Point/Counterpoint: Reasons to Believe the Jets Are Doomed

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Why Mike Maccagnan is still the NY Jets GM is a tale of sovereign aristocracy and the spoils of ancestral wealth. Just as the kings of France grew more decadent until the end of the 18th century, the brothers Johnson seem dispassionate to the misery of their loyal fans.

After a three year triumphant run of 14 wins with 34 loses a (29.2 winning %), this has emboldened the brothers Johnson into trusting the Hamlet known as the NY Jets to GM Maccagnan for the near future. Since the GM is batting nearly 300 which is quite good for the national pastime it should be even better in the National Football League. If the masses disprove of our directorate, let them eat a $6 hotdog.

Woody has always had his philanthropy to peak his interests and he has done some special things to enrich the lives of people with autoimmune diseases. What he has neglected to do is provide a winning formula for the success of the New York Jets.

You would think when Woody bought the team he would have been guns ablazing to have a winner right away. He had to win a bidding war with Charles Dolan to buy the Jets. He paid $635 million for the Jets which was about $100 million more than they were reportedly worth at the time. He had Bill Parcells here when he bought the team but Bill skipped town quickly.

All of Woody’s dealings and businesses had nothing to do with sports. He has shown a vague knowledge of football at best. When Woody introduced John Idzik as our new General manager he stated, “I introduced John to everybody here. I didn’t realize how big the organization is, when you see them altogether.” On why he choose John Idzik as GM Woody stated, “John stood head and shoulders above the rest.” This would be comical (I’m sure it was to the rest of the NFL owners.) but to us as Jets fans it is a punch to the stomach.

When Woody was allowed to buy the Jets back in January of 2000 there were probably three reasons he was allowed to do so.

1) He had no legal problems so his pedigree looked good to most owners. 2) His money was green and clean 3) He is a veritable dolt when it comes to sports. I’m sure Jerry Jones (played football at Arkansas) and Jerry Richardson (played for the Baltimore Colts) were thrilled to have someone like this join the fraternity. I mean who do you want to play poker against you for lots of money, a pro or a guy who has never played the game?

Woody, as we all know, is on to his new position as the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom. That is seven time zones away from the New York Jets. His activities as ambassador leave him little time to properly involve himself in to business of the New York Jets. His brother Chris is now running day to day operations, which is really no job at all. The Jets have a team president and many underlings who take care of everything. An owner does near nothing for an NFL franchise. That is unless you are a Jerry Jones who doubles as GM, but that is not the case with the New York Jets. Chris Johnson is Woody’s younger brother, much younger brother: like 12 years younger. I am sure Chris Johnson has very little authority to make significant changes to the New York Jets infrastructure or hierarchy. He probably isn’t allowed to make the coffee.

With Woody Johnson in Great Britain and his little brother running the show it was nearly impossible to change general managers of the New York Jets.

Who was going to make the change?

You think Neil Glat the president of the New York Jets wanted that job? Do you think Woody would want to give the authority of such a change to an underling like Neil Glat? Plus no one in their right mind in the position of Neil Glat would want any part of a GM search. GM’s rarely stay for a long time in teams like the New York Jets. We are not Pittsburgh Steelers or the Green Bay Packers. To be saddled with the responsibility and be on the hook for a possible bad hire is not on the agenda of any New York Jet executives. Add to that the pressure of the populous to want a young innovative thinker to bring the Jets out of the Dark Ages is too much to ask of a non-owner. If asked, Woody might sign off on Bozo the Clown if his people told him to, but when things went south the @#^%$ would have hit the proverbial Jets fan.

Remember, Woody was the front runner in the search for the replacement of Mike Tannenbaum which ended with Woody looking stupid for hiring a guy unprepared to be an NFL GM in John Idzik. He used a panel of old NFL executives to find John Idzik’s replacement which led to Mike Maccaganan. Who is he going to use now to find a replacement for Maccagnan with in England?

Also remember that to Woody and his brother, Mike Maccagnan looks really good. He speaks softly and slowly like he knows what he is talking about. Plus he knows all the players’ names. What more do you want?

Woody has no knowledge of football and has no idea how badly Maccagnan has performed in the Draft. To be honest many people here at GGN didn’t realize how bad a selection Christian Hackenberg was in the second round, but there are people here at GGN who knew better and would have done a better job as GM selecting players than Mike Maccagnan has accomplished in his drafts.

Once Woody Johnson took the position as ambassador to the United Kingdom it was obvious that no changes to the New York Jets would not be made unless Mike Macagnan made the changes. Todd Bowles was a sacrificial lamb. Even though he was a deserving sacrificial lamb, Mike Macagnan should have been right behind Bowles out the door. Instead he was the guy making the call.

Chris Johnson said in his press conference, “Mike and I have worked well together and well in sync and we have developed what I think is an excellent plan and that plan sort of really come together with Sam and that plan will include building around around Sam and our excellent young players and that plan now includes an excellent new coach.”

To be honest I’m not sure that Chris Johnson has had to do much heavy lifting in his life. If Mike Maccagnan had told him we were using crystal balls to select our players I think he would have believed it. As for working close together...come on. Really? Even as bad as Mike Maccagnan has done, there is nothing he could learn, pick up, cull, glean, extrapolate or deduce from anything Chris Johnson could do or say.

