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The Jets announced that they have hired a Mike Tannenbaum, a GM they fired, to lead the search for a new GM and head coach.
At first, I thought it might have been a story from a parody site like “The Onion.”
Why would you hire somebody you fired as GM, to help you find your new GM?
But then upon further review, I discovered that they are actually using The 33rd Team in a support role to help identify and vet candidates in addition to coordinating interviews. Tannenbaum is one of the principles at the company.
And it’s not just Tannenbaum, but former NFL GM Rick Spielman, the former Minnesota Vikings GM.
So it’s not Tannenbaum doing this on an island.
But here is the bottom line and this is from the Jets’ press release announcing the 33rd Team partnership.
“The Jets took the first step in their searches for a general manager and head coach. Chairman Woody Johnson will lead the process.”
The people saying that Tannenbaum and/or Spielman are picking the next GM are wrong.
Woody Johnson is, perhaps with some assistance from his son Brick, who has become quite influential, along with Christopher Johnson, Ira Axselrad and Hymie Elhai.
But this is Woody’s decision. He has flexed his muscles the last couple of years, spearheading a lot of major decisions, and taking a George Steinbrenner-esque ownership approach.
“They traded a third-round pick for Davante Adams. I’m told reliably that nobody wanted to do that other than Woody, but Woody is running it,” former NFL GM Michael Lombardi on the GM Shuffle Podcast.
Johnson fired head coach Robert Saleh in October, and GM Joe Douglas in November. Aside from the team underachieving, Lombardi feels there is another reason he made these moves when he did.
“He wants to get everything set up before he leaves (for an ambassadorship),” Lombardi said on VSIN. “I don’t think he wants this brother Christopher doing the hiring. So when the inauguration happens in January, I think Woody wants the GM and head coach, and he wants to pick them.”
So even though they hired Tannenbaum and Spielman as consultants, Woody Johnson is going to make this decision.
Just like when they hired consultant Jed Hughes, from Korn-Ferry, to help them find a GM in 2013, and they ended up picking John Idzik.
Consultants can make suggestions, but it’s Johnson who is going to make the call.
What is Johnson looking for in a coach and GM?
Who knows, but the bottom line is other things need to change because flipping GMs and head coaches every few years hasn’t changed much – they have missed the playoffs 14 straight years and it’s likely to become 15.
“[Woody] wants to itemize and nitpick and line item everything that goes on,” Lombardi said about football spending decisions like staff and player moves. “‘You are not replacing that scout, I don’t want you to do that.'”
If they hire a new GM and head coach and continue to have people micromanaging all their decisions with an abacus, it will be hard for them to be successful.
They need to give the new GM and head coach a budget, whatever that might look like, and give them autonomy to run the football operation.
If Woody leaves, that might happen, because Christopher Johnson seems to believe in that approach.
So not only should Woody Johnson listen to the suggestions of consultants like Spielman, but he needs to let the new tandem “do their jobs” to quote a famous football coach if the Jets are going to right their ship.
November 26, 2024
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