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As expected, Mike Maccagnan waited unit after the draft to make major changes to his scouting department. Unfortunately some men lost their jobs today . . .
Maccagnan fired the Jets’ Director of Pro Personnel Brendan Prophett, and five college scouts: Rick Courtright, David Hinson, Cole Hufnagel, Chris Prescott and Seth Turner.
This is usually the modus operandi of new general managers. They keep the field scouts they inherited in place until after the draft, and then generally make major changes.
The reason for waiting is because when most new GM’s take over, generally in January, NFL clubs are ¾ of their way through the scouting process. So why throw away all the work these men have done for the organization? At least use their brainpower to assist in the draft, and then decide on them.
Think about it – the Jets had spent tens of thousands of dollars for these men to travel all over the country looking at players for the 2015 draft, so why not use it, even with their jobs up in the air?
So it was surprising the Jets were able to grab scouts Rex Hogan from the Chicago Bears, and Brian Heimerdinger from the St. Louis Rams, right after Maccagnan landed in New York. And that certainly helped the Jets draft, because they got a lot of intel from Chicago and St. Louis.
And from January until now, Maccagnan has been “scouting the scouts,” as they say.
It’s important to point out that Maccagnan did retain some scouts he inherited.
Jay Mondelesi (Eric Mangini’s cousin) and Johnathon Stigall were retained. So they must have impressed Mike over the last few months. Stigall has a good reputation around the league, and before joining the Jets, he scouted for 15 years in the NFL, with Cleveland, Philadelphia, Miami and Chicago.
One candidate to join the Jets’ scouting staff is former Jacksonville Jaguars general manager Gene Smith, who Maccagnan has a great deal of respect for. He might not have been a great GM, but he’s considered a very good scout.
Four of the five college scouts, aside from Hufnagel, that were fired, were hired by John Idzik over his two seasons as Jets GM.
I’m not looking to cast aspersions on any of the college scouts who were fired. This is tough day for them, and I wish them well. But I will just say this – Idzik wasn’t ever a road scout before he joined the Jets – he was mainly an in-house administrator with the various clubs he worked for. So he didn’t rub elbows with a lot of scouts from other teams on the road. Maccagnan has been on road scouting college players for 20 years, and knows a ton of scouts. He has seen them in action. So now that he is looking for a handful of scouts, he has a much better feel for the people out there compared to Idzik. I’m not looking to rip Idzik, who is gone, but just keeping it read.
So expect Maccagnan to assemble a pretty darn good scouting staff. He knows the college scouting landscape extremely well.
May 4, 2015
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