Joey Clinkscales spent seventeen seasons with the Jets organization before departing in May to take a front office job with the Raiders as their personnel director. Published reports have rumors that Clinkscales could be in the running for the general manager job with the Jets should Mike Tannenbaum lose that title.
Clinkscales' last job with the Jets was Vice President of College Scouting. That places him front and center among the culprits of "The Three Drafts That Sunk the Jets." Outside of that, he shares in the mixed record the Jets have had over the past decade plus in the front office.
Make no mistake. Hiring Clinkscales as general manager would be an absolutely terrible decision. He would likely stick with the people he knows, the people currently in the front office. Terry Bradway and the scouting department would probably stay. Mike Tannenbaum would likely remain in a salary cap role. It would be the same faces. There might be some new titles and new roles, but it would be rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
The Jets have largely been run by the same people since Bill Parcells left the organization in 2001. Roles have changed periodically, but the people have not. The current crew has never built anything to last. There have been successes. There have been many times where it felt like the Jets were close to building something special in 2011, on the cusp of entering the elite franchises. Every single time, they have dropped back. The players have changed. The coaches have changed. The management is largely the same. It has been a period where the team has rarely been awful, sometimes has been good, and never has been great.
It is time for a fresh perspective. It is time to try things another way. The current group in the front office needs to go. They have had plenty of time to get the job done. If they haven't by now, they probably never will. There is a dangerous level of group think within the Jets front office right now. Everybody seems to nods their heads and tells each other things are great. Problems don't exist. That's what the actions of the Jets suggest. It is going to take a new set of eyes to clean house and fix what is wrong.
In many ways, hiring Clinkscales would be worse than keeping Mike Tannenbaum around. If Tannenbaum stays, everybody would at least be on notice and know that they need to straighten up. Clinkscales would get a few years to turn things around, guaranteeing everybody is safe. It's not like Clinkscales has a great resume either. There have been a few teams that have shown interest in him through the years, but he's never really been a hot candidate to run a team.
What do you think?