Now that this whole Favre thing is behind us, I wanted to write up something directed more at New York Jets fans than anyone else. My basic premise behind this particular blog entry is to ask for kindness from you guys. Why? Favre is near the end of his career, no one will doubt that. Heck we could say Favre is past the end of his career and be quite accurate in that statement. But the point is, that he does indeed have somewhat of a legacy left and I feel for him on this fact, even if it has been tarnished over the last few months.
The Jets however are not too good of a team. Sure, they’ve been aggressive in the offseason and have made some decent moves to pick up key players. However, the Jets with Favre are still likely going to be worse than the Packers without Favre.
Now in saying this I don’t want to be one of those fans that blame the QB when he plays bad but praises the team around him when he plays good. But there is no doubt in my mind that the difference between last year and the 3 or 4 years before that really was the team around him more than him. And let me go on record in saying that I didn’t think the years previous he actually played bad, he played like he always did, the team around him wasn’t there though.
Last year, had 4 really good receivers (instead of the previous 1), an improving offensive line (which even improving wasn’t great), and a set of tight ends that most quarterbacks would die for. On top of the offensive improvements, he had one of the better defenses in the NFC which whatever you think about Favre has been one of the more important facets of his career. Whenever you throw interceptions like he does, you need to have a defense who can stop the opponent from using the int to score and it was the first time in a long time that was true last year. If all that wasn’t enough, McCarthy finally got him a little better controlled and you saw his completion rating skyrocket and his interception count dip.
With the Jets he will be going to a team with a weaker offensive line, little help at wide receiver, one tight end, no defense, and what very well could be a coach who has no grasp over Favre. Not only that, but unlike last year, this year Favre did NO offseason training, and is also going to be running a completely different offense than what he’s been used to for the 17 years of his career.
This very well could work out well for him and be what he needs at this point in his career. However, all signs point to this being a complete disaster for him. I totally expect his interception count to skyrocket back up and his TD numbers to drop again and the team to continue to lose.
If this happens, what will the Jets do in that 6 interception game that he will likely throw? Will they treat him the way they treated Chad Pennington, whom wasn’t a great QB, but also wasn’t as bad as they made him out to be? I hope not, because unlike the way he would have died out here if he lost his ability, I suspect he will be completely murdered in New York. And if that is the case he won’t be known for just being a jack ass when he un-retires.
All that said, do enjoy him. He is a gem and we may never see another even remotely like him in the NFL. Every play with him is thoroughly exciting to watch, even at his age he still pulls off those plays that make you wonder what he was thinking in the first place. Both good and bad. And it is definitely worth the ticket to watch it happen.