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Jets have some big decisions coming up and better make sure they are on the same page.
Whether it’s who to pick with the third pick in the draft, or in the summer and deciding they they keep on their 53 man roster (where will be a lot of tough decisions).
As for the QB selection that could go either forge an terrific future for them if they nail the pick, or perhaps lead to new people running the team in a couple of years.
They are clearly going to pick a quarterback at three, and if they don’t get this pick right, they could be looking for new decision-makers in a couple of years.
When you blow a quarterback pick, high in the draft (we aren’t talking about second and fourth-round quarterbacks), it can lead to some people going to the unemployment line. The NFL is a QB-driven league. You blow a top-five pick on a QB, you are often looking for work. Because usually when a team picks a QB this high, they hitch their wagon to that player, and either sink or swim with that individual.
But my bigger point here isn’t about whether the QB pick turns out or not, but the importance of the decision-makers being on the same page. Mike Maccagnan and Todd Bowles have some big decisions coming up, and they better be in lock step.
I keep hearing the relationship isn’t great.
Let’s not forget, Bowles-Maccagnan was a shotgun marriage, put together by consultants Ron Wolf and Charlie Casserly. A lot of times these shotgun coach-GM marriages don’t work out, like Rex Ryan and John Idzik with the Jets, and Rex Ryan and Doug Whaley in Buffalo.
I think that Christian Hackenberg situation last year was an example of what can happen with a GM/coach aren’t always on the same page.
Hackenberg should have played a game or two at the end of last season – at the very least a half of one game. Did they really need to see what Bryce Petty could do – again? And after a couple of games of seeing the same thing as 2016, why not give Hackenberg some time?
Former NFL GM Mark Dominik recently said on SiriusXM NFL Radio that it was “embarrassing” that Hackenberg didn’t play at the end of last year.
Clearly there was a problem between Maccagnan and Bowles regarding Hackenberg.
When you have a power structure where the GM decides who makes the team, and the coach decisions who plays, the coach can always refuse to play certain players.
So with the Jets having the third pick of the draft, and likely picking a QB, this forced GM/coach combo need to be totally on the same page with who they pick, and the timetable for when he’s going to play. They can’t be a house-divided on this one.
If an organization is going to be successful, you need everyone reading from the same sheet of music.
Bowles and Maccagnan need to get truly on the same page.
Not playing pretend in front of the owner, but in earnest.
Never forget this was an arranged marriage.
April 13, 2018
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