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On January 31, SNY’s Connor Hughes, a rising star in sports media, posted on Twitter (X):
“Breaking: The #Jets and Rex Hogan have mutually agreed to part ways, sources tell SNY,” tweeted Hughes. “The move allows Hogan, who spent the last five seasons as the team’s assistant general manager, to explore other opportunities. Hogan is well respected around the league. He will be a sought after front office free agent.”
Hughes is obviously extremely high on Hogan’s skillset, and feels he will be “sought after,” but as of April 15, he hadn’t landed anywhere, unless he was added by a team and they didn’t announce it.
I have no idea how Hogan is viewed around the league, so will defer to Hughes on this one.
But for a team to mutually agree to move on from their assistant GM in late January, is very strange, especially with the draft three months away. Now if you said he was fired for cause, or he was hired to be another team’s GM, a promotion for him, the story would make a lot more sense.
To mutually agree to part ways with a guy so involved in your draft scouting process, three months before the draft, is far from ideal?
So would say the “mutual” part is just spin, and the Jets fired him, but we have no information on that, so I really can’t go there.
Then on February 7, Hughes announced on X: “BREAKING: Chad Alexander, the #Jets Director of Player Personnel, is leaving to take a promotion as the #Chargers assistant general manager, sources tell SNY Alexander will be a GM in short order. He’s a rising star in front office world. Spent two decades with the #Ravens before joining Douglas in New York. The two worked closely together.”
Will take Hughes word for it that Alexander is a rising star. Don’t know much about that one way or another, but if this is true, and the Jets had their own assistant GM job open, why would Alexander leave for a job that was also open with the Jets? Why didn’t the Jets give it to him? This won’t be asked, but it’s certainly an intriguing question.
But to lose two key high-ranking draft evaluators, three months before the Jets, is very unusual in NFL circles. Usually, individuals this involved in the draft, if they make a career move, or the team moves on, it happens after the draft. Teams often don’t want people they pay good money to, and pay to travel around the country to scout college players, walk out the door with all that intellectual capital gathered on the team’s dime, this close to the draft.
Especially guys as highly regarded around the league, as Hughes pointed out.
But the Jets can overcome this and still have a great draft, and one big reason is a individual named Phil Savage, who serves as the Senior Football Advisor for the Jets GM Joe Douglas.
He doesn’t have a bigger title because he doesn’t work out of Florham Park. He works out of his hometown of Mobile, Alabama.
But an elite talent evaluator, who worked with Douglas in Baltimore under Ozzie Newsome, and ran the Senior Bowl all-star game for many years. He was also the Cleveland Browns GM from 2005-08.
This guy is an ace in the hole for the Jets, and will help Douglas a great deal in dealing with the strangely timed departures of Hogan and Alexander.
April 15, 2024
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