What it all means

It was a kind of an odd report . . .

The Athletic’s Michael Lombardi reported today:

“I hear that all is not well in New York Jets land about their scouting operation. General Manager Mike Maccagnan is on the hot seat internally, and many in the league expect changes in the Jets’ front office after the draft. Stay tuned.” said Lombardi.

My first reaction to this was the wording was a little odd.

How is the man who was heavily involved in picking the team’s new coach, Adam Gase, on the hot seat a few months later?

How is the man who just went out and spent $122 million of the owner’s money on free agents on the hot seat right after that process basically wrapped up?

How is the man who just decided to pick Quinnen Williams with the third pick overall in the draft on the hot seat?

From this standpoint, the story doesn’t make a ton of sense.

The other part of the story line does make sense that the Jets will make some changes to their scouting department.

And Maccagnan will be in charge of doing that. So once again, if he makes a few personnel changes in his scouting department, how does that put him on the hot seat?

I’d also love to ask Lombardi who is making these demands?

Christopher Johnson doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who is going to pound his fist on the table and say, “Mike you better make some changes to your scouting department.”

He’s not wired that way.

And Christopher is kind of new to the player personnel world and is still learning about this stuff. In other words, he’s not a scouting expert.

Jets President Neil Glat can’t make that demand because he’s Maccagnan’s equal. Maccagnan doesn’t report to Glat, and Glat doesn’t report to Maccagnan. They both report to Christopher Johnson.

Is it Ira Axselrad, Christopher’s right-hand man? Maybe, but that is long shot. He’s a money manager not a personnel guy.

To me, what is going on her is simple. The Jets have a new college scouting director in Jon Carr, so he’s going to want to make some changes. He is overseeing the scouting department now, and is going to want to bring in some of his own guys.

Plus, the Jets probably do need to make some changes. You always need to “scout the scouts” in the NFL, and some of these guys have clearly given Maccagnan some bad intel, at times, on players like Dylan Donahue, Ardarius Stewart and Juston Burris to name a few.

So they are going to make some changes to their scouting department, but not sure about the use of the word “hot seat” in reference to this.

But keep one thing in mind – Lombardi laid off the Jets the last two years when his son Mick was a Jets offensive assistant.

Now that Mick Lombardi not longer works for the Jets, and is now in New England, the gloves are off.

Michael Lombardi now feels free to hammer Maccagnan. Something he held off going the last two years with his son drawing a check from the Jets.

I will get more into the Jets’ draft picks from days two and three tomorrow. I just thought this breaking story needed to be analyzed today.

April 26, 2019

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