Content available exclusively for subscribers
It’s time for a heaping helping of Jets Whispers with notes on JaMarcus Russell, Rob Ryan, Mike Tannenbaum and Tim Tebow . . .
When Mike Tannenbaum was the GM, there was always talk of how they would “turn over every stone,” when it cames to the personnel department.
That needs to stop.
Before you think I’m going crazy, stay with me for a minute.
With that Tannenbaum approach, it leads to stories like, “Jets interested in JaMarcus Russell.”
And this isn’t the first time this kind of crazy story emerged from Florham Park.
The problem with reaching out and calling agents about almost every player who hits the street, it’s then used it against you, to generate interest in the player.
The agent leaks to the media – “the Jets are interested.”
I can’t tell how many times this kind of story has hit the news cycle.
It’s ridiculous and so often brings the Jets bad publicity they don’t need.
How bad does it make the Jets look that they are interested in a 300-pound quarterback with a low football IQ?
Tannenbaum is gone, and so should this somewhat anal approach of exploring everything. The personnel department has to stop chasing windmills. Overkill should not be a feather in their cap.
Why even call about Russell?
It makes no sense and it came back to bite the Jets. It made them look bad, at a time they don’t need any more bad publicity . . .
I never understood the Rob Ryan to St. Louis rumors.
The Rams play a 4-3.
Rob’s a 3-4 guy.
The Rams love their 4-3 ends Chris Long and Robert Quinn. They don’t want to mess with that.
So Rob was never a great scheme fit for the St. Louis Rams.
It doesn’t look like he’s going to land a coordinator job, so if I’m the Jets, I hire him in a heartbeat as the linebacker coach. Get him in the building – he’s a very smart defensive mind.
Forget about the media making into a circus.
Keep him away from the media – just let him coach football.
The Jets need to get out of the business of worrying about what Rich Cimini and Gary Myers reactions are going to be to what they do.
The Jets should hire Rob Ryan in a heartbeat.
He’s a very good defensive coach, a good guy to have in the building.
Don’t judge him by Dallas this year – they were ravaged by injuries, including losing both their starting inside linebackers, Sean Lee and Bruce Carter, for the season . . .
Mike Tannenbaum spoke at the Super Bowl today.
One thing he said really caught my attention.
It was about handling the enormity of Tebow.
“I think we all knew the popularity Tim brought to the organization,” Tannenbaum said to ESPN. “We just felt confident we had the infrastructure to deal with it.”
That is a case of not having a good understanding of your building.
I really don’t know where he’s coming from on that?
The Jets have a PR department that is too much into appeasing jerks in the media. They are too nice. People don’t pay a price for crossing the line. The other day they put John Idzik on Mike Florio’s TV show.
Florio said the Jets GM search was a “scorched earth” approach, and they had to find somebody to “take” the job. In other words, nobody wanted the job, which is bull.
Florio has a history of crossing the line (including making fun of Rex’s weight before he lost it), and he just keeps getting rewarded with guests.
The only way you can handle “Tebowmania” is if you have an iron-fist with the media, and they don’t have that. They are way too nice to a draconian media that goes out there way to make the Jets look bad. Tebow pressers twice a week? C’mon.
So that part of the infrastructure wasn’t there.
Also, you have a head coach who needs media training, and I don’t mean that in a mean way. He needs media training. He creates more fires than he puts out. He didn’t handle the Tebow questions particularly well, and often made things worse with his answers.
So I’m not entirely sure what infrastructure Mike is talking about.
It wasn’t there.
January 29, 2013
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Wednesday.
