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Generally, new GM’s hired after the season, wait until after the draft to make staff changes.
Why? Why not start making changes right after they are hired, bring in their own people immediately?
Simple. The scouting process for the draft is about 80 percent done.
The scouts and personnel executives have already logged thousands of miles to look at players, and they have filed thousands of reports.
So why mess up the process at that point. You might as well let the draft take place, and make changes afterwards.
Also, if you fire scouts, in say February, they can take all the information they gathered from about 10 months of scouting, and deliver the info to another team, very close to the draft.
So now that the draft process is over, Idzik is starting to make some changes.
Last week, he moved on from scouts Mike Davis and Joe Bommarito. And then it came out today that scout Kevin Kelly and assistant player personnel director JoJo Wooden, left to join the San Diego Chargers, another team with a new GM, who is now making changes.
None of these moves should be a surprise, and the Jets will live to see another day.
I’m not blaming anybody for anything, but the last few years the Jets personnel department hasn’t exactly done their best work.
It was time to change things up a little bit.
And honestly, Wooden needed a change of scenery. He’s been stuck in the assistant player personnel director job for quite some time, and was having trouble moving up in the organization . . .
We had former NFL star WR Isaac Bruce on a radio show I do on Sirius with Vic Carucci.
I asked Bruce about the firestorm around Geno Smith, and what advice he would have for him.
Bruce, from South Florida like Smith, does a lot of charity work with kids in the area, a lot of youth football camps. He has a good feel for the mindset of kids.
First of all, Bruce said that when he came into the league, he didn’t have the best attitude either, but that changed thanks to certain teammates and coaches, good role models.
That is why I think the supposed problems with Smith are fixable. He’s 22 years-old. A large dose of David Garrard, David Lee (QB coach) and Marty Mornhinweg (offensive coordinator) will go a long way.
But Bruce did say that Smith needs to hit the re-set button, and change some of the people in his life, because he feels there are people giving him bad advice . . .
A reader sent us an e-mail today asking for my thoughts on the draft, so we will go over one pick a day moving forward.
The last couple of days I did extensive research on Dee Milliner for a feature I’m writing for the magazine.
I really like this pick.
Milliner is a major talent. Coming out of high school, he was one of the top recruits in the country. One scouting service had him as the 11th best prospect in the nation. He went to Alabama, and didn’t disappoint. A lot of five-star high school recruits don’t live up to the hype on the college level. Milliner did.
He’s a big cornerback with good speed who was trained well by Nick Saban (a secondary guru). Saban did a wonderful job developing Milliner, and teaching him pro techniques and NFL defenses.
Milliner is very versatile – he can play man-to-man, zone, and even handle the slot. He’s also very good against the run. He has Pro Bowl potential, if he can stay healthy.
May 6, 2013
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