Hey Woody, Just a Few Things to Consider …

I don’t know who Woody Johnson should hire as the Jets coach and general manager. Actually, that’s not quite right. I don’t know who he should hire as GM, but I do know that he shouldn’t hire a coach -- the GM he hires should.

In the NFL, the guy that picks the talent is the most important person in the organization, no matter how much less well-known-- and less well-paid -- he is than the guy on the sidelines.

Johnson obviously made a mistake when he was searching for a GM two years ago when he made keeping Rex Ryan a condition of getting the job, and probably as a result of that gaffe, he ended up making an even bigger one -- naming the out-of-his-depth John Idzik to the post when better candidates wisely decided against taking the job (and Rex). For Gang Green’s sake, he shouldn’t repeat that error this time around.

Johnson has a very smart football man advising him in Ron Wolf, who oversaw the Packers’ transformation into Super Bowl champions in the mid 1990s. Let’s just hope he does most of the heavy lifting while fellow “guru” Charley Casserly fetches coffee and snacks.

But anyway, these are the guys who are supposed to help the Jets owner decide who should be at the top of the organizational chart. And while both of them -- yes, even Casserly -- know much more about football than yours truly, allow me to give them a bit of advice.

When searching for a GM and/or coach:

1) Look first at fresh faces before retreads. Yes, plenty of guys who have lost their jobs at one stop have gone on to great success at others. Just look at Bill Belichick, or, moving beyond football for a second, the Big Apple’s own Joe Torre. But there’s a reason guys get fired, and, with the notable exception of Jim Harbaugh, it’s generally not because they were so good at what they were doing. Along those lines …

2) Don’t hire anyone connected in any way with Belichick and the Pats. Yes, I know, they’re the NFL’s model franchise (though the drafting of Aaron Hernandez looks just a bit questionable in retrospect). However… Josh McDaniels. Charlie Weis. Romeo Crennel. Eric Mangini. Scott Pioli. Need I say more?

3) Once again, let the new GM pick the new coach. But if you foolishly don’t, whatever you do, don’t feel a need to hire an “offensive” or “defensive” guy. Being an NFL coach requires a unique skill set that enables an individual to consistently get the best out of 50-plus young men that someone else (yes, the GM) hired, most of whom are paid an obscene amount of money --some more than said coach -- to play a game, while at the same time doing more delegating than the president of a mid-sized country.

You don’t have time to call plays, or set up defenses, and if you favor one side of the ball, the other is going to get pretty upset about that over (not much) time. Oh yeah, and if you and your QB aren’t on the same page, you’re going to get shown the door well before he does. Good luck! 

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