“If there was an F-minus, every single person there gets an F-minus, from the rooters to the tutors.”
Ray Lucas, a former Jet, was famous for giving rapid reaction report cards in his role as a Jets postgame analyst on SNY, and that was the “rapid” reaction he gave Moose & Maggie about the organization as whole during his call-in on Tuesday afternoon.
The four Jets teams Lucas played on all finished .500 or better, three under Bill Parcells, and he was never part of a squad that played losing football in his NFL career. So, Lucas knows what a head coach can mean to a franchise.
“Parcells was the best because he got the best out of his players – more than what any other coach could get, because he was a mastermind at not just X’s and O’s, but also the mind game,” Lucas said. “Look at me, I wasn’t even drafted and played receiver and kick returner my first few years, and he turned me into an NFL quarterback – I went from a kid who wasn’t supposed to play a down to one who played eight years in the NFL.”
Adam Gase, he says, just isn’t that.
“The coach has to be inspirational, because you take on the personality of your head coach,” Lucas said. “We had a Jersey boy at the helm, so we knew were going to be nasty, and we could win every game if we did everything right. I don’t think this team has faith in their head coach anymore, I really don’t.”
So why is he still employed?
“That’s the seven million dollar question – if anyone can answer that, give me the lottery numbers too!” Lucas joked. “I have no idea, none, zero.”
That dropped Maggie in to once again advance her theory of “tanking for Trevor,” and Lucas takes issue with that – from the Jets, not from the Grays.
“Here’s the problem: if you have a guy like Sam Darnold, and you don’t surround him with weapons, how do you evaluate him and know what he can do?” Lucas asked. “Trevor Lawrence is spectacular, but he looked like an ordinary quarterback against LSU. You still have to surround quarterbacks with weapons; very few can come into this league right now and expect to win without talent around them. This game still comes down to moving the football and tackling; if you can do those right, you win.”
To that point, Lucas noted that he still believes Darnold can be a franchise quarterback, if only he had anyone to help him show it.
“You can’t judge his play based on the fact that he has nothing around. Has he ever had a No. 1 receiver in the time he’s been here?” Lucas asked. “I thought adding Le’Veon Bell was perfect, because you need a run game so you can get soft coverage, and when you have to come up and stop a back who is as dynamic as Bell was at the time coming off a year off, you need to put eight in the box…but then the offensive line can’t run block, and they didn’t utilize him in the passing game at all.”
Again, that’s where Gase comes in to wreck it.
“We had a third and one, and he ran a tight end dive from the backfield…that’s our guru coach? Give me a break,” Lucas said. “My issue was from the beginning that you hired a guy from your conference that didn’t win. Joe Douglas inherited a team that didn’t have a lot of talent around it, but at the same time, you have in inept coach who is supposed to be a guru. Maybe he should give up the play calling, because his offense hasn’t scored more than 10 points in 11 of 13 games, so where does the guru come in?”
There’s actually a non-rhetorical answer for that, says Lucas.
“I heard the guru stuff, but guess who made him that? Peyton Manning, who could make anybody look good, because he’s one of the best to ever play the game,” Lucas said. “You can’t go by calling plays for Peyton Manning making him a guru; I could come off the street and look like a guru with Peyton Manning in front of me. It’s a ridiculous comparison, and I don’t understand how you hire someone from your own conference who didn’t win. And the worst part is this: where are the lights the brightest, the media most ferocious in the NFL? Here. He can’t handle the pressure, and it’s ridiculous.”
Listen to Lucas’ entire segment below, and, as always, check out more on-demand audio from Moose & Maggie, or tune in every day to the WFAN.com or Twitch.TV/WFAN livestreams of the show!
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