One Scout's Take On New York Jets GM Mike Maccagnan

The more I read about New York Jets GM Mike Maccagnan, the more I like the hire. I was already on board with his hiring before the announcement was made, but now I like it even more. I was sent this article by Greg Gabriel, which details his experience working with Mike when they were both scouts, and it really does make interesting reading.

Here is a snippet of the article, but I encourage you all to head over and read it in full:

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 you combine all this with the rumour that he is set to clear house in the scouting department, I'm not sure he could have made a better first impression with the fanbase.