Maccagnan was fired Wednesday after being given a two-year contract extension in '17GETTY IMAGES
As the NFL Jets search for a new GM after firing Mike Maccagnan on Wednesday, reaction to the team's move and speculation about the future continue to make news. Eagles VP/Player Personnel Joe Douglas is reportedly a top candidate, but in Philadelphia, Mike Sielski writes Douglas "shouldn’t take the job, because the big reason not to take it overrides everything else: These are the Jets." The team is a "permanent abject disaster" under the "ownership of the Johnson family" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 5/17). In N.Y., Manish Mehta writes any prospective Jets GM candidate "should be fully aware of the perils of this particular job." The organization is the "portrait of instability." Jets Chair & CEO Christopher Johnson, who has been on the job for two years, has "already whacked the head coach and general manager that he gave contract extensions to" in December '17. There is "no telling" what his brother, Jets Owner Woody Johnson "will do, either, when he returns" from his time serving as U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. to take over as early as '20 (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 5/17).
MAN OF THE HOUR: In N.Y., Brian Costello writes Jets coach Adam Gase "should be allowed to have a major hand in selecting" the GM, even though it "makes no sense based on his résumé to give him this much power." However, the Jets "have to fix the relationship between GM and head coach." They "must select someone who has a history with Gase, who views football the same way Gase does and will do more than just coexist with the head coach, but will be a true partner" (N.Y. POST, 5/17). NBC's Mike Florio said it is "important for the Jets at this point let Gase essentially hire the GM so you have two people working together." That means Gase "emerges as the guy who’s running the show" ("PFT," NBCSN, 5/17). In New Jersey, Matt Stypulkoski writes conducting a GM search in May, after the Draft and free agency, "doesn’t mean" the Jets "can’t still find a good fit or land a great hire." However, there is "little question" that Christopher Johnson "hurt his chances of finding the most-talented candidate available by handling this the way he did" (NJ.com, 5/17).
FACING THE MUSIC: SNY’s Jon Hein said Johnson “deserves some credit for speaking to the media on Wednesday" after firing Maccagnan. SNY’s Sal Licata said, "It is so rare that you see guys standing up taking accountability” and answering questions from the media “after what was just an onslaught” after the firing. Hein said Johnson gets credit for “stepping up, for actually fielding the questions, for giving his spin." Hein: "There are other owners who would absolutely not have shown up or sent somebody else out there and fed them to the lions” ("Loud Mouths," SNY, 5/16). But ESPN's Mike Greenberg said, "I don't know what he's been so busy doing that he had to figure this out now. It doesn't make any sense. The Jets just reclaimed the mantel of being the team in New York that had some idea what they were doing” (“Get Up,” ESPN, 5/16).
ALREADY SEALED? SI.com's Jonathan Jones wrote with Douglas "widely considered to be the frontrunner," minority candidates interviewing with the Jets "should be especially cautious regarding a job that could very well already be filled, and a process in which they would be used solely to check a box." Jones: "I propose that no minority candidate accept an interview opportunity that the Jets extend." Such refusals "would shine a light on how teams have long made a mockery of the Rooney Rule and would push the NFL to actually enforce it" (SI.com, 5/16).
