From the time it became obvious that Tim Tebow was not going to be a fit with the New York Jets, the media and fans have been looking for someone to blame. It seems fairly obvious that trading for Tebow wasn’t Rex Ryan’s idea, otherwise you would assume he would have given him a shot at some point during the course of the season. Last week, a report indicated the trade was “forced” on Woody Johnson, which makes little sense considering he’s the team’s owner.
On Tuesday, former Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum admitted that trading for Tebow was his decision.
“So just going on the Tim decision, we felt like after the 2011 season we lost something with Brad Smith not being there, so we felt like bringing Tim in, he was going to be a guy who could replace Brad’s production,” Tannenbaum explained, via the NY Post. “Obviously, it didn’t work out the way we thought it was going to, and ultimately that was my call. But we did have discussions about it, and ultimately that was my decision to make the trade.
“It’s one of those decisions where it didn’t work out the way we thought.”
Tannenbaum also said he believes the Jets offense would have been fine in 2012 if not for injuries, which is a stretch. Healthy or not, New York simply didn’t have the personell to put points on the board. That’s probably why Ryan would reportedly prefer to be fired if the Jets don’t make significant changes on the offensive side of the ball.
The Tebow experiment was a failure, and failures happen in the NFL all the time. But when you fail with one of the most popular players in the league in one of the most ruthless cities in the country, everything is magnified. At least with Tannenbaum taking the fall, the Jets can attempt to move on from the Tebow era that never was.