Jimmy Haslam (owner of the Cleveland Browns) once listened to a homeless man who told him to select Johnny Football (Johnny Manziel) in the first round. Haslam took this as an omen and directed his GM to select Johnny Football, which he did with the 22nd pick of the 2014 Draft. That turned out as a complete embarrassment and a disaster for the Browns. I would still take advice from that homeless man rather than Chris Johnson.

Until I wrote this article and watched all the videos, I had no idea that the entire Jets organization is being run by Mike Maccagnan. The level of incompetence at the higher levels of the Jets brain trust is staggering. I don’t really know if anyone in the Jets hierarchy really cares if the Jets win or lose Basically the people in the higher positions of the New York Jets are just trying to keep their cushy jobs. Don’t rock the boat, even if it means the boat is about to hit an iceberg.

Even moderate interest in the team by the Brothers Johnson would have resulted much better results.

There is little hope for this team, with an owner who is absent, a GM who is clueless and a fan base who is so needy for a winner they believe anything. Chris Johnson is so incompetent I wouldn’t let him make me a snow cone, let alone run a NFL franchise. He has no authority to do anything. He is a place holder; someone who sits in for the entity in charge but has no authority or power.

With this power vacuum, Mike Maccagnan now has autonomy over the entire organization because the owners are clueless. He is the captain of our ship, and he will run it into the ground because he is as incompetent as our owners. This Draft has some decent offensive line prospects, and we need every one of them we can get. Maccagnan has drafted a total of two offensive line prospects in his entire tenure as GM and none before the 5th round. This while he was planning on drafting Sam Darnold and playing him as a rookie. The most help you can give to a rookie QB is an offensive line and a running game.

Mike Maccagnan now has a probable four more years to be the master and commander of the New York Jets. A new coach takes time to acclimate his players to his offensive and defensive schemes ,which is a couple of years right there. Mike Maccagnan has that and a couple more years to blame any shortcomings on various people who are not pulling their weight. He will show that Mike Maccagnan is doing his job but others are the cause of the teams dysfunctional failures.

Mike Maccagnan now has brought in Adam Gase to run the team, the only coach who would bends his knee to Emperor Mike and give up the right to using his own coaches, a plan that has disaster written all over it.

I planned to write an article that had hope and possible good fortune for the Jets and their fans, but the more research I did the more debased I became. I now feel like the sword of Damocles hangs over the head of this entire organization. I always felt that Jerry Jones was a meddlesome owner and did more harm than good to the Cowboys, although his son Stephen Jones has really helped him in recent years. But I would take ten Jerry Jones over the likes of Woody and his entourage for now and the future.

The New York Jets in my opinion are an old toy that was bought years ago by a person with no interest in the sport or the team. It is a valuable relic that sits in a box somewhere in the attic and will probably be willed to some other family member who has less interest in the team than Woody.

The only hope I could find was a guy named Gary Vaynerchuk who owns the winelibrary.com and is a life long, die hard Jets fan and would love to buy the Jets.

The problem is he is rich, but not rich enough. He has a lot of money-making ventures including books, speaking engagements a media company, and a few more, but his net worth is still under $200 million so he has a way to go to dig up enough money and investors to make his dream come true.

By the way, I like the jersey. I just wonder whether that number 25 is for Kerry Rhodes, Elijah McGuire or Calvin Pryor?

It would be mind-blowing if the team were owned by a person who’s only desire was to see the Jets win a Super Bowl. I know passion doesn’t always equate to success, but it is hard to be inspired by individuals who don’t even care to live in the same country as the team they own.

This is not to say that the Jets can’t be successful with the structure that is set up right now. In fact I believe this is the perfect set up for the right person *let me emphasize the right person* to bring the New York Jets glory. I am talking about a person who knows talent, has a vision of the ideal union of players and coaches, and comes with the knowledge on how to build a team with the proper contingent of players. This is a person who knows how to bring in the right free agents at the right time and not try and build a team with other GM’s castoffs. This is somebody who brings players with the right frame of mind setting atotal team-first agenda throughout the organization. This would create an organization that works together and is not fractionalized by personal interests or apathy.

That right person would have an owner who is far away and clueless to the workings of the NFL would but agree to most anything that right person said if the team showed even modest success. That right person wouldn’t have a meddling billionaire looking over his shoulder, plus the owner would be a continent away so he would not hear the drumbeat of the press if a daring move is made. This would create total autonomy to mold a team that already has a young stud QB to build around, a high draft pick and $100 million to spend the right way.

Woody may be an imbecile when it comes to football. but he still wants to look like one of the big boys when he is hanging around the other NFL owners. Woody would pay most any price to walk around with a Super Bowl ring shining on his finger as he sips his Macallan 64 year old scotch.

I know many of us would love to sit in the chair that Mike Maccagnan has and have full autonomy over the entire organization. I have confidence that the right person could and would bring the Jets to the precipice of greatness if given the opportunity. It is just my belief that Mike Maccagnan has shown zero competence to be that person and now with this recent power grab, even less so.

It has been written that in order to change, you may need to hit rock bottom before you begin your ascent back up. In this case it feels like we drilled below rock bottom, and all our hopes rest on the shoulders of a 21 year old kid and an organization that has little skill to help him.

Maybe I’m wrong, I truly hope so.