Ryan is going all in on Sanchez and vows to fix New York's locker room. (US PRESSWIRE)

By Ryan Wilson

The New York Jets, fresh off a disappointing 8-8 season, continue to make news in an offseason that started with an admission from head coach Rex Ryan that he didn't have a pulse on his team, which was clearly evident in Week 17 when team captain Santonio Holmes went renegade on his quarterback before getting benched.

In the nearly four weeks since Ryan's end-of-year press conference, third-string quarterback Greg McElroy went on radio and referred to the Jets locker room as "not a fun place," anonymous teammates called Mark Sanchez "lazy," former teammate Kris Jenkins also took some shots at Sanchez (that led to Ryan, center Nick Mangold and owner Woody Johnson all coming to Sanchez's defense), running back LaDainian Tomlinson suggested that the wide receivers are responsible for "Sanchez is lazy" remarks to the media, and cornerback Darrelle Revis called the team issues "real deep" before noting that Ryan had no idea how bad things really were.


Ryan spoke publicly about all the problems confronting an organization he guaranteed would win the Super Bowl heading into the season.

“Our locker room wasn’t as close as it’s been in the past, obviously, but one thing we know is we’re going to fix it,” Ryan said in an interview with ESPN (via ProFootballTalk.com). “We might have been knocked down this year but we’re not knocked out. We’re going to be swinging, and there’s no doubt about it. But I can’t wait. It’s about moving forward, put that stuff behind us. But there’s things we’re going to learn from. This past season, 8-8 clearly is not good enough. We did have some issues where, obviously, I never did a good enough job of recognizing it and fixing it, but we’re fixing it right now. There’s no doubt about that.”

One of those issues, obviously, concerns the Jets' current quarterback. While Ryan supports Sanchez, he has to improve. We can blame some of his struggles on offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and Holmes or Plaxico Burress, but the former is gone to St. Louis and the latter were brought in by Ryan and general manager Mike Tannenbaum. At some point, the organization has to either see progress from their franchise quarterback or move on without him. Some of Sanchez's critics have said that they'd like to see Peyton Manning in New York next year.

“I can’t talk about Peyton Manning," Ryan said. "He’s on some other team right now. But Mark Sanchez is the future of the Jets. He’s a great quarterback and again, I can’t wait to get it going. You look at it: 4-2 in the postseason, 28-20 in the regular season over the three years that Mark and I have been together and we’re going to be together a long time.”

Credit to Ryan for standing up for his players but if the 2012 season looks anything like 2011, both he and Sanchez could be looking for work.

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Jenkins isn't impressed with Sanchez's leadership skills. (US PRESSWIRE/AP)

By Ryan Wilson

Former Jets defensive lineman Kris Jenkins has transitioned nicely from the playing field to the analyst's chair. He's made occasional appearances on CBS's The NFL Today, and he had a thoughtful piece in the New York Times in November documenting his life in professional football.

On Thursday, Jenkins spared us the nuance when he took to Mike Lupica's radio show to talk about the unintentional comedy stylings of the New York Jets and Mark Sanchez (transcript via PFT.com).

“The No. 1 quarterback should have said that a long time ago,” Jenkins said, referring to backup Greg McElroy's recent public comments about the sorry state of the Jets locker room. “It would have been all part of the process of him growing a pair and standing up and being a man. But the thing is, he lost his because he got caught up in the wash that is New York, the spotlight, taking pictures in the magazines and doing all that stuff. That’s just what everybody has seen with Mark Sanchez, they got tired of it.”

Aaron Rodgers agrees with the part about fancy clothes and magazine shoots. "I mean look at this -- that's embarrassing," Rodgers said in September of Sanchez's designer wife beater and skinny jeans ensemble. "Page 94 of the GQ thing here, that's terrible."

Also embarrassing and terrible? Sanchez's 2011 season, his third in the NFL, though it wasn't completely his fault. The lack of a running game coupled with an inconsistent defense and the worst team captain in organized sports conspired to wreck the Jets' season and any progress Sanchez might've made.

Jenkins played with Sanchez for parts of the 2009 and 2010 season and admitted that he was impressed by the former USC quarterback's potential. But like intentions and the road to hell, the NFL scrap heap is littered with players with tons of potential who don't do much with it. Right now, that's Sanchez.

“Mark wants to be a leader but there’s a difference between wanting it and taking it,” Jenkins said. “He’s always trying to be a crowd pleaser. He’s always trying to be nice. He wants to be a leader but he won’t take it.”

According to head coach Rex Ryan and general manager Mike Tannenbaum, Sanchez is the Jets' starter heading into 2012. Maybe it's a case of blind loyalty offsetting what seems to be obvious to most folks: despite Sanchez's draft status, he's not a franchise quarterback. And it's not clear he ever will be, especially if Santonio Holmes is on the roster next season.

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By Josh Katzowitz

Despite all assurances that coach Rex Ryan and general manager Mike Tannenbaum will get it all figured out, the Jets flamed out in quite a spectacular way in the second half of the season.

