"What just happened!?", that was the question that I asked myself when I found out at about 11:30 am this morning that both general manager Mike Maccagnan and VP of Player Personnel Brian Heimerdinger have been relieved of their duties from the New York Jets. This was a move that fans believed should've been done back in January when the Jets fired Todd Bowles, but since he was still the acting GM we all thought that maybe if the Jets allowed him to hire his own coach things would be better. So now here we are in May a few weeks after the NFL draft and the guy that for the time being survived the in house cleaning ended up getting the boot, so leaves the question is this the "same old Jets" or was this a blessing but at the wrong time?
For the time being everything seemed to be pointing towards the right direction for gang green, the hiring of Adam Gase was and still is a little iffy for most part due to what happened in Miami but when they hired Gregg Williams and offensive line coach Frank Pollack we felt a little better because of the track record of those two coaches as well as the rest of the coaching staff. Gregg Williams was going to bring a new energy to the defense that desperately needed it and Pollack was going to help build the offensive line like he did in Dallas and Oakland.
Then came along the offseason to which everything seemed to be getting better and better with the signings of Bell and CJ Mosley as well as some other impactful players to help both sides of the ball. Not to mention the new uniforms came out a couple of weeks later and then just a month after the NFL draft where they picked up Quinnen Williams and a few other potential good players. Everything seemed to be going into the right direction for the Jets, so why get rid of your general manager after the offseason that they had?
For starters, there has been reports that both Maccagnan and Gase as well as Heimerdinger were in some disagreements, more particularly about the signings of Bell and Mosley. Apparently Gase wasn't happy with the amount of money they gave these two players and thought that it was too much. Although that made some red flags that we all just brushed to the side, it seems that this was one of the reasons why they made the decision to fire Macc.
But here is the real reason why they did this, Maccagnan on most occasions overpaid for players and didn't really pan out. His lack of decisiveness was a big role as well, the Jets have been rumored about wanting to trade out of the third overall pick and apparently had multiple offers. Not only did it frustrate other teams in making deals with the Jets but as well as the rest of the front office as well. It ended up working out because Williams fell right to their laps, however when you look at his tenure as the GM Leonard Williams, Jamal Adams, and Sam Darnold fell to their laps. The rest of his draft picks have either cut or traded from the active roster.
In reality although we are frustrated about this move, this is probably the right move by the Jets in retrospect. They should've fired him in January with Todd Bowles in my opinion, but better late than never. The Jets are not the only team to have fired their General Manager after the NFL draft, the Buffalo Bills fired Doug Whaley in 2017 one day after the draft and the Kansas City Chiefs fired John Dorsey during the 2017 season I believe. I think we need to pump the brakes on the "Same Old Jets" term for the time being because the good out weighs the bad in this situation and we don't know what will happen in the future.