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Jets GM Darren Mougey opened his post-draft press conference by saying:
“Alright, before we get started on the Draft, I wanted to take this time just to thank some of the staff here. I mean since the moment I got here, there’s been tremendous support to help me in my transition and specifically with this Draft. So, bear with me here, I want to recognize these people and really say them
by name. In the player personnel department, starting with Ray Agnew, Evan (Ardoin), Jordan Burton, Jon Carr, Andy Davis, Andrew Dollak, Dom Esposito, Dom Green, Jay Mando (Mandolesi), Drew Morris, Kevin Murphy, Chris Nolan, Robbie Paton, Rick Spielman, Johnathon Stigall, (Thomas) Witty, Dan Z (Zbojovsky),
Ashleigh (Wick), Matt Yustin.”
This was significant.
Why?
Well, let me explain by posting my question to Mougey later in this press conference
Dan Leberfeld, Jets Confidential: What are your plans Darren, a lot of times, when a new GM comes in, they keep the scouts until after the draft and then they make changes because most of the scouting work had been done. You had just named a lot of the people and thanked them, so in general can you talk about your plans as far as being new GM of the scouts?
Mougey : In general, I’m going to go upstairs, finish this process, and then take a few days to get away from it, because I’m quite honestly exhausted from just the past few months, but it’s exciting, and I do look forward to next week, gathering the whole group, and having a lot of good discussions, both collectively as a group, and individually about how we want to maybe change some processes moving forward, but I’ve been really pleased with the entire group and a lot of those names I mentioned.
It sounds like he’s keeping these scouts who are holdovers from the previous regime(s).
As you know, there has been a lot of staff turnover recently at 1 Jets Drive in Florham Park with myriad buyouts.
But even if they didn’t have all those buyouts in March, as I mentioned in the question, you often see new general managers and coaches blow up the scouting staff after the draft.
Now, there could be a few changes, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be wholesale.
Look, whether you are a fan of Joe Douglas’ work or not, the man is a scouting lifer, and he is very good at “evaluating the evaluators.”
He liked this scouting staff and it looks like Mougey and Glenn do as well.
Yes, the Jets have missed the playoffs the last 14 years, so some might blame the scouts for some of this, but I don’t.
Scouts scout, but they don’t have final say on any decisions. They just file reports.
And it’s well-documented the owner would dip his toe in the player personnel pool on occasion, which is right as the owner, but that has nothing to do with the scouts.
Look, Glenn and Mougey know a lot of these guys from their days as scouts, guys like Jason Mondelesi.
Hat-tip to Glenn and Mougey for not just doing what new regimes often do, and just purging the scouting staff, often just change for change sake.
It’s not written anywhere that you have to do that and it sounds like they aren’t.
April 30, 2025
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