The GM's job is to manage the roster and the salary cap short and long term. The coaches job is to coach the players. Do you really want to blame rex for the cap issues? When Tanny provided a good roster, Rex did well with it. When the roster went to shit, the record did too. Rex did well without a good QB btw. Tanny forgot the long term part of his job requirement.
agreed I firmly believe that Rex had a big role to play in those contracts. How is the conversation going to go? Tanny: Hey Rex we going to have to let ________ (Holmes, Sanchez, Revis, etc) go because they want too much money. Rex: ___ How do you think Woody would feel about letting any of his marque players leave? It was always clear to me when Tanny said he and Rex worked closely together as a team, that meant Rex informs me on personnel moves we should make and I make it happen. You think Tanny is extending contracts on players Rex doesn't want? How about players he has a tattoo of on his arm? If we were winning and under the cap the same people here denying Rex had any personnel involvement would be bragging about it. The organization as a whole embraced the idea and were addicted to signing high pay, high profile free agents. Feels good signing them until the bills come due and the rest of the team personnel suffers. Then it's all the GM's fault.
Of course. It's obvious that this is how the franchise has been run and will continue the same way going forward, but with a new "GM." The Rex supporters would have you believe that Tannenbaum was drafting, signing and trading for players while Rex vacationed on Mars.
Well Tannenbaum DID sign players. He also drafted them. He probably also traded for them. That is what a general manager does. Rex is not as involved as you think.
Another way to look at this point is what at least some have recognized here since Woody made it clear he's in bed with Ryan. Your point is another way of pointing out there's no real middle ground here from a GM's point of view. Assuming a candidate is not equally in love with Ryan, the irony is some incremental success that a new GM might achieve will have the effect in Woody's mind of justifying Ryan's retention. Conversely if the Jets do even worse, Ryan might well at some point be let go, but so would the new GM most likely. It's another way of acknowledging that only someone who loves Ryan as muc has Woody does will take the job.
let's say this conversation happened exactly that way. It is the GM's JOB to manage the cap and say no we can't afford to do this it will kill us. Rex can say whatever he wants the GM is the one responsible for these things.
There is no reason to think the Jets were run with a clear and clean division of authority on personnel moves. Tanny has been quoted as saying Ryan had input on personnel moves. It is unrealistic to think especially a non-football guy like Tanny would have ignored Rex while Woody has been all in on Rex from the get go. Ftr I also think Woody was a huge part of the decision making process. I also criticize Tanny for not having the standing and knowledge basis for ignoring Rex, but of course it's not like Tanny was some personnel genius when it came to football knowledge. Sure, in some teams the GM does not even have to listen to the HC. But for the Jets, there is no reason to believe they were run that way.
I'm 100% sure Rex had input on personnel decisions. That doesn't change the fact that the cap is on the GM. If Tanny had no backbone to tell Rex he can't always get what he wants then he had no business being a GM to begin with. Blaming the cap issues on Rex is a joke.
I'm not saying Tanny is not without blame. I have said many times here how much I think he stinks as a GM. As I've said before Tanny didn't hire himself and I'd speculate Woody favored a weak GM. I believe Tanny and Rex SHARE the blame. You can argue what exact percent of the blame each deserve but at the end of the day what does it matter. Woody also had a big role to play. It's pretty clear who he favored between the two. So if there ever was an argument over signing players, Woody would side with Rex. How is Tanny going to stand up to Rex about personnel decisions when Tanny isn't good in that area? This all goes back to Woody. He hired them and he condoned the roles and responsibities. I'd also note it's not unnatural or uncommon for GM and HC to work together on personnel decisions. That's why when a change is made both are fired. Back to the Cap, big contracts aren't offered with out the HC, GM, & owner being in agreement.
Like I've been saying. It's the best candidates looking at any team but the Jets. To turn down a million dollar perk must mean the non-money reasons for not taking the job have got to be pretty big. Obviously that's not going to happen. Only thing Woody could do is try to convince the new GM that things are going to be different that personnel decisions and football philosophy will come from the GM. But that's a hard sell given the history of Rex and Woody, and Woody telling the future GM he can't pick his own HC. I can't imagine it be easy for a potential GM to ignore the circus atmosphere and loose way this organization is run. There was nothing in that press conference that signaled that Woody wants things to be run differently than it has.
Ray lewis also has involvement in personel decisions. If he doesn't like someone, or thinks they have the wrong attitude he tells the powers above. They don't last long after that.
Yes, i fear that is a huge problem going forward. If you can call what the Jets are doing now "going forward." More of the same, for the most part. Posters defending his public statement of confidence in Ryan and Ryan's being retained tend to focus on Ryan himself, and conclude he should be retained. That is not the bigger issue. The bigger issue is that Woody's support and action tend to confirm the view that he is an owner who continues, and will continue, to make major decisions of a football nature about the running of this team, when he does not have a proven record of success in that area. Far from it. And of course Woody has only confirmed by his actions and approach that he will continue to be the type of owner he has been all along. No wonder they are having trouble finding someone to take the job. Of course eventually they will find someone, and the homers here will talk about how great that person is and how great the future will look. Maybe they in fact get lucky and end up with someone good. Woody makes that turn of events a long shot, unfortunately.
Sadly I agree with what you say. It's not that a quality GM could turn around this franchise over night. It would be the first of many steps that need to be taken to get the Jets back on their feet and rid us of this circus show.
A high quality GM with a great coaching staff should be able to put a pretty competitive product on the field next year. The NFL is not exactly made up of dominating teams. Most teams have cap issues, injuries, a lack of real continuity, etc., etc., etc. The Jets are a long way from having a dominating team but they aren't very far from being competitive. In a league that sends a boatload of teams to the playoffs that's pretty much all you have to be. The problem we have is how to clear the cap and who to hire on the coaching staff. As much as people hate Tannenbaum he could have been much more helpful to a new GM in dealing with cap issues then Rex is going to be in setting up a top notch coaching staff. The right move would have been to hire a new Head of Football operations and let Tannenbaum report to him.
