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New Jersey – While we think the decision to hire John Idzik as GM looks like a solid one, the fact that the two finalists for the Jets GM job were both cap guys, perhaps speaks volumes about some of the people heavily involved in the interview process.
Let me make this clear, I’m not casting aspersions on Idzik. My gut is that it’s a good hire, but we will see.
However, we can’t forget who the interviewers were along with Jed Hughes – Jets President Neil Glat, a business guy, Ira Axselrad, who manages Woody’s money and of course, Johnson, whose background is mostly business.
Glat and Axselrad aren’t football people. They are sharp legal and business minds – Woody’s right and left hand men – literally.
When I saw the owner leaving LP Field after the Jets loss to Tennessee, one was to his right, and one was to his left.
If the Jets had one cap guy and one personnel guy as finalists, this probably wouldn’t have caught people’s attention, but BOTH finalists were cap guys.
I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I’ve written that Idzik is more than just a cap guy. He’s learned a lot of football over the years. But it can’t be ignored his main jobs over the last two decades have been related to contract negotiations and the cap.
And one league executive feels it shouldn’t be a surprise the fact that Idzik and Omar Khan emerged as the two finalists, with Glat, Axselrad and Johnson, ¾ of the interview team,
“That’s the danger of [business] guys in the interview process,” said the executive. “Very often they deal with team presidents and even ownership in their roles – so know what they ‘want to hear’ and can speak dollars and cents, and that can play to the uninformed football audience who really come from the business side, hence, Khan and Idzik as finalists.
“You talk to the ‘meat and potatoes’ guys in Pittsburgh, [Khan’s] ‘just a cap guy,’ meaning, salary cap and contracts. But when they get in that setting – if you think about it – it was the very setting [Glat, Axselrad and Johnson] liked and had with Mike Tannenbaum for years.
“Get worried when hear they ‘won the interview,’ because cap guys can speak the business football language intelligently to ownership, and marry it to football side. So in that setting of business folk, it will come across as versed and polished.”
We will see how this turns out, but once again, it should not come as a surprise that two cap guys emerged as the finalists, considering who was in the room.
But taking into account the Jets’ current cap mess, and how much money has been wasted on some recent contracts (Sanchez and Holmes are two examples), it’s not surprising that the money men figured, let’s get a cap guru/football guy in this job.
Idzik is considered one of the best cap/contract people in the league.
A perfect example is the Matt Flynn contract last year. Remember, Flynn was signed to be the Seattle Seahawks’ starting quarterback in 2012 (this was before Russell Wilson was drafted).
Idzik signed him to a three-year, $19.5 million contract, including a $6 million signing bonus. In 2013, Flynn is guaranteed just $2 million, along with a non-guaranteed $5.25 million. It’s not crazy money. It’s a very pragamatic contract.
Idzik is very, very good on the money side.
So you can understand the three business in the people in the room taking a liking to him.
BUT, that isn’t to say he’s not a personnel guy. He is reportedly better than advertised on that side.
And remember, he will surrounded by a large support staff of scouts and personnel guys. He won’t be on an island.
January 22, 2012
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