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It's Official - Maccagnan is the NY Jets GM


JetsFanatic

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Cimini:

 

A few thoughts on the New York Jets' hiring of Mike Maccagnan, formerly the Houston Texans' director of college scouting, as their general manager: 

1. Charley in charge: Do you trust Charley Casserly? That's what this is really all about. As soon as Casserly was hired by Jets owner Woody Johnson as a consultant, along with Ron Wolf, the speculation in league circles turned to Maccagnan. He got his first job in the NFL from Casserly, scouting for theWashington Redskins, and they forged a 20-year association that included a six-year run with the Texans. If you're a Jets fan, you'd better hope Bill Belichick's stinging words from five years ago ("Who's been more wrong than Charley Casserly?") don't prove accurate. 

2. A football man: Well, at least they didn't hire a bean counter/paper pusher, a la John Idzik. Maccagnan is all football. He worked the past few years as a front office executive, coordinating the Texans' college scouting, but he also spent a lot of time on the road in a scouting capacity. This is what the Jets need -- a GM whose roots are in player evaluation. Have you seen their roster? It'll take a sharp personnel guy to fix their many problems. The last time they had a GM with a football background was Terry Bradway (2001-05). The Jets tried to sell Idzik as a "football man," but he was in over his head. One of the concerns with Maccagnan is that he has no experience with salary-cap management and contract negotiation. 

3. Can he handle the big chair? Maccagnan wasn't on anybody's GM hot list. Eleven teams have replaced their GM over the past three offseasons, and the only team that interviewed Maccagnan was the Jets. One longtime personnel executive said of Maccagnan last week, "He'd last five minutes. They'll be flying 'Bring Back Idzik' signs." The criticism could stem from his quiet demeanor. He's not a self-promoter and he doesn't command a room. He's a grinder, a guy who enjoys the scouting. But there's more to the job than that. He must galvanize an organization that was split by a front office/coaching disconnect. It'll take an aggressive and innovative approach to repair a team that has gone four straight years without a winning record.

4. And the head coach is ... : Turns out the Jets are doing it the old-school way, hiring the GM before the coach, but the lines are blurry. This won't be a Maccagnan call, it'll be an arranged marriage, with Johnson, Casserly and Wolf serving as the matchmakers. Maccagnan will have input, but has no background with the favorites for the job, Dan Quinn and Todd Bowles, defensive coordinators for the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals, respectively. On the surface, this seems like a repeat of 2013, when Idzik and Rex Ryan were forced together. There, too, are questions about the power structure. The setup likely will have Maccagnan and the coach reporting directly to Johnson, not the traditional GM-over-coach arrangement. It can work if you have the right people. 

5. Spotty drafts: There's no way of knowing Maccagnan's precise input into the Houston drafts, but a good way to gauge the performance of a scouting department is to look at the middle and late rounds. In three drafts with him in charge of college scouting, the Texans haven't found any impact players after the second round. In fact, the past five drafts have produced only one Pro Bowl player -- the great J.J. Watt. He was drafted in 2011, the year before Macccagnan became the scouting director. 

6. Houston, we've got a problem: Maccagnan inherits an unstable quarterback situation, one that might require a major investment -- a high draft pick on Jameis Winston or Marcus Mariota. This is foreign territory for Maccagnan, who comes from a franchise that hasn't used a high pick on a quarterback since David Carr (No. 1 overall in 2002). Carr was a disappointment, so the Texans traded for Matt Schaub, who gave them seven years. The top item on Maccagnan's agenda is evaluating Geno Smith and deciding whether they should pull the trigger on Mariota, if he declares, or the polarizing Winston -- if one lasts to the sixth pick.

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I think the Jets should get Bowles for HC, don't let him leave tomorrow! 

 

I think Dan Quinn would be a good choice as well, but something about him has come across badly I think. It was reported that he wanted to be paired with a specific gm, and I just don't get where he comes off making demands like this. He has only been a DC for 2 seasons and I don't normally see these new candidates making demands about who is above them in the front office. This might pose a problem in the future if he and our new GM don't get along. 

 

I think Bowles is the safer choice right now. 

 

If Bowles is hired, it might be worth it to bring Cro back on a 1 year deal to have someone who can play CB AND someone who can have Bowles' back in the transition from Rex to Todd. I've been concerned by the possibility that the new coach might be so different from Rex that he might risk alienating and losing some players in the lockerroom. I know a lot of the players respected Cro and if Cro helps in the transition i think it might be worth re-signing him for cheap. 

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I wish we had 12 picks this year instead of last.

We may have near that ( or at least a few extra) with all the FA we will be allowing to fly the coop. We will bring some in from the outside of course, but we have 16 UFA I think it is. I doubt we bring in as many as we will lose.

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I am curious. I didn't know anything about the guy until threads started popping up about him. The vibe on the forum seems to be an overall good one. My question is why? I'm not knocking the choice, I am genuinely interested in knowing why people are liking this decision. According to everything that I've seen written so far it seems like he is super green and has no experience in managing the cap which is kind of important. His bread and butter is evaluating talent. I get that he wasn't the guy pulling the trigger on draft night, but his input has yielded some spotty results. Watt, which is obviously huge, but other than that.. not much.

 

Would love to hear your opinions on why he was a good choice. Please don't tell me its cause "Woody sucks and picks high profile, big mouths so picking a nobody makes me happy." Thanks.

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We may have near that ( or at least a few extra) with all the FA we will be allowing to fly the coop. We will bring some in from the outside of course, but we have 16 UFA I think it is. I doubt we bring in as many as we will lose.

