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New Jersey – It’s time for a helping of Dan’s Website Whispers as the team heads down the homestretch of their search for a new GM . . .
John Idzik’s son, Brad Idnik, is a wide receiver at Wake Forest. He transferred there from Lehigh.
While Wake Forest is a higher level of football, the kid might be kicking himself now.
Why?
Lehigh is a one-hour drive to Jets camp.
So if his father gets the Jets’ GM, at his old school, he would have been about 50 miles away . . .
If Idzik does indeed land the job, don’t expect a lot of changes to the Jets’ personnel department, scouting department immediately.
So often when a new GM is hired, he waits until after the draft too make changes – there are several reasons for this.
First off, the organization is very far along in the evaluation process. They are almost 3/4 of the way done with their compilation of info on the prospects.
Why would you spend all the money on sending scouts all over the country to compile info, and then bounce them three months before the draft?
And the combine is just a month away. To try to change the scouting staff now would be counterproductive.
Also, working with them for the next few months will give you good insight on who you want to keep, and who you want to move on from.
Unfortunately, for a lot of these men who work for the Jets’ scouting department, and their families, there are going to be myriad changes.
Also, if there are people from other teams you want to hire, most won’t be available until after their draft process is done, for the same reasons I mentioned before.
So don’t expect a lot of initial change . . .
One thing Idzik (if he gets the job) will have to discern about the personnel department – who are the leakers?
This concept that the leaks are just players and former assistant coaches (Mike Francesa claims Mike Pettine was a source for Manish Mehta) is shortsighted.
My sense, reading the tea leaves, and from things I’m hearing, there were issues on the personnel side as well.
Idzik is going to have to evaluate this.
Think about it – how often were personnel decisions leaked over the last few years – before they were announced? Very often . . .
If things don’t work out with Rex and Idzik (if he gets the job), expect the name Darren Bevell to be brought up quite a bit down the road.
Bevell, the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator, surprisingly didn’t get a head coaching job this year. He did have some interviews, but didn’t land one of the openings.
Bevell is a rising-star in the coaching world. He did a fantastic job this year with rookie quarterback Russell Wilson and the Seattle offense . . .
I can’t emphasize enough how smart Idnik is. He’s one of the smartest front office executives in the league. He graduated with magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors from Dartmouth College in 1982 earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics . . .
January 17, 2012
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