If it wasn’t Santonio Holmes figuratively urinating on the Captain’s C stitched on his jersey, it was Bart Scott flipping off a photographer. If it wasn’t the constant debate about whether offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer should be fired, it was a constant argument about whether Mark Sanchez should be disowned as the team’s quarterback of the future.

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It was, to say the least, an uncomfortable locker room experience, according to quarterback Greg McElroy.

“It’s definitely not a fun place to be,” McElroy told an Alabama radio station on Wednesday, via the NY Daily News. “I can assure you.”

McElory was placed on Injured Reserve with a thumb injury, but that didn’t stop him from experiencing the unpredictability of a locker room in turmoil. Ryan said Monday that the team chemistry was off this season and that he needed to fix it (surely bringing back Holmes for another season will hinder that goal, eh?).

But maybe it’s more than just chemistry that needs to be fixed.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever been around extremely selfish individuals,” McElory said. “I think that’s maybe the nature of the NFL. But there were people within our locker room that didn’t care whether we won or [lost]… as long as they got their… they really had a good game individually. And that’s the disappointing thing.

"It’s going to take a lot to kind of come together next year. I think the fact that we struggled at times this year really led to a really corrupt mindset within the locker room. But I think we’re going to regroup and I know that we’ll be a better team because of the trials and tribulations this year.”

Former Jets quarterback Erik Ainge didn’t appreciate McElroy’s candor apparently. Tweeted Ainge: “Someone tell McElroy to keep his mouth shut about the NYJ ‘Locker Room’ speaking in the media about your teammates, entitled brat!”

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

Jets QB Erik Ainge has had a big struggle ever since emerging from the University of Tennessee. He’s had plenty of arm and shoulder struggles during his pro career, but even worse than that, Ainge was a drug addict* who battled bi-polar disorder.

*It got so bad for Ainge that he said, compared to him, Charlie Sheen was as hard-core as Miss Daisy.

All of it became too much. That’s why Ainge, who missed all of last season to get help with his addictions, told the Associated Press that he’s retiring from football. Ainge said he’s been sober for nearly a year but that his body just won’t allow him to play (he had surgery to repair a stress fracture in January and he recently tweeted that he had a torn rotator cuff).

“This isn’t the step I wanted, but it’s the hand I’m dealt,” Ainge told the AP. “There’s nothing I’d love more than to come back to New Jersey when the lockout’s over and compete for a job and be around those guys and their families. I miss them as people, but it’s just not in the cards physically right now.

“I don’t know exactly when it happened with my shoulder because I’ve been battling shoulder problems for a long time, but now that I’m not in NFL-playing shape – I’m in good shape, but not NFL shape – my shoulder started really telling me how bad it was. One of the things I’ve been working on in my recovery is acceptance, and to be honest, I need to accept that I want to be able to play baseball with my kids when I’m 35. I don’t want to be limping the rest of my life.”

Ainge insists he loves football, but he loves his body more. He can’t lift a 10-pound weight with his throwing arm, and he knows that fact will hinder him if he were to compete for a job that requires him to, um, throw the ball.

Plus, Ainge would have had a tough time making the Jets roster this season with five quarterbacks (Mark Sanchez, Mark Brunell, Kevin O’Connell, Drew Willy and Greg McElroy) already on the roster.

Ainge, though, says he’ll leave football without any regrets and that the most important thing in his life is staying sober.

“I don’t have to come back and be a Pro Bowler to be a success story,” he said. “If I stay sober and I move on with my life and I’m successful, that’s the success story.”

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

• How about some more NFL combine news? According to two sources for the Fort Worth Star Telegram, Alabama QB Greg McElroy scored a 48 on the Wonderlic test. That’s out of 50, which, if my math is correct, means he scored a 96 out of 100.

• The Jaguars feel like Luke McCown is one of the best backup QBs in the league, which is why, according to the Florida Times Union , Jacksonville is close to re-signing him to a one-year deal.

• Is former Cal DE Cameron Jordan just too damn nice? No, laughs the No. 3 DE prospect and No. 13 prospect overall (according to the CBSSports.com rankings).

• Giants GM Jerry Reese will have to make a decision on OT Shawn Andrews before New York has to pay Andrews a $3.5 million bonus on the 30th day of the new league year (whenever that will be). We take interest in this story, because Andrews is the top NFL tweeter (in my opinion, anyway).

• Former Ohio State DE Cameron Heyward – an interesting guy with whom I spoke during Super Bowl week – doesn’t want to trade on his father’s name , former RB Craig “Ironhead” Heyward.

• New Bills assistant head coach Dave Wannstedt is excited to be returning to the NFL game. His mustache also is thrilled.

• Last season, the Bears offered S Danieal Manning a contract extension worth $6 million over three years ($2 million of it was guaranteed), but he rejected it. Sounds like he thinks he can get more on the open market if he’s ruled an unrestricted free agent.

• Sports Illustrated’s Peter King thinks that, when the new CBA is signed, the Vikings might have a tough time holding onto WR Sidney Rice.

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