Content available exclusively for subscribers
Florham Park – Jets consultant Rick Spielman, who is going to help them with their GM/head coach search, spoke extensively to another employer, CBS Sports, on Tuesday, about his new gig.
“I will give my opinion and help with the interviews,” Spielman said. “I will talk to a lot of sources out there, collect a lot of information and then let the owner of the Jets and the organization make the final decisions on who their next head coach and general manager will be.”
Who is “the organization?”
“The ownership and the higher-ups there, the decision-makers, will take the information and take it from there,” Spielman said.
Who are the “higher-ups and decision-makers” and what is their football acumen?
This is an important question.
We know Woody Johnson is going to make the final decision.
But who is Spielman referring to as far as other “higher-ups and decision-makers?”
We know Woody’s brother, Christopher, will have a seat at the table, which is understandable because he’s the minority owner.
But else are we talking about?
This is a very, very, very important question.
Are we talking about businessmen?
And what do they know about building a winning football operation?
I’m not taking a shot at anybody, just wondering who is assisting Woody, on the Jets side of the table, in making these two big decisions?
As Bill Parcells liked to say, “Know who you are.”
You might be a brilliant lawyer or financier, but that doesn’t make you the best person to assist the owner in football decisions.
They need to have a football guy on Woody’s side of the table, in Woody’s ear.
Spielman could do a great job gathering information and vetting prospects, but once the presentations are made, it’s up to Woody, with some input from whomever the “higher-ups and decision-makers” are.
And one thing you need to be careful about in a process like this is having people at the table who might want to “protect their desk.”
In other words, some people might want to avoid certain candidates, who might want too much power, and might minimize the importance of existing executives.
This seemed to happen with the Atlanta Falcons last off-season.
It looked like Bill Belichick was the leading candidate for the coaching job, but some higher-ups talked owner Arthur Blank out of it, and they went with Raheem Morris.
Belichick would have changed a lot of things in the front office, while Morris was willing to come, just coach the team, and not upset the apple cart.
Could some people at the table not want to hire a powerful football czar-type who would want a ton of control of the football operation? Is it possible they wouldn’t want to hire a powerful, alpha dog leader, like a Sean Payton-type (obviously not Payton, but that kind of guy), because their football power will be minimized?
Spielman said: “The first thing you have to do in the process is identify the role.”
Will the roles be the same as in the past where you had a GM picking the players, the head coach coaching the team, and they both report to the owner?
Spielman added: “There are a lot of different ways it’s structured. The Jets are going through the process now on how they want it structured.”
Some would argue that the old structure has not worked, with the Jets missing the playoffs 14 straight years, and it looks like it will soon be 15.
“We had a meeting (Monday) in New York listening to what they want, what are the characteristics that want in the general manager, what are the characteristics they want in a head coach,” Spielman said.
Do you want a GM and head coach who just want to go along to get along within a corporate structure? Or do you want alpha dog leaders willing to push the envelope and change the status quo?
So it might be in Woody’s best interest to have a pure football man at the table with him to evaluate the consultant’s suggestions, not just business types.
Maybe Phil Savage, the interim GM.
This is very, very important.
There is no way around it.
Just keeping it real folks.
November 27, 2024
Premium will return by 9:30 pm (or sooner) on Thursday.
