The kinda long, mostly localized nightmare is over.
After weeks of sifting through candidates who either passed on the job or didn't meet the standards of what the Jets believed they were looking for, the Jets have settled on a new general manager. The Jets announced Friday that they are hiring Seahawks vice president of football administration John Idzik to replace the departed Mike Tannenbaum.
If that title sounds vaguely like a gussied-up description of a bean counter, you're not far off. Idzik's responsibilities with the Seahawks include working on contracts, setting the football operations budgets and dealing with the salary cap.
While the Seahawks say he also plays a role in player personnel decisions, it certainly seems like the Jets have hired a guy whose specialty is on the business side of the job. It's a curious decision since the Jets just fired a guy like that and have a roster that's desperately in need of someone who can look under every rock to find talent.
Idzik may wind up being that guy as he has filled a variety of roles in front offices over the course of his career, but it certainly seems like the Jets have opted to double down on Rex Ryan with this hire. Woody Johnson made keeping him as head coach a condition of taking the general manager job and Idzik's background is not the talent guru one that will be providing the players and telling Ryan to coach them.
What's more, the Jets have also been conducting offensive coordinator interviews without having a G.M. in place. While a coach naturally has say in who will be on his staff, it sends a curious message about the direction of the franchise that there isn't an overall football braintrust working together to make these kinds of decisions.
There's a report that former Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg will get that job with the Jets, which would mean a move toward the West Coast offense and away from whatever you want to call the dumpster fire that Tony Sparano ran this season. Mornhinweg's run in Philly didn't draw a ton of raves and that was with a lot more talent at his disposal than he'll have with the Jets.
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On paper, it all pretty much adds up to rearranging the furniture that was already in the room. It's going to take a lot more than that to fix the Jets so they'd better hope that the paper read on this move is incorrect.
Josh Alper is also a writer for Pro Football Talk. You can follow him on Twitter.
