https://www.newyorkjets.com/news/jets-make-moves-to-personnel-department Aug 24, 2024 at 12:09 PM The Jets have restructured the club's personnel department, naming Jon Carr and Greg Nejmeh co-directors of player personnel, and making Dan Zbojovsky the club's senior director of football operations. Carr, in his seventh season with the club and 18th in the NFL, and Nejmeh, in his 16th season with the Jets, now oversee the club's talent evaluation as co-directors of player personnel. The pair serve as valued advisors to Douglas in all personnel matters, including free agency and the draft, while directing the team's pro and college scouting departments. Zbojovsky, enters his 18th season with the Jets and his first as senior director, football operations. In his new role, Zbojovsky oversees the athletic training staff, medical staff, player development, personnel operations, and video department while maintaining his role in the scouting process. Jay Mandolesi enters his first year as director, college scouting after serving with the team for 20 years in various roles. He joined the Jets as an assistant in the video department in 2004. Most recently, he served as a national scout for the club for eight years. In his time scouting with the Jets, he has covered much of the country, including the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, and Southwest regions. Nick Sabella, now in his sixth season with the Jets, enters his first year as senior director, football administration. Prior to his promotion, Sabella spent two seasons as assistant director, football administration and three seasons as the manager, football administration. In his role, Sabella's responsibilities include working with Douglas on matters regarding salary cap management, player contract negotiations, compliance with the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and NFL Rules, and strategic planning as it relates to player acquisition and roster construction. David Socie is in his eighth year with the Jets after returning to the organization in 2018 as senior director, football administration. Socie is entering his first year as senior director, football strategy. His primary responsibilities include advising Douglas and Jets staff on matters involving player contracts, the team's salary cap, trades, the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and NFL Rules. Jonathan Stigall enters his first season as a national scout, after serving in various scouting positions with the Jets since 2014 and in the NFL since 1999. In his new role, Stigall is responsible for scouting players throughout the country. Christina Wedding is now in her 12th season with Jets and her first as director, personnel operations after previously serving three years as the assistant director, personnel operations. In her role, she assists the entire personnel department including pro scouting, college scouting and football administration in the day-to-day logistics, overall planning for the department, communication with the NFL league office, and internal communication among football operations departments. Evan Ardoin, currently in his eighth season with the Jets and first as co-assistant director, pro personnel. In his new role, Ardoin joins Co-Assistant Director, Pro Personnel Kevin Murphy in the day-to-day operations of the pro personnel department, conducting assigned player evaluations for free agency throughout the season, while monitoring league transactions and NFL practice squads for potential signings or workouts. He also serves a key role in the advance scouting of future opponents for the coaching staff. Additionally, the Jets have promoted Jordan Burton to National Football Scouting (NFS) Scout.
What it doesn't say, and what could be much more significant, is who was demoted, fired, quit or retired and of course, why? And what about the timing? Does it make sense? It may because the job of these people really starts now with evaluating a new season. Avoiding any of the tough subjects made it look like another Jets puff piece to me - and that's exactly what it is... Jets Make Moves to Personnel Department (newyorkjets.com)
This feels like a bald little baseball cap-wearing man pounding his fist on the table about the Reddick situation and demanding changes. That's the only way the timing makes sense to me.
Meh, Reddick might be on everyone's mind now but the biggest debacle of the last twelve months has to be the failure of the organization to get a quarterback here overnight when Rodgers went down.
You're probably right, but there's at least a chance that these changes have been in the works since the Athletic Performance Dept. was let go back in May, and Rex Hogan leaving and Chad Alexander leaving for the Chargers in February. No replacements were named back at that time. Perhaps these changes are just part of the FO shakeup that started back in February.
Great idea, promote people who have been a part of the problem for the past decade and a half. Will be interesting to see what further front office shakeups the new GM will implement beginning in January. I'm sure it'll continue in the long line of great success this franchise is known for.
