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At the Jets recent minicamp, I saw a guy roaming the sidelines with an eagle eye on practice. At first, I didn’t recognize him.
It was long-time NFL scout T.J. McCreight, and checking the Jets directory, he is listed as a senior scout.
What a great idea.
This guy has been around the NFL since 1997, when he was hired as a scout by the Baltimore Ravens. He worked in Baltimore for eight years, and also had stops in Indianapolis, Arizona and Philadelphia over a long scouting career.
He wasn’t with a team the last couple of years, and was working as a consultant and writer for the 33rd Team website.
In a league that is trending younger with GM and HC hires, sometimes it is lost on people that some of these older guys, who have been around the game for a long time, have a lot of brain power to offer.
And to Darren Mougey’s credit, as a first-time GM, at the age of 40, he knows he doesn’t have all the answers.
So adding guys like McCreight, and former GM Rick Spielman as personnel sidekicks and sounding boards, is good for business.
Spielman was hired as senior football advisor in February, after assisting the Jets in their GM and HC searches.
These two guys have scouted so many players over the years, they’ve probably lost count of how many.
While these younger GMs and coaches can perhaps relate to modern athletes better, they don’t have the football database in their minds like older candidates.
Bill Walsh once said, “I was a much better coach at 52 than 32.”
As a football writer, I know so much more than I did 20 years ago.
What I’m espousing here isn’t rocket science – the longer you have worked at something, the more you know.
This isn’t to say younger coaches and GMs can’t be successful. Of course, they can. Look at Sean McVay with the Los Angeles Rams, who was hired at 31.
But think about it this way: who knows more about evaluating talent for the NFL – Spielman, McCreight, or 34-year-old James Gladstone, the new GM of the Jacksonville Jaguars?
I know that Spielman and McCreight aren’t GMs right now, but that isn’t the point. Just talking about player personnel evaluation skill, and the more time on task, usually the better you are at it.
The Jets interviewed former Atlanta Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff for their GM opening this offseason. Obviously, he didn’t get the job, but why would a guy like this, who built a Super Bowl participating team and spent a lot of years in New England, not get a second bite at the apple as a GM?
I have heard him many times on his show for SiriusXM NFL Radio (Sumer Sports), and his scouting knowledge is off-the-charts.
It’s great that the Jets hired a 52-year-old coach with a fountain of football knowledge as a player, scout and coach. Aaron Glenn’s 30 years in the NFL in different capacities will be a boon to the Jets’ football operation.
Mougey looks like a solid GM hire.
And now it’s even better hire because he was smart enough to surround himself with guys like Spielman and McCreight, who have forgotten more about NFL scouting than most of us will ever know.
July 1, 2025
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