 

Comp picks are based on the *previous* year, so what happens in 2015 free agency will affect the 2016 draft, not the 2015 one.

 

And I don't think we lost any big free agents in 2014, and we signed Eric Decker.

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Comp picks are based on the *previous* year, so what happens in 2015 free agency will affect the 2016 draft, not the 2015 one.

 

And I don't think we lost any big free agents in 2014, and we signed Eric Decker.

Ahhh yes. Well then I meant next year. :D

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Looking forward to Mac making something of the six picks he does have including the number 6 overall, finding us some quality vets in FA and locking up a couple of our own FA like Mo

And I'm looking forward to Bowles taking advantage of a number of young players already on the roster (Dee, Dex, Shaq, IK, Owasu, Dozier, Simms, others) that were injured or ignored so that stiffs like Pace, Vick, Nelson, Landry, Salas and the like could be run out on field every week because our HC preferred not to be bothered with development of younger players

Not all that concerned with whether or not we get an extra pick or two at the end of round six or seven

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Looking forward to Mac making something of the six picks he does have including the number 6 overall, finding us some quality vets in FA and locking up a couple of our own FA like Mo

And I'm looking forward to Bowles taking advantage of a number of young players already on the roster (Dee, Dex, Shaq, IK, Owasu, Dozier, Simms, others) that were injured or ignored so that stiffs like Pace, Vick, Nelson, Landry, Salas and the like could be run out on field every week because our HC preferred not to be bothered with development of younger players

Not all that concerned with whether or not we get an extra pick or two at the end of round six or seven

 

I think IK is going to shine next year. He might be able to take the same path as Justin Houston. Not saying he's gonna break the sack record or get 20 sacks next year, but if everything goes right and he gets a chance to play a lot or even nail down a starting job he's a threat for 10 sacks. Rex destroyed his rookie year. Hope he takes washed up chumps like Pace/Landry with him so our young guys can actually get some playing time.

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#5 is just a joke. Being the scouting director and who they pick aren't a hand in hand thing.

 

It's pretty fair to say the guy doesn't necessarily have "the resume" to run an entire organization. Doesn't mean he can't though. It's a leap of faith. We'll have to wait and see. He's considered an excellent talent evaluator. Can it all translate who knows, although I liked the hire I can see how it can be questioned by some. 

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Who is Mike Maccagnan?

Some background on the new Jets' GM.

Greg Gabriel

Though it’s been well-known throughout the NFL for days, the New York Jets officially announced the hiring of Mike Maccagnan yesterday as their new General Manager. The reason I say it’s been known for days, is Maccagnan has been at the Jets' offices in New Jersey for a number of days taking part in the interview process of perspective head coaches. If he wasn’t going to be the general manager, that wouldn’t have happened.

Just who is Mike Maccagnan? Mike is veteran scout who has been involved with professional football since 1990. He began his career in the Canadian Football League as a scout and scouting director and then worked in player personnel for the old World League, the NFL’s European minor league. In 1994, Maccagnan was hired by the Washington Redskins as a college scout and became involved in pro scouting the following year. During his NFL career, he has been heavily involved in both areas of the scouting process.

When Charley Casserly became the Houston Texans first General Manager in 2000, one of his first hires was Maccagnan. While he became a trusted aide to Casserly during Casserly’s time in Houston, his value as an evaluator was known throughout the Houston organization. When Rick Smith replaced Casserly as the Texans' general manager in 2006 he retained Maccagnan, something that doesn’t always happen in the NFL when there is a changing of the guard. Smith quickly saw Maccagnan’s value as he became Assistant Director of College Scouting, and in 2011, he was promoted to Director of College Scouting.

I first met Mike on a school call in the late 1990’s when I was with the New York Giants, and he was with Washington. You learn a lot about a scout when you are on the road with them. You see their work habits, how diligent they are, how professional they are. Trust me, scouts “scout” other scouts. They know who is good and who “goes through the motions”. Mike Maccagnan is as hard a worker as there is when he is on the road. He always was one of the first scouts in the building and the last to leave. When the “pro liaison” came in to talk about the prospects, Mike would ask important pertinent questions, not the typical scouting questions.

When you make school calls, there are typically two or three meeting rooms the school makes available for scouts to watch game tape. Generally, many of the scouts gather in one room where they watch tape but many also have a high degree of conversation. Maccagnan was not one of those guys. He would go into a room either by himself or with a few veteran scouts, where he knew he could make the best use of his time. When practice began, Mike, again, would be by himself watching practice, where he could have full concentration on the task at hand. That is one thing I always respected about him when I was with him at various schools. I saw first-hand how important it was to him to not waste his time and get the evaluation right.

When Charley Casserly was named as a consultant to help in the Jets search for a GM and Head Coach, I told a friend of mine, “Watch, Maccagnan will be the new GM”. Sure, Casserly is extremely familiar with Maccagnan because of their time working together, but Charley also has a deep respect for Mike’s talent. Charley Casserly would not put his reputation on the line by hiring Maccagnan just because they were friends. He made the choice because it was the right choice!

In football, the media is always looking for the “hot name”, but the hot name isn’t always the right guy. Many times, the best guys, are the guys that don’t have someone “promoting” them. They are men who are invaluable to their organization. In the world that is the NFL, you don’t survive 15 years at one place under different regimes unless you are talented. Mike Maccagnan is a very talented and underrated “football man” and should do an excellent job, along with new Head Coach Todd Bowles in turning the Jets franchise around.

www.nationalfootballpost.com/Who-is-Mike-Maccagnan.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

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