For the longest time we ALL high five-ed ourselves for having the best cap GM on the planet. Tanny pulled off many cap driven miracles. Me? I think the beginning of the end was ditching Penny for Favre. A fascinating coup, but he showed his true colors for the first time. But if not for a strained bicep tendon, TGG would be flooded 1000 times over with jumpers....90% 'former' NE sluts. But I digress... A new era, a new GM, a new future. Hold on tight.
I respect how he remains professional in the answering, and he had a few good points, particularly the part about the legendary players not finishing their careers with the team they are most known for being a part of. However, he probably still wants to GM again soon, so he is trying to be politically correct. I do wish he would have been a little bit more up front about some answers. He had a few chances to clear the air on some things, and gave pretty vague answers.
I respect Tanny because he had good intentions and did everything in his power to put out a winning team each year. His aggressive approach was a nice change of pace from previous regimes, but in the end, he made several poor decision that inevitably put us in the position we are in now. Dude gave it his all. He clearly was a hard worker and left no stone unturned. However, he is more of a business man than a talent evaluator.
If not for the now infamous extension, he would have had a pretty positive reputation amongst most of us. I still think he was an overall good gm. He made this team competitive, and certainly made it fun to be a fan. It's not like we were a bottom-dweller. Sure he messed up, but I look at him in a similar light to how I view Mangini. (I think he is above average, and should get another shot in the future.) That said, I do think he deserved to be fired, and I'm happy with Idzik.
I didn't get the Danny Woodhead answer...how was he a sleeper pickup that helped get the Jets to a title game? He barely did anything for the Jets, no?
It's easy to see that the guy is smart, and likeable. Because of a few bad decisions, he was fired. He will find another gig again soon. I liked Mike, but dont think he would have had the stones to trade Revis like Johnny I did.
the favre situation is how i found this board, which i visit multiple times a day now since then. i was looking for deeper info than the crap from espn and here we are. and i love this interview. mike is a true professional in his tone and his answers. came off as a class act. he made some bad moves toward the end but he made many more good ones over his tenure. i wish him much future success.
I liked Tanny as a person. I'll always remember him ripping his hair out during the phone conversation with Revis' agents on Hard Knocks. I even liked that he was willing to try an unorthodox draft philosophy (trade up and get the guy you want, 1 guy you want is better than 2 that you're lukewarm on, to put it simply). It's too bad that it didn't work and ultimately it's what brought us to where we are now, IMHO. I hope he catches back on in the league or that he finds happiness in what he does afterwards.
I fault Tanny to a certain degree, he gave Rex a super-power team, Rex didn't win with it. If Rex gets the job done then Tanny is viewed completely differently. On the flipside you have a GM like Jerry Reis who IMO hasnt put together many great teams yet Coughlin overachieved and now Reis is a legendary GM. Of course the GM chooses the coach to so at the end of the day the GM deserves 100% credit for everything if they picked the coach. If the owner picks the coach then its a different story.
Our late round drafts and UDFAs have barely impacted the team. Woodhead went from a UDFA to a Superbowl TD so is a good general example, albeit with little to do with the Jets. I'd have picked Matt Slauson but we're not exactly spoilt for choice.
