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The actually have two bigger problems than the recent coup ousting GM Mike Maccagnan.
Of course having your GM toppled in a coup d’etat by the new coach is a huge deal. That happened recently with Adam Gase getting Maccagnan fired in a bloodless coup.
This is obviously huge news.
But the Jet can survive that, and believe it or not, that story, might be their third biggest problem right now.
First off Maccagnan is a great guy, but he might not have been an ideal GM due to not having alpha dog qualities (most people don’t).
And I agree with Adam Gase’s contention in one of the myriad leaks to his media surrogates – that leak accused Maccagnan of being somebody who had a tendency to be drag his feet on decisions.
Gase made a statement trade the same day his coup was completed when he dealt Darron Lee to Kansas City for a sixth-round pick. Maccagnan was dragging his feet hoping for a fifth-round pick. I agree with Gase on this one. It was time to move on. To have him in the off-season program while Maccagnan tried to get a five was bad for the Jets and Lee. Maccagnan was being tone deaf. For goodness sake, all personnel departments around the league saw his run defense problems. What the heck you gonna get for him? Move on ASAP.
So Maccagnan going isn’t a disaster as long as they find a good replacement.
Two other current problems are bigger.
The fact that somebody from Gase’s chatty camp, leaked to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport that Gase thought Maccagnan overpaid Le’Veon Bell and C.J. Mosley, is an unmitigated disaster. What a ridiculous thing to do! How does that leak help Gase? At first, it was spun as an example of why Gase soured on Maccagnan. But the leaker didn’t think this leak through enough. These are two of the Jets’ most important players? How does it help a team be successful that the coach thinks two key players are overpaid? It doesn’t. The source is an idiot.
How Gase gets out of his jam remains to be seen. But this is a HUGE problem.
The other problem that is bigger than the Gase coup is the New York Daily News. The stories by the Jets’ reporter there make the Jets look like one of the biggest dumpster fires in the history of sports, quoting myriad unnamed sources from inside and outside the building that can’t be confirmed. There is no reporter in the country covering another NFL team like this. Nobody! Because there would be a price to pay. With this reporter, there is none. And the reporting makes the Jets look like such a hot mess that it could actually scare off candidates, so this is a really big deal. And the Jets have no answer for him. Their Neville Chamberlain approach isn’t working.
But as I said on SiriusXM NFL Radio the other day – “Joe Douglas, if you are listening to this show, I want to let you know, the Jets do have problems that need to be fixed, no doubt, but the building is nothing like it’s being portrayed in that paper.”
I have been covering this team for 25 years. I know the building. There aren’t the myriad leaks in that building that this person is leading you to believe. You read this reporter, you would think their are leaks all over the building, and that is flat-out not the case.
Daily News headline for a recent column by this scribe – “Jets general manager candidates should beware of the inner workings of the circus.”
Yes, and one of the ring leaders of the circus, who doesn’t even work for the Jets’ organization.
May 20, 2019
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