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It can be crazy around here, and you don’t need to add fuel to the fire. And these two don’t do it, and that is good for the Jets . . .
I’m talking about Todd Bowles and Mike Maccagnan.
It remains to be seen if these two are going to turn around the Jets football operation and lead them to a championship.
It’s too early to put them in Canton from a football standpoint.
I’m talking about their focus and single-mindedness of purpose.
They don’t worry about white noise and public opinion polls. They are all football, all the time.
In my lede, I wrote about how crazy it is around here. I’m talking about the Jets and the media. The media circus can be wild.
These guys don’t add fuel to the fire.
They really don’t.
Some past coaches and GM’s did that, these two never do.
They don’t give the press fodder to go crazy over.
And this is very, very helpful to the Jets’ football operation. They don’t create distractions.
As Bill Belichick often says, “Do your job!”
These guys just do their jobs.
They don’t tilt at windmills.
I was talking to a Jets executive and he was raving to me about how even-keeled Mike Maccagnan is. He’s a rock. The same guy every day – not too high, not too low, and focused on heck on building a winner.
Bowles is the same way.
They don’t worry about the media. They don’t worry about the press clippings.
They are very cordial and professional with the press, but when they leave a press conference, they leave a press conference, and it’s back to work. It’s not on their radar anymore.
Are their press conferences boring? Absolutely.
But who cares? I have always found the expression, “win the press conference” to be a foolish saying.
These two guys are rocks of Gibraltar.
Like I said, I’m not sure how this is going to turn out, but I think Woody got these hires right.
They both paid their dues, and both learned from some terrific football minds.
Maccagnan got off to a shaky start as GM, dolling out contracts to defensive backs that were way over the top, but perhaps that edict came from above.
But since stumbling out of the starting gate, he’s settled down, and done a lot of good things.
And let’s not forget, while those DB contracts weren’t his best work, he more than made up for it by making two terrific trades, for Brandon Marshall and Ryan Fitzpatrick. And he gave up so little to make these deals. If the Jets didn’t make these trades, it’s highly unlikely they go 10-6 last year.
If the Ryan Clady trade turns out as good as the Marshall and Fitzpatrick deals, Maccagnan is going to look like a rock star GM. Clady, when healthy, is a big-time left tackle. It will be really interesting to see how this works out. And if he does get banged up, the Jets have a terrific backup left tackle in Ben Ijalana, who looked very good in the spring.
My point is simple. These guys focus on what matters. Not on bullfeathers.
June 29, 2016
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