Three Important Takeaways

They finally did it . . .

They finally changed the corporate structure.

This as news is as big as the hiring of Robert Saleh, who was introduced today.to the New York media.

Saleh did a great job, and certain looks the right man for the job, and we will break down what he had to say quite a bit moving forward, but I want to get into this other news first.

That is how significant I think it is.

Christopher Johnson announced today that the head coach will now report to the GM.

I have been like a parrot for years on how the Jets need a football czar, and they finally did it.

But this has nothing to do with me, it has everything to do with how the old structure wasn’t working, and hat-tip to Christopher Johnson for finally fixing it.

The old system led to things like 37-year-old Frank Gore carrying the ball 23 times in Week 14 for a team that entered the game winless. Why did Adam Gase do that? Because based on the corporate structure he was empowered to. In the old structure, the GM picked the players and the coach decided who played, and the GM could not say “boo” to him about it.

Now I don’t think Robert Saleh would ever do that with a 37-year-old running back, but that was illustrative of the problem.

The Jets need the GM and coach to lock arms and get this thing turned around, without the owner constantly being the middle man between the two men. And if the head coach has some assistant coaches who perhaps aren’t getting the job done, you need a football man to determine that, and tell him to make some changes, not businessmen.

And here is the thing – Joe is not going to be a jerk about this. It’s not how he’s wired. He’s not going to micromanage the coach. He’s not going to tell him what schemes to run or anything like that. This about the coach and GM singing from the same hymn sheet. This is going to be a true partnership between Douglas and Saleh, and the new set-up will allow the communication to be a lot better between the two key football figures, without the owner being the middle man.

The Jets have a rock star GM, and it was time for everyone to get out of the way and let him run the football operation. Adam Gase didn’t do a very good job as the Jets coach, but he deserves credit for one thing – getting Douglas in the building.

Without Gase, not sure Douglas is here, and with no Douglas, not sure Saleh is here. Robert has been around the NFL a long time, and he knows Douglas is a big-time talent evaluator. If this had been one of their former GMs not sure Saleh is here.

And if Christopher Johnson wasn’t the current owner, not sure if Saleh is here either.

Aside from connecting with Douglas, Saleh connected with Christopher in a deep way.

“He’s such a genuine human being with a tremendous amount of humility,” Saleh said about Christopher.

Woody’s personality is way different than his brother, and not sure if the connection would have been the same in the interviews.

And not only did Christopher Johnson change the corporate structure, but he also hired a coach to coach the entire team, and Saleh will not call the defense, but will let long-time Atlanta Falcons assistant Jeff Ulbrich do it.

So three huge developments today – New corporate structure, alpha dog coach to lead the entire team, and he’s going to let somebody else call the plays.

The times they are a changing in Florham Park.

January 21, 2021

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