OT: Rats Blame Mangini for Gholston bust pick

[carolinatony]

Got to love it

Read more: Source: Ex-coach Eric Mangini pushed New York Jets to draft disappointing linebacker Vernon Gholston

Source: Ex-coach Eric Mangini pushed New York Jets to draft disappointing linebacker Vernon Gholston
BY Rich Cimini
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Wednesday, November 11th 2009, 4:00 AM

Kostroun/APVernon Gholston (50) hasn't made an impact for the New York Jets in two season, and to make matters worse, he seemed to be a favorite of ex-coach Eric Mangini. Take our PollWeek 10 Pick 'em: Jaguars at Jets
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'I'm responsible; Blame me' for lossRex Ryan predicted big things for Vernon Gholston, vowing to turn the disappointing former No. 1 pick into a productive player. That hasn't happened, and it's fair to wonder if it will ever happen.

Gholston is 24 games into his NFL career, and he has yet to record a sack. How is that possible? His playing time has almost disappeared (only about a dozen defensive snaps in the past two games), and the coaching staff needs to take a hard look this week at whether he should be active Sunday against the Jaguars.

Because Gholston's role on defense is so small, it might not make sense to dress him because it creates a dropoff on special teams. He's not as good as Marques Murrell and Ahmad Carroll, core special teamers who got squeezed in the numbers game and were inactive in the last game. That decision came back to bite the Jets (see Ted Ginn Jr.). Even special teams coach Mike Westhoff seemed puzzled by it. You can bet there will be an extra emphasis on special teams for Sunday.

So it has come to this for Gholston, the sixth pick of the 2008 draft: He's extra baggage. But he continues to play because sitting him would be a self-indictment for a team paying him $21million in guarantees. It's a cover-your-backside move, not uncommon in the NFL.

Here's the troubling part: Gholston's lack of progress isn't surprising to some in the organization. Now we're hearing he wasn't a popular choice to begin with. Opinions in the draft room were mixed on Gholston, but the Jets picked him because then-coach Eric Mangini lobbied hard, according to multiple sources.

"That one's on Eric," one source said.

Now they have a potential bust on their hands. Asked if Mangini was the driving force behind the Gholston choice, GM Mike Tannenbaum said, "On all draft decisions, I have the final say. But, organizationally, we felt good about Vernon. Although his rate of improvement isn't where we want it to be, we're still happy he's here and we feel good about his future."

Sounds like spin control. Since starting the first four games at outside linebacker for the then-suspended Calvin Pace, Gholston has been used sparingly in sub packages as a down lineman. His best moment was a hustle play in Week 3, when he made a touchdown-saving tackle on the Titans' Chris Johnson 30 yards downfield.

What did the Jets, or Mangini, see in Gholston? They were seduced by extraordinary measurables - size, speed and strength.

"He had two sacks against (Michigan's) Jake Long in college and that drew a lot of attention," an AFC scout said last week, referring to the Dolphins' No. 1 overall pick in 2008. "But when you went back and watched his tapes, he wasn't nearly as productive as he was in that one game. When people saw his body type and raw numbers, I guess they were willing to overlook what they actually saw on tape."



Read more: Source: Ex-coach Eric Mangini pushed New York Jets to draft disappointing linebacker Vernon Gholston

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Re: Rats Blame Mangini for Gholston bust pick

"Because Gholston's role on defense is so small, it might not make sense to dress him because it creates a dropoff on special teams. He's not as good as Marques Murrell and Ahmad Carroll, core special teamers who got squeezed in the numbers game and were inactive in the last game. That decision came back to bite the Jets (see Ted Ginn Jr.). Even special teams coach Mike Westhoff seemed puzzled by it."

Hilarious! You could make a case that G was responsible for the Jets loss to the Fins!

As to the rest of the article, it's common in industry to blame everything that goes wrong on the departed.

 

[PatsChamp88]

Re: Rats Blame Mangini for Gholston bust pick

Seems hes becoming a scapegoat for many things these days, not to say hes not contributed his share but cmon...

 

[cartmen]

Someone needs to dig up those old threads of who will be better Mayo or VG. There were Pats fans wishing we would have traded up to get him

 

[Funktopus]

GM Mike Tannenbaum said, "On all draft decisions, I have the final say. But, organizationally, we felt good about Vernon. [/url]

Tannenbaum has such a worm tongue. he has the final say, BUT it wasn't just him contributing to the selection. Way to proclaim yourself boss without taking responsibility.

 

[Rob0729]

In tomorrow's article, Cimini is going to reveal that Mangini was adamently opposed to drafting Darrell Revis and Tannenbaum had to threaten to quit to get his way to draft him.

What a load of BS. The Jets are struggling. Tannenbaum is on the hotseat. Mangini is a pariah in Cleveland and got Kokinas fired. All of the sudden nearly two years later it comes out that Gholston was Mangini's choice and everyone else in the organization was against the pick.

What slimy organization the Jets are.

 

[Patstopia]

Every year it's the same thing. The Jets are built up by the media because of the draft or free agents to be the next big thing. Every year they fight and claw to a few wins at the start of the season and slowly lose their status as a good team. Ultimately plunging to a medocre record. The season ends and the story slowly starts again. Sometimes with a new coach, but never with a new GM. Just more BS from the capital city of BS.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Someone needs to dig up those old threads of who will be better Mayo or VG. There were Pats fans wishing we would have traded up to get him

Hell, I'll bite. Knowing what we knew at the time, I would have had no problem with the Pats trading up for Gholston. I've never claimed to be a fan of the college game, let alone a good evaluator of college talent, but we needed young talent at OLB and ILB, and Gholston certainly seemed to fit the bill. That's probably just by ignorance of college football talking, but hey, at least I'm up front about it: college football does nothing for me.

