday afternoons.
But, most of the media and many Jets' fans are savvy about the NFL and understand that they got a free ride into the Playoffs last year but were able to make the most of it when they got there.
These folks are fed up with the Jets organization and its ongoing state of disarray. They see a team that is geared to win now and were seething at Sanchez until he was bailed out by the Colts and Bungles. They like Rex' moxie and attitude, but they are uneasy about his lack of discipline and have yet to embrace him. They are smart enough that they will quickly realize it if Sanchez proves to be an "OK QB who will never get them back to the SB" and they will dump Ryan in a nanosecond if the team degenerates into bickering and backstabbing in the locker room and press.
So, yes, this team is feeling the heat and this is probably it's best chance since 1998. 1998 was a key season for the Jets franchise. They lost an AFCCG that many thought they could have won and Leon Hess died in the offseason. 1999 brought a season-ending injury to Vinny T. in the opening game, new ownership in the form of Woody Johnson and the departure of Bill Parcells. The Pennington era unfolded with a dominant Pats team ruling the AFC East and was followed by the "Favre Folly." Now, they've bet the farm on the Sanchize and the outcome is very much in doubt with a lot of impatient fans and media waiting to see what happens.