Boy you guys are tough. The Jets are widely viewed as having one of the best rosters in the NFL now. Given the complete dogshit this roster was when JD took over, its a pretty impressive feat for the people that you're criticising. The 2022 draft class may end up being one of the very best draft classes ever in NFL history. With the emergence of JBC and Barnes, the 2023 draft class is looking good now too. If Will McDonald turns into a 10 sack guy and Tippman continues to improve it will be a very good class. The team's staff has also been tremendous at finding diamonds in the rough, particularly as UDFAs (Huff, Quincy Williams, Gibson, Adams, etc.). Even the 2021 class, with the exception of Zack Wilson has resulted in many important pieces (AVT, Carter, Sherwood, Echols). And high 1st round QBs frequently end up busting and ZW was pretty much a consensus 2nd overall pick. It just didn't work out. It happens, especially with QBs. That all being said, sticking with Wilson last year was clearly a mistake, but once Rogers went down I'm not sure that they had any other realistic options. They would have had to give up on Wilson before the year started and get a good backup QB going into training camp. Given how few significant injuries Rogers has had, it doesn't seem crazy to think that he would end up playing the whole season and being relatively healthy. It also didn't seem likely that the entire Oline would be devastated by injuries for the 2nd straight year. In any event, their job is getting talent for the roster and they have done that very well. They seem to be loaded at every position, with the possible exception of wide receiver where they could use a little more depth (maybe a trade for Devantae Adams at mid-season would help here). Let's see how what they built does this year, before giving up on these people.
Exactly! Sadly some posters have become so jaded and cynical that they can no longer remain objective and see any positives. All they can focus on are the negatives that they perceive. They become unrealistic in their expectations, and expect perfection from the HC and GM, and that's just not real life.
Well for me, I’ve been a JD supporter pretty much since the go…my initial impression was that after Idzik and Mac, that we finally went after a legitimate candidate. Still, he’s a first time GM and if we want to be objective, he’s had some great moves and some awful ones. The Sauce/GW/JJ draft is a great one…the Becton one is a terrible one. He’s had some nice free agent moves and some awful ones. So he’s not been terrible, but he has also not been infallible. He did inherit a terrible roster that was very close to a no-win or one-win team. That shit takes time to fix. I do think this year will be make or break for both him and Saleh though. If we miss the playoffs with this kind of talent, I would not be shocked to see Woody clean house…this is year 6 for the GM and year 4 for the HC, right? We should get significant progress, and this roster looks legit. On the other hand, if we do make the playoffs, and especially so if we actually win a playoff game, I think both HC and GM get extended
I'm not so certain about JD, however, if Saleh can't get this crew to the playoffs, barring injuries of course, then his run as H.C. is over. Listen... Sadly, those of us who have been around a while HAVE gotten to a point where we "go off the handle." Sometimes without stopping and thinking. I'm as guilty as anyone in that respect, especially the last 5 years or so. Losing year after year can do that to you. It makes you ANGRY. Damn right many of us are jaded. The NFL has done a FANTASTIC job of marketing over the last half century or so. There are families out there where their entire environment is all about an NFL team. Everything they do revolves around the annual NFL schedule. We all know someone like that. Then there are the folks who take the time to chat up on message boards, like the good ole' TGG here. The avid Fantasy Football crew. We are just past the "casual fan" stage and invest a bit more time talking about the team and following the general going's on. Anything you invest time in you wan to see do well. I dunno... There I go off on a tangent. However, if you do take a step back, Douglas hasn't done that bad of a job. The aforementioned nugget about the "miss rate" of QB's taken in the top 5 is noted. EVERYONE, not just Douglas misses more than they hit at that position in the top of the draft. The rest, it's been at least average to well above average. The o-line piece is hard to say because of injuries. Maybe he has gotten us the o-line we need but they've been in the trainers room. Who knows... I will admit though, as NY Jets GM's go he's def. top 3 and he's #1 the last 20 years so I guess there's that.
