The idiocy of the Favre trade

By Bob Smizik | Posted at 12;10 p.m.

Maybe now that quarterback Brett Favre has reportedly told the New York Jets he is retiring some sense can be made of the team’s decision to bring Favre on board in a season when he was going to be 39 years old.

This was the kind of move the Steelers would never make. And that’s why the Steelers are Super Bowl champions and why the Jets have not been in the game since 1968.

Maybe this will clear the name of Green Bay general manager Ted Thompson who was widely criticized for trading Favre, a Wisconsin icon, to the Jets last summer. Thompson did the absolutely right thing in trading Favre. In trading for Favre, the Jets did the absolutely wrong thing.

A fan might have been blinded by the fact Favre, at 38, had an outstanding season with the Packers in 2007. But a general manager should not have been. A professional talent evaluator should have looked beyond the Packer’s 13-3 season in 2007 to see the real Favre. The signals were glaring.

In 2005-06, the Packers were 12-20. Favre threw for 38 touchdowns and 47 interceptions.

What’s hard to figure out about that?

When they acquired Favre, the Jets released Chad Pennington, who had completed 69 percent of his passes the previous season and had a 86.1 passer rating. Favre completed 67 percent of his passes and had an 81.0 rating, while leading the NFL in interceptions.

Didn’t the Jets know that, at best, Favre was a one-year solution and that playing in the same division as the New England Patriots one year wasn’t much? As it turned out, the Patriots lost Tom Brady in the first game of the season. But that didn’t help the Jets, as the Miami Dolphins, with Pennington at quarterback, won the AFC East ane the Jets still finished behind New England.

While the Dolphins are set with Pennington, who will be 33, the Jets will go with Kellen Clemens or seek a quarterback in the draft. In three years, mostly as a backup, Clemens, a former second-round draft choice, has a passer rating of 59.3 with five touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

The Jets fired coach Eric Mangini after the season. It would have made more sense to fire general manager Mike Tannenbaum.