Content available exclusively for subscribers
The NFL is such a cutthroat business.
It really is.
New regimes are all over the place firing old staffers.
A perfect example of how cutthroat the NFL is the Liam Coen situation.
The new Jacksonville coach, was interviewed for the Jaguars job but turned it down to stay as Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator, with a huge pay raise, making him the highest-paid OC in the league.
But then a day after it came out he was staying in Tampa Bay, the Jaguars fired GM Trent Baalke, and Coen backed out of his agreement with the Bucs to stay and took the Jacksonville job.
It was essentially a coup.
Baalke was out of work, Coen will be able to pick his own GM, and now Coen is persona non grata in Tampa Bay.
Welcome to the NFL.
With a new regime coming in, you are starting to hear about firing at 1 Jets Drive, or in some cases contracts not being renewed.
And don’t assume that just because somebody is getting bounced they were bad at their jobs.
Wrong assumption to make.
So much of this is political, and who you know.
The Jets are not bringing back their cap guy David Socie.
He was a perfectly good cap guy. The Jets cap situation in the last few years was fairly healthy.
And remember, with a lot of these people who are being replaced, they didn’t have final say – they are just foot soldiers.
When it comes to cap issues, Woody Johnson and his financial guys, are very involved.
So Socie’s gone, Perhaps he will be replaced by Mike Tannenbaum, who knows.
“I would not be surprised if Rick Spielman or Mike T stuck around,” tweeted long-time Jets beat writer Brian Costello on January 24.
Spielman and Tannenbaum were the two Jets consultants hired to help them find a new head coach and GM.
Spielman is staying on as a senior advisor.
The Jets are moving on from Co-Director of Player Personnel Greg Nejmeh, who was with the organization for 16 years.
He is being replaced by Robbie Paton, a scout who worked with Mougey in Denver. He is the nephew of Broncos GM George Paton.
Is Paton a better talent evaluator than Nejmeh? None of us know that now, but what we do know is he’s close with Mougey.
Once again, don’t blame Nejmeh for issues you might have with the Jets roster – he didn’t have the final say on anything.
If you want to blame people for the roster, blame the former GM, HC and the owner, who was very hands-on, don’t blame Nejmeh.
I want to make it clear, I have no relationship with Socie or Nejmeh, just calling balls on strikes.
Unlike many writers, I don’t write things based on protecting sources. Just trying to tell it like it is as an observer on the scene.
And some front office firings can be based on money/budget, not skillset.
Remember, about a year ago, on January 31, 2024, the Jets moved on from assistant GM Rex Hogan, Joe Douglas’ right-hand man.
Why?
The spin at the time was it was mutual.
Let me ask y’all a question – why on earth would Hogan leave an NFL assistant GM job, a plum position in the football world that is hard to get, when he had nothing else lined up?
Have you heard of him landing anything else?
SNY’s Connor Hughes, who announced the Hogan departure, tweeted at the time: “Hogan is well respected around the league. He will be a sought-after front office free agent.”
While Hughes is a big fan of Hogan, sadly, I have not seen him land with any other NFL team over the last year.
So I am not sure what Hughes’ report of him being “sought-after” was based on.
And Hogan’s departure was likely a cost-cutting move. He was never replaced. In fact, the logical candidate to replace him in the pecking order at the time, Chad Alexander, went to the Los Angeles Chargers to become their ASSISTANT GM.
The Jets also eliminated three positions from their sports science department last offseason.
Not a great economy in the last couple of years, and the Jets have had some sparse crowds at some games the last few years with the team struggling on the field.
You do the math as to why there have been some staff rollbacks.
But the sad part of all the firings this time of year is that some of these guys will never work in the league again.
It’s hard to get back in.
I know so many people who have lost NFL jobs and have never worked in the league again.
I’m not looking for anybody to play a violin. There are much bigger problems in the world than that.
But do me a favor. When people like Nejmeh and Socie are bounced don’t assume they did a bad job.
Let’s be honest, many of these moves are often driven by politics and the buddy system.
February 6, 2025
Premium will return by 9:30 pm (or sooner) on Friday.
