The Jets have regressed as an entire team. 14-18 in the last 2 years. Everyone is losing their jobs except for the freak show. So the Jets will put a new staff around Rex only to have the new GM fire him next December of January. Sounds like a plan.
How about this - The Jets have decided to keep Rex for at least the remainder of his contract. Woody wants to bring in a good personnel guy at GM and let him rebuild the roster. He wants the GM to go find an offensive coordinator to run the offense for the Jets, an OC who will match the talent he is planning to acquire. Rex is not necessarily wild about the arrangement but Woody has had a chat with him and expects him to be a good soldier for the Jets organization to match the support the Jets have given Rex in times not too long ago. Rex already has assurances that barring a complete collapse next season he will be retained for the 2014 season, albeit with less authority than he had before because the offense has been horrible under him and the special teams have been iffy the last two years also. The incoming GM also understands that Rex is on a long leash, not a short one. It's just a theory of course, based largely on Rex (un?) intentionally showing off the tattoo down in the Bahamas just to see if Woody was at his breaking point yet and just playing good owner for the moment. It would be the first step towards Woody taking the Jets away from a chained sequence of command and towards an org chart where the GM and Coach both reported to him and were separately responsible for their areas of command. That's the thing that has worked for the Steelers for generations. It would work for the Cowboys too if Jerry Jones would just hire a GM.
So the clock on the next GM doesn't begin until he hires his own coach. Retained for the 2014 season? His contract expires after the 2014 season. Rex as a lame duck coach? The players don't respect lame duck coaches. The media will have a field day with Rex as a lame duck.
Intersting theory ... and Rex wouldn't be a lame duck anything if they win in 2013 .. or at least show signs of life.
In my entirely fictional scenario the GM would never hire the coach and would never be responsible for any failures that the coaching might create. Woody would hire and fire the coaches. The role that the owner plays in the Steeler model is as an evaluator of the performance of the people who report directly to him. In Woody's case this would include both the GM and the HC (and of course other people in the organization.) It's important to know why a team is failing when that occurs. Is it a lack of talent on the roster? That's mostly on the GM. Is it a failure to bring out the talent on the roster? That's mostly on the HC. Bad coaching is of course a failure to bring out the talent on the roster. So in the model the side of management that is weakest is the one that becomes accountable in the event of failure. No coach can hide behind a GM or vice-versa. In theory the football organization always stays strong because two legs of the triad are always stable while the third one is being replaced. There are no sweeping clearouts that take the whole structure down because accountability is faster when you have clearer lines of communication and a better view of the point of failure. To answer your question, the GM is on the clock the moment he gets hired because his job is to improve the overall level of talent on the team starting the moment he is hired. The coach has nothing to do with the GM's tenure as long as the owner is correctly evaluating the jobs both people are doing. I doubt Rex will be a lame duck, unless he reports to the new GM and it is clear the new GM is likely to replace him at the end of the year. That's the model the Jets probably should avoid if they also want to avoid 2-14 next season.
Do you trust Woody to evaluate whether the issue is the talent or the coaching? It seems very obvious is this case ... but maybe it's not always so easy.
Point to any other unit of the team that has regressed as badly as the QB position. On top of that, point to another position we invested in so much and turned turned up basically 0 returns this season? GM will fire Rex if Rex needs to be fired. Most likely, Rex is keeping this team from going 2-14 and 3-13 which is an automatic reset and going all in on QB next draft. So that means, it depends how Rex does with a below average QB and not a bottom tier QB next season. We can improve our OL and grab a playmaker offensively or defensively. If the new GM wants Rex gone, that's pushing the reset button now with no QBs available, so basically where we were in 2009. Then, knowing this upper management, we will probably want a face of the franchise and spend a high pick on a QB in a weak QB draft
Somebody has to evaluate the level of talent and the quality of coaching. Its not always easy, but its part of the job of being an NFL Owner/Executive. Woody can chose to work w/an advisor or consultant, but ultimately he is the person that is doing the hiring and firing, so hopefully he exercises sound judgment in deciding what to do and when to do it. It would be interesting to see Woody adopt the Steelers org chart. He already has the GM reporting to him directly. Maybe it would work better to have a direct report w/Rexy. The fancy org chart won't matter much if the offense still sucks however.
Well it certainly is nice to see that your concussion has finally subsided. I'm surprised you finally came to your senses and acknowledge some major flaws within the Jets organization. Welcome aboard, AbdulSalam. :up:
Chad Pennington now gets to step into the role he was destined to have since stopped playing. QB coach of the NY Jets.
Id love for that to happen. Its a good spot for Chad to start his coaching career, he would be great Qb coach to.
I think I'm alone in this but I rather Sparano is kept and Chad Pennington is brought in as the QB coach. We have to keep Sanchez at least one more year because of that contract. Why bring another OC? That would 3 OCs in so many years. Having to learn a new offense in the offseason only takes time away from the items Sanchez could be working on if he has any shot at salvaging his Jets career.
