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Florham Park – This is a great year to be looking for an offensive coordinator.
It’s an outstanding field.
Norv Turner, Cam Cameron, Mike Mularkey and Chan Gailey are all superb offensive coordinators.
You can question all four of them as head coaches, but from an offensive coordinator standpoint, they are all proven and accomplished. These are four rock solid guys.
Manish Mehta has floated the names Hue Jackson and Jim Zorn.
I just don’t think either is the way to go. Neither guy has a ton of experience as a coordinator, spending more time as position coaches.
The Jets have a chance to hit this out of the park at the coordinator spot, but they need to land one of the big four.
There is no messing around here with questionable candidates. Turner, Cameron, Mularkey and Gailey have a lot of proven success as play-callers.
Tony Sparano didn’t, and look at what happened?
Don’t get cute here. Hire one of the slam-dunk candidates . . .
Yesterday, Albert Breer of NFL Network said the Jets might be “scrambling” after losing out of Dave Caldwell and Tom Telesco.
Manish Mehta used the same word today.
C’mon guys, that is a little strong.
When did Caldwell and Telesco turn into Ron Wolf and Bobby Beathard?
Hey, they are solid candidates, but not guys who would leave you “scrambling” if they took other jobs. Telesco took the San Diego job, and Caldwell landed in Jacksonville.
There are still plenty of good candidate out there on that level like Brian Gaine and Jerry Angelo.
This is far from the end of the world for the Jets.
I did hear from a league source that Tom Gamble has underwhelmed in the interview process, and might have fallen back in the horse race, somewhat.
I’ve known Gamble casually over the years, running into him in press boxes now and then – he’s a low key guy. He’s not going to come into a room and knock your socks off.
The Jets do need a powerful personality, a guy with a strong presence, to help clean up this mess, and handle a vicious New York media.
This job isn’t for everyone . . .
While fans and reporters are getting impatient with the process, the Jets are doing nothing wrong taking their time, and interviewing a lot of people.
Why rush?
Like I said before, if there was a slam-dunk superstar candidate out there, you might want to rush, but that isn’t the case.
The Jets hired sports headhunter Jed Hughes for a reported $200,000 to lead the search.
Why would you pay that kind of money to rush into a decision?
That would be foolish . . .
Ian O’Connor destroyed Woody Johnson in a column for ESPN New York, including going after the the owner for his inherited wealth.
This was way out of line.
There is a political element at work here.
O’Connor is a liberal Democrat and Johnson is a conservative Republican
O’Connor actually made a political reference in that column.
In another recent column he called him a “clueless billionaire.”
Let’s just call this for what it is – Johnson represents everything that O’Connor can’t stand.
January 10, 2012
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