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New Jersey – I want to share something I heard today about Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.
As you all know, he’s a serious candidate for the Jets’ head coaching job.
From what I hear, the Seahawks might give him a big raise to stay. That is how much they value him. And let’s not forget, Seahawks owner Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, is worth $17 billion.
And there is no salary cap on coaches.
So Allen could blow him away to stay.
Kind of like Baltimore owner Steve Biscotti gave Ravens assistant GM Eric DeCosta a huge raise to stay in town, and not pursue a GM job elsewhere.
And I hear that Quinn really likes living in the Seattle area.
But, the idea of coming home to Morristown, is enticing to him.
I hear from somebody in town he was in Morristown for a few days around Christmas. Quinn’s big family is still all around this great North Jersey town, minutes from Florham Park.
The idea of not only getting an NFL head coaching job, something he’s been working towards for a long-time, but to be able to do it with a team that works out of his childhood neighborhood, is pretty cool.
As many of you know by now, Mike Maccagnan is the first GM candidate to get a second interview. That will take place tomorrow. He is a long-time Houston Texans executive.
He has to be considered the leading candidate for the job.
Not only he’s a very good candidate, an excellent talent evaluator, but he has a long history with Jets consultant Charlie Casserly. Maccagnan worked under Charlie
in both Washington and Houston.
In a second interview, surely he’s going to be pressed more on who he would want as his coach.
He has no history with Quinn, but he does have a past with Doug Marrone and Gary Kubiak.
He signed Marrone to play offensive guard for the London Monarchs of the World League of American Football.
He was with Kubiak from 2006-2013, Kubiak’s entire time as the head coach of the Houston Texans.
A Maccagan-Kubiak combo would make a lot of sense.
The Jets have put in a request to interview Kubiak, but Gary won’t do interviews until the Baltimore Ravens are eliminated.
You have to respect that.
Here is something else to consider.
Maccagnan was with the Texans since their inception as an expansion team in 2000. Their first coach was Dom Capers, followed by Kubiak and then Bill O’Brien.
They have run the 3-4 defense from the get-go.
The Jets have run that system under Eric Mangini and Rex Ryan.
The Jets have been signing and drafting players for this system from 2006 until now.
And the Jets defense, most of these seasons, has been pretty good.
So considering the Jets are built to play the 3-4, and Maccagnan has been drafting players for that front for 15 years, you would have to think he’d want a 3-4 coach.
Quinn and Seattle don’t play that. Obviously they have a great defense, but it could set the Jets back a couple of years if they switch to that Seahawks system, which features smaller, quicker Front Seven players, and bigger cornerbacks.
One of the problems with the Bears this year is that a lot of the players didn’t fit Mel Tucker’s system.
I could be wrong, but my feeling is that Maccagnan would want a 3-4-minded head coach.
I could be wrong, but that is my gut.
Remember Marrone had Mike Pettine running Rex’s defense in 2013, and we know about Houston. Also, another Jets coaching candidate, Todd Bowles, is a 3-4 guy.
January 8, 2015
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