It’s not quite as rapid a “rapid reaction” as being on air when something happens (like Carl Banks was), but WFAN and New York Post Jets insider Brian Costello joined Moose & Maggie on Monday less than an hour after reports surfaced that Gang Green had fired defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.
And it’s a move Coz called a “no-brainer” after Sunday’s brain fart.
“I think it was a no brainer…when I saw them lining up, I turned to the person next to me in the press box, and I said, ‘oh my God, he’s going to blitz,’” Costello revealed. “And when I heard Marcus Maye say what he said, I knew he could never face those players again, because they’d never believe in him again. For Marcus to say that, it meant that a lot of players in that locker room felt that way, or worse.”
So was it incompetence (Gio’s take), tanking (Boomer’s take), hating Adam Gase (a take also heard on WFAN), or something else that led to the decision?
“It was ego; he wanted it to be all about Gregg Williams, how Gregg Williams got a sack of Derek Carr to win the game, instead of just putting his players in the right position,” Costello said. “To me, the argument about tanking or undermining Gase…he wouldn’t do that to his players. He might hate Adam Gase, and I wouldn’t debate you if you said that, but he ripped the hearts out of his players. He does care about them, but those guys desperately wanted to win a game, and he lost it for them.”
As Gregg Giannotti mentioned Monday morning, Williams does have a reputation as both overaggressive and sometimes straight up stupid (see also: Bountygate), but as Costello notes, you can do the former sometimes in the right situation.
“The difference this year is personnel; he’s had pretty good defenses in the past, but they had three rookie cornerbacks and a backup safety in the game,” Costello said. “You cannot do that with that personnel in the game. Derek Carr had been rattled on the blitz before, but you can give up 45 yards on that play and be good – you can’t give up all 46.”
Perhaps a symptom, side effect, and cause of death in one for a bad game plan all around?
“I think the Jets had a very low opinion of Derek Carr going into that game, and I think they didn’t think he’d throw a lot of deep passes, and they could take chances,” Costello said. “They knew that he would kill them with Waller, but they could give him chances down the field…and he finally burned them.”
You can listen to Costello’s entire segment with Moose & Maggie below!
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