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This really isn’t complicated
The Jets have some major issues right now.
Their head coach and quarterback are struggling, and their defensive coordinator is making dubious player personnel decisions that are leading to poor results on the field.
So what can the Jets do to get this ship heading in the right direction?
I’m sure many of you just yelled out, “Fire Adam Gase.”
Well, I’m not going to do that that here. As many of you know who have read my work over the years, I don’t fire people in print or on the air.
So I’m not personally going to go there, but don’t view that as some kind of endorsement.
But to me, there is one simple move the Jets need to make, ASAP, that can help them navigate the treacherous waters they are traveling in now more effectively.
And that is to put make Joe Douglas the football boss, meaning everyone reports to him – not just the player personnel department, but the coaches
I know I’ve written this before, but they need this now more than ever.
Their current corporate structure is hindering their success. They have the team president (business head), GM and head coach as all equal entities who report to the owner.
This is fine with the team president, but clearly is problematic on the football side.
Douglas is the smartest football guy in the building, and is just one year into a six-year contract. He’s not going anywhere for a long time, nor should he. Make him the boss of all things football, that means the coaches report to him.
Gase needs a football boss. Christopher Johnson is a good man, but he’s probably not ideally equipped to be a football boss to his head coach.
Douglas is.
And once Douglas is the football boss, then he can decide what to do with Gase’s future.
Douglas knows a lot more about what is going on with the coaching than Johnson or the media, and he can make a highly-educated decision on whether the coach needs to stay or go, how much of Sam Darnold’s problems are because of Gase, and how much are the quarterback himself?
I’m not saying Gase’s myriad critics are wrong with some of their critiques. I’m just saying that Douglas knows all the inner workings on what should be going on with the head coach and his staff, and he can make a highly educated decision on what to do.
Let’s not forget, when the Jets hired Gase, the three guys doing most of the interviewing were Christopher Johnson, Hymie Elhai and Mike Maccagnan.
Johnson and Elhai are business people, and Maccagnan, who is a nice man, proved to be a very bad at assessing people, whether it was players, or right-hand men.
So if the Jets do make a coaching change, it needs to be Douglas doing the interviews and making the decisions, perhaps with the assistance of Phil Savage. It should not be business people. How many times have the Jets gotten in trouble by having business people picking coaches and GM’s? Quite a few times.
They did get the last one right in hiring Douglas.
And now it’s time to get out the way, and let him run the ENTIRE football operation, not just pick the roster.
The Jets’ current corporate structure, where the GM picks the roster, and the head coach coaches the team, and the GM can’t tell the head coach boo about how he’s coaching the team, needs to be in the rearview mirror.
And by telling the fans right now that Joe is charge, and will decide everybody’s fate on the football side, this would also help to get a dismayed customer base to chill out and feel better about where things are headed.
It’s time for a FOOTBALL CZAR right now!
There is no way around it anymore . . .
One note from today. It sounds like Avery Williamson is going to start next to Neville Hewitt this week, and that is huge for the Jets, after last week’s disastrous decision at ILB.
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September 24, 2020