Grade the Brett Favre Era

Now that we can close the book on Brett Favre’s tenure in New York, how would you grade Favre’s lone season with Gang Green?

I took the liberty of breaking down Favre’s impact on the franchise into five categories and assigned a grade to each. Check ‘em out and see if you agree:

ENERGIZING THE FANBASE
When my Jet fan buddy from college – who I hadn’t spoken to in about a year – sent me a text message roughly eight seconds after the news of Brett’s signing broke at midnight, I knew this was one of the biggest acquisitions in sports history. Jet fans were ecstatic, and while some of them won’t admit it today, they were thrilled to turn their offense over to Favre and couldn’t show Chad Pennington the door fast enough. This initial move FIRED UP Jet Nation, sold tons of jerseys and stole the back page from the Super Bowl champs (and the collapsing Mets and Yankees).
Grade A.

OWNERSHIP PERSPECTIVE
Adding Favre was a major move from a public relations standpoint for the Jets. With a stadium full of unpopular PSLs to sell, owner Woody Johnson knew that adding a marquee name like Favre would justify the price tag for those seats. In August, this move received an A+. Knowing what we know now, ownership’s shrewd move to bring in Favre comes across as shady and financially-driven. Yuck.
Grade F.

SUCCESS ON THE FIELD
You could argue this is the only category that matters, and to that end, if a team doesn’t win the Super Bowl, it should receive and F. While George Steinbrenner would undoubtedly agree with that, you have to give the Favre Era some props for the 8-3 start, back-to-back wins over New England and Tennessee and the fun we all had with talk of a potential New York-New York Super Bowl. But in the end, Favre’s Jets fell apart down the stretch, missing the playoffs (while Pennington’s Dolphins won the division). There was certainly some success there, and I won’t call it an outright failure. With that said:
Grade C-.

TEAM CHEMISTRY
Things got ugly towards the end of the season when certain Jets called Favre out for being distant in the locker room. Overall a black eye for the team and something that could potentially divide the team in the future. While it seems unlikely those ill feelings will carry over next season with Favre in Mississippi, the fact that there was dissent among the team is reason enough to analyze his impact on team chemistry.
Grade: C+.

IMPACT ON FRANCHISE’S FUTURE
With Brett being one-and-done, what does that mean for the Jets’ future? Acquiring Favre cost the Jets draft picks, Chad Pennington, and another year of bench-riding for Kellen Clemens and Brett Ratliff (who all of a sudden the Jets seem really high on). Given what the Jets got in return – a lost 9-7 season – his one year has set the Jets back considerably. Whatever positive impact he may have had on the young QBs will not redeem the damage his acquisition caused on the future.
Grade F.

So where does that leave us? A, F, C-, C+, and F. Looks like one of my old high school report cards (guess which course was Phys. Ed).

If you assign a number to each grade (A = 90, F = 60, C- = 70 C+ = 75), the grades average out to a 71, meaning I give the Brett Favre era a:

Grade: C-. Thanks for pretty much nothing, Brett.

Matt Estreich for the Huddle