Mangini will announce the status of Curtis Martin by next Tuesday
Even though Monday marked the inception of the Jets' bye week, the happenings throughout Weeb Ewbank Hall have not skipped a beat. In fact, with the future of the NFL's fourth all-time rusher's status soon to be decided, the buzz here at Jets offices have undeniably revved up.
Curtis Martin's status for the remaining eight games of his 12th season in the NFL will be determined within the next week. Martin, head coach Eric Mangini, GM Mike Tannenbaum and team doctors will either move Martin to the active roster or place him on injured reserve. The Jets hierarchy and Martin have until next Tuesday - November 7 - to make their decision.
"That will give us the max amount of time in the 21-day window and the max amount of practice time should he return to practice," Mangini said of Martin.
The decision to hold off until next week was simple for the Jets. Mangini, sticking to his program, says it is in the best interest of the team.
"To maximize the 21 days if he's able to come back, he would be better served for us to do that right at the edge of that window," Mangini said. "I would rather bring him back where it's a full week and the full 21 days there," Mangini said.
If Martin does return, it's not like he will be starting from scratch. The veteran running back, a Pittsburgh product, has been equally involved as everyone else in terms of off field preparation.
"Curtis has been so important to the organization and he's worked like everyone else has worked," Mangini said. "He has had a notebook full of notes. He gets asked questions in the team meetings and he is there with everybody else. Even though he is not on the field with the guys, he is with the guys. It is not a ceremonial position where he kind of rolls out and shows up at the meeting at waves at us as we go on. He is actually working at it.
"I respect everything he has done," added Mangini. "It is pretty amazing the way he prepares even though he knows he is not going to be in the game that week. The way he takes those guys with them and tries to help them along is great. It's outstanding."
The Jets had a terrific week of practice in preparation for their game with the Browns, but that didn't carry over in Sunday's game at Cleveland. Mangini says execution was the problem Sunday.
"I thought we had a really good week of practice and didn't execute the way we had practiced," Mangini said. "I think the coaches and the players understand that in order for us to be successful it's not just the week of preparation. That is a huge part of it but you have to go into the game and execute for four quarters."
Although there were many noteworthy flaws in the Jets' loss to the Browns, Mangini thought inconsistency once again haunted the Green and White.
"It was up and down across the board and that lack of consistency that led to the situation we were in and ultimately led to the loss," Mangini said Monday.
Another occurrence in the game came on the Jets' final play, when tight end Chris Baker was pushed out of bounds after hauling in a one-handed reception in the end zone. The play was ruled incomplete and was not reviewed by the referees, forcing the Jets offense to turn the ball over on downs.
Most critics have pointed the finger to that one play, claiming that Baker would have landed in bounds and pulled the Jets within an extra point of sending the game to an extra session. Mangini is convinced that that particular play just happened to be the last and was no more the cause of their loss than each play before it.
"There are over 130 plays prior to that play and there were a lot of things that we could have done better - in terms of the coaching staff, offense, defense, and special teams, - to not get into a situation where it comes down to a judgment call on fourth down," Mangini said. "And that's what it was, a judgment call. He made the decision he made and that's the decision we have to accept, but there are plenty of things we could have done prior to that to not put ourselves in that situation."
Mangini elected to call a timeout after the final turnover on downs, hoping it would create more time for officials to review the play. Unfortunately for the Jets, the play was not reviewable and the Browns picked up their second win of the season. Mangini maintained a collected response on the sideline and continued that behavior today at his press conference.
"Foot stomping over one call and one play is counter productive. To me, the foot stomping should be over the other 130 plays," he said. "To me that's the focus. It's not the one play on fourth down at the end of the game. It is all the plays leading up to it that we could have executed better. We put ourselves in a position to let a judgment call control the outcome.
"If I was the official, I would always rule for the Jets," Mangini added. "Unfortunately I can't and he made the decision he made, and that's the decision we have to respect and deal with."
Mangini and Tannenbaum meet each Monday to review game film. This is a Monday tradition throughout the league as teams review all disputes from each weekend and then submit paperwork to the league office for further review and interpretations of the calls.
The bye week will officially begin on Thursday for Jets players. Mangini has a full schedule for the team until Wednesday, smoothing out some rough edges before the Jets head into the second half of the season.
"We are going to focus on the things that we haven't done very well and try to get those corrected and build on some of the things that we have done well," Mangini said. "We will spend the bulk of our time doing that and get some really good days of work doing that through the course of the week."
Through eight games, the Jets have already equaled last year's win total. But Mangini sees a bunch of .500 numbers across the board and sees room for improvement.
"We were 2-2 in the preseason, 4-4 in the regular season, 0 in giveaway/takeaway, 3-3 at home and 3-3 on the road," said Mangini. "That is just where we are at and to me – how we work and how we make progress and the things that we do that we completely control are going to affect the next eight games. How will those eight games stack up versus the first eight games? As we analyze the tape from the first eight games, how could that have changed some of those close ones?"
NotebookThe season has reached its midway point and the Jets are very happy with their '06 Draft Class. "I am really pleased with those guys. I really think the type of people we set out to draft, they've shown to be those types of people," Mangini said. "They have confirmed what we have believed in - in terms of pre-draft information. I just like the way they work and they learn and they care. They are really striving to become pros and that to me is the mark of a good rookie."… Eric Mangini is going to partake in his family's Halloween activities this year. The theme in the Mangini household was taken from Walt Disney's Finding Nemo. Mangini says his character will be Marlin, the fish father of Nemo. Mangini's son Jake will dress up as little Nemo, an orange clownfish. Eric and Julie's youngest son, Luke, will dress as the sea turtle named Squirt. Coach Mangini, who plans on having lunch with Jake at his school during the bye, says he might limit his costume to just a hat.