That said, once Banks broke that we wanted Mayo a few days before the draft, I was fine with that too. In either case, we were getting a talented player at a positoin of need.

 

[mayoclinic]

Michael Lombardi discussed this in his column on National Football Post. He basically argued that Mangini did not have the clout to make a draft decision on his own, and that Tanenbaum needs to own up that he made a mistake.

Diner morning news: Quinn needs playing time | National Football Post

 

[IcyPatriot]

Mangini had a man crush on Bobby Grier.

 

[fnordcircle]

In two years Vernon Gholston will be on the Pats and making big plays for us. I never wanted us to draft him but I think he'd fit our system better than the two systems the Jets have had him in.

 

[maverick4]

Mangini had a man crush on Bobby Grier.

Not only does this not make sense, but I see what you tried to say and it's a pretty crappy joke

 

[fnordcircle]

Not only does this not make sense, but I see what you tried to say and it's a pretty crappy joke

Guy with ****ty Gladiator/Belichick photoshop avatar judging comedy.

patsfans.com.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Michael Lombardi discussed this in his column on National Football Post. He basically argued that Mangini did not have the clout to make a draft decision on his own, and that Tanenbaum needs to own up that he made a mistake.

Diner morning news: Quinn needs playing time | National Football Post

Exactly. This article reeked of revisionist, self-serving spin. I was in upper management for a couple decades in High Tech and it was a cultural constant that if person X departed, for whatever reason, the next several quarters' bad decisions and negative occurances were invariably laid at the departee's doorstep.

 

[IcyPatriot]

Not only does this not make sense, but I see what you tried to say and it's a pretty crappy joke

Your hemroids bothering you tonight mav?

It makes a ton of sense ... Bobby Grier ... old mr. stopwatch himself
... like duh ... if someone writes it you'll post it yourself, your usual M.O.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Michael Lombardi discussed this in his column on National Football Post. He basically argued that Mangini did not have the clout to make a draft decision on his own, and that Tanenbaum needs to own up that he made a mistake.

Diner morning news: Quinn needs playing time | National Football Post

Mangini got Tannenbaum his shot at GM, and Tannenbaum was a contracts guy, not a talent evaluator. Bradway was their talent evaluator until he got relagated to consultant in the palace coup. This was definitely Eric's pick. And the sources aren't saying he had the clout to make it, they are saying he lobbied for it and won. Given his ego I'd assume he won lots of early arguments. Just ask George Kokinis...The guy who needs to own up is Woody for putting those two in a position to essentially choose each other...in hopes of one upping Kraft and BB. Same mistake Lerner just made.

 

[Mike the Brit]

Exactly. This article reeked of revisionist, self-serving spin. I was in upper management for a couple decades in High Tech and it was a cultural constant that if person X departed, for whatever reason, the next several quarters' bad decisions and negative occurances were invariably laid at the departee's doorstep.

Yes indeed. Here's an old political joke.

It's the time that Brezhnev ousts Khrushchev in the Soviet Union. He's sitting at the big desk in his office in the Kremlin when he notices a little drawer at the bottom. He opens it and he finds two envelopes marked 'To My Successor: to be opened in case of crisis'. Well, he does as he's told and puts them on one side until a few years later there's a crisis -- the harvest fails. So he opens the first envelope and he reads: 'Blame everything on me'. Which he does. The crisis passes and life goes on until some time later another crisis happens. This time he opens the second envelope and he reads: 'Prepare two envelopes'.

 

[Kasmir]

Yes indeed. Here's an old political joke.

It's the time that Brezhnev ousts Khrushchev in the Soviet Union. He's sitting at the big desk in his office in the Kremlin when he notices a little drawer at the bottom. He opens it and he finds two envelopes marked 'To My Successor: to be opened in case of crisis'. Well, he does as he's told and puts them on one side until a few years later there's a crisis -- the harvest fails. So he opens the first envelope and he reads: 'Blame everything on me'. Which he does. The crisis passes and life goes on until some time later another crisis happens. This time he opens the second envelope and he reads: 'Prepare two envelopes'.

The business version of this one is even better, as there are three envelopes:
(1) Blame your predecessor
(2) Reorganize!
(3) Prepare three new envelopes

Works like a charm the first two times...

 

[maverick4]

It makes a ton of sense ... Bobby Grier ... old mr. stopwatch himself
... like duh ... if someone writes it you'll post it yourself, your usual M.O.

Not that it matters and this is way off topic, but I'll respond since you keep trying to insist you made a funny. It was an awkward attempt at linking Mangini's eye for talent with Grier, but it was just done... laughably bad. Sorry you keep trying to have to explain it for everyone about why it was supposedly funny, we all got it.

 

[mayoclinic]

In two years Vernon Gholston will be on the Pats and making big plays for us. I never wanted us to draft him but I think he'd fit our system better than the two systems the Jets have had him in.

It would be so great if the Jets cut Gholston and we picked him up and made a player out of him.

Gholston was overhyped coming out of college, but he's got talent. He's too overmuscled and stiff in the hips to be fluid in space as a regular 3-4 OLB, but as a 4-3 DE he has talent. I'm sure BB could find a way to use his strengths and minimize his weaknesses. He sounds like a good kid who is working hard, but he's not being used right in that system.