In what would be a stunning move coming from any other team, the New York Jets fired their GM Mike Maccagnan yesterday just weeks into the season’s new year.
And much like the firing of former head coach Todd Bowles, it comes a year too late. Actually, if Maccagnan had the common sense to fire Bowles before the start of last season, he may still have a job.
And when you’re the Jets, who better to replace him with than a losing record and zero playoff wins.
Which is exactly what Jets CEO Christopher Johnson did by appointing new head coach Adam Gase the interim general manager while adding an immediate search begins for a replacement. Johnson said he came to the decision after conducting a "deep dive"into the inner workings of the organization after last season's 4-12 finish.
Meanwhile Maccagnan insists the firing was not due to a rift with coach Gase. And I have to agree… the rift was between Maccagnan and winning games. Those two things were miles apart.
"There's never a good time to do this," Johnson said. "This is about more than one draft or one free agency, even two. As I educated myself about this process, it became more clear to me, the deeper I got in this building, that it was time for a change and a time to move on."
Weird because you can’t say the Jets weren’t aggressive in this past offseason as they were the only team in the NFL that committed at least $15-million in guaranteed money to four different free agents since the new league year started on March 13. Maybe they were too aggressive and by that I mean wasteful.
Bottom line is, this was because of a rift between Maccagnan and Gase that developed over personnel during free agency.
And the Jets kept the right man.
Source: ESPN
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