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This was part of the problem . . .
Maybe Adam Gase was trying to make a point.
I’m talking about Gase trading Darron Lee to Kansas City the same day Mike Maccagnan was fired, and Gase was made the interim GM.
Some thought it looked a little like taunting.
“In his first move as interim GM, Adam Gase trades Darron Lee to KC for a 2020 sixth-round pick. Talk about not wasting time. Maybe this was going to happen anyway, but it comes across as a TD spike,” tweeted Rich Cimini, the longest tenured Jets beat writer.
I agree with Rich.
It was almost like Gase was dancing on Maccagnan’s grave.
But to me, this move did make a powerful statement about a problem that existed the last few years in the Jets’ organization.
What I’m talking about was Maccagnan constantly kicking the can down the road on personnel decisions.
Look, sometimes it’s good to wait, and play poker. Maccagnan did a terrific job with the Sheldon Richardson trade, waiting and waiting until he got what he was looking for, landing a starting player (WR Jermaine Kearse) and a second-round pick from Seattle.
That made sense. You don’t want to give away a player like Richardson.
But too often he dragged his feet on moves that should have been made sooner.
The Jets signed C.J. Mosley as a free agent on March 15. He was signed to replace Darron Lee as the starting ILB next to Avery Williamson. The Jets signed Neville Hewitt to be the top backup at ILB. They have Anthony Wint who was on their practice squad most of last year. And then picked ILB Blake Cashman in the draft.
It was time to move on from Lee. He needs a change of scenery. It’s not good for the locker room to have a guy, who is clearly a goner, twisting in the wind, participating in the off-season program.
Why was he still in Florham Park in mid-May?
It was reported that Maccagnan was holding out for a fifth-round pick.
Gase got a sixth-round pick on Wednesday night.
I have to honest, I think a sixth-round pick is pretty good. The way Lee struggled against the run with major issues getting off blocks, landing a sixth-round pick isn’t bad at all. Everyone sees the same film.
This was a statement trade by Gase. He was essentially saying with his actions: “For goodness sake, let’s move on already.”
For Buster Skrine to last four years with the Jets, his entire contract term, and never having to take a pay cut, was beyond comprehension. This player, who is a terrific guy, struggled in coverage for his entire time with the team. It wasn’t a lack of effort, but his diagnostic skills were suspect, and he was often a tick late reacting to patterns, so he often had to play catch-up with receivers, leading to big plays or penalties. I have to be honest, I never thought he’d make it to last season. I thought he would have been cut either in the 2017 or 2018 off-season.
Maccagnan let Skrine stay for his entire contract and this led to a lot of big plays relinquished. I never understood this. You didn’t read this in many places due to Skrine and his agent being very cooperative with the press.
The 2017 trade of a fifth-round pick for San Francisco CB Rashard Robinson was a disaster. After he was arrested in late 2017, he should have been released. Cut your losses. Send a message to the other players. But he was in Florham Park until last week. And it wasn’t just the arrest, but he wasn’t effective; another CB with unsophisticated eyes in coverage.
Bill Belichick is big on admitting personnel mistakes and moving on quickly.
Maccagnan wasn’t.
And that is one of the reasons he’s the former GM.
Mike’s a great guy, but as a GM you need to be decisive and know when to cut bait.
You can’t act like a problem gambler and keep chasing bad moves.
May 16, 2019
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