On your response to 79, I disagree. JD has done his job filling this roster with the most talent it's had in a long, LONG time. If the Jets don't make it to the playoffs, then it will either be due to injuries or Saleh's and the CS' failures. IMO in that scenario, JD should not go anywhere. He should be retained, and given the opportunity to hire a new HC and CS. On your response to my post, I hear you. I've been there, done that, and bought the t-shirt before. I've said before half-seriously and half-joking that the Jets have driven all of us who have been fans for over 20 years bat shit crazy. We have an excuse for being jaded and cynical, but the thing is we have choices. While our knee-jerk reaction may be to have or retain a cynical, negative perspective, as you said, if we stop and think and take a step back, and try to look at things objectively, we can see that there are reasons to be positive and hopeful, even if our hopes have been dashed time and time again, and we feel like we're Charlie Brown with Lucy holding the football. Getting kicked in the nuts gets old in a hurry, and we've been kicked in the nuts continually over the last 50 years. Still, most find a way to find something to be positive about. Thankfully, only a few spew venom, bitterness and cynicism with every single post. While I can understand why that happens, at this time of the year, it gets old. If we can't have hope and be positive now, when can we be? I feel for those who are stuck in the bitter/cynical stage, yet at the same time, I wish they'd sometimes refrain from spewing that venom in every post, in every thread, every day. But they have more than earned that right by following this team all these years, so I don't begrudge them their chance to vent.
I'm not sure we can say Becton was a mistake. I don't believe that he had an injury history in college and he blew out his knee twice. Looked good his first year, but he blew out his knee twice. Maybe if he hadn't blow out his knee he might be a much better player now. In any event, its a little bit unfair to criticize JD for the 2020 draft class given that (i) he was hired just before the 2020 draft and he was using all the scouting reports etc. prepared for his predecessor and (ii) Gase didn't appear to be interested in telling him what types of players he wanted. A big part of JDs recent success with Saleh has been that they are both on the same page as the type of players they want.
Douglas was hired in June 2019. He had an entire year to prepare for the 2020 draft. Much like his other draft picks outside of the Sauce/Wilson draft, he completely missed on this one.
Yes, but also wasn’t that the COVID year where they couldn’t meet prospects in person? Definitely some tough circumstances there
Here's objective: 20 - 47. And that's giving him a pass on his first season because he got here late. What you're looking at is subjective and around here normally starts with the word "if." I'll leave it up to each reader to decide for themselves what has been "unrealistic."
I'm with you. I'll add that he's made some excellent decisions with undrafted FA's. And he's made a few great trades. That compensates us for the draft picks that didn't go too well. I support JD.
Exactly. He's had five, going on six years now, and his record is abysmal. And that's to say nothing of his continuous blunders in the draft. He just happens to be on the bad end of the spectrum of what one would consider your typical GMs, which makes him look better than his record when he's compared against the all-time bad GMs that immediately preceded him in the job. He's not as bad as Idzik and Maccagnan, but that's about where the praise should end.
You're correct that Becton didn't have an injury history in college, but mistaken in your other statements. He injured his knee, but didn't blow it out twice. The 2nd time, his knee wasn't completely healed, and he complained to the CS that his knee was still really sore, and they told him to get our there and practice, then he re-injured it. Of course in his mind, the fact that his weight had ballooned to nearly 400 pounds had nothing to do with the fact that his knee was still sore. JD was hired on June 7, 2019, well after FA and the draft. Prior to the 2020 draft he had revised the grading system that Mac had the scouts using when assessing players. I think that Gased did tell JD the types of players he wanted, but JD didn't institute the new draft evaluation process that he has used with Saleh and the CS until the following year. As you said, when he hired Saleh, he instituted a process whereby the CS independently reviewed draft prospects, then came together and discussed and reached a consensus. He didn't have an entire year, but almost (around 10-11 months). No, actually the Covid year was the fall of 2020 and prior to the 2021 draft.
