Report: Bumbling NFL Franchise Could Pursue Peyton Manning
If I told you that a bumbling, incompetent NFL franchise was seriously considering offering Peyton Manning a job as general manager, plenty of questions would immediately come to mind.
“Bumbling NFL franchise? Which one?” you might ask. “The Browns? Bengals? Jaguars? Maybe the Lions or Cardinals?”
The answer is none of the above. Give yourself a big Suzy Kolber smooch if you guessed the New York Jets.
Gang Green CEO and chairman Chris Johnson has said he wants a “great strategic thinker” to work with — or rein in the ambitions of — coach Adam Gase.
According to NBC Sports’ Mike Florio, the Jets might see Manning as the right man for the job.
“Rumors are flying within league circles that the Jets may make a run at the future Hall of Fame quarterback who has periodically been linked to NFL management possibilities,” Florio reported Friday.
“And Gase, who worked with Manning in Denver, possibly would be one of the few guys who could draw Manning back into football.”
Johnson has suggested the eventual hire will serve as less of a traditional GM — though he’d surely be at least as competent in the role as stadium co-tenant Dave Gettleman is with Peyton’s brother Eli’s current employer, the Giants — and more of a “great manager” and “communicator.”
“I want to find somebody that just looking forward, not talking about [recently fired Jets GM] Mike [Maccagnan] here, I want a great strategic thinker,” Johnson said Wednesday.
“It’s more than a talent-evaluation guy. I want a great manager, a communicator, who can collaborate well with the building. I’m convinced we’re going to find that person,” he added.
Gase, for his part, has been accused of strong-arming Maccagnan out of the job, and rumors have been flying that Gase — who was promoted to interim GM on Wednesday after Maccagnan was shown the door — wants control over front office moves, in addition to on-field decisions.
* LeVeon Bell was indeed an owner-driven signing
* #Jets employees believe CEO Chris Johnson “doesnt know what he’s doing”
* Adam Gase “strategically detached himself” from the 2019 draft. Was all Maccagnan
* Gase will “effectively hand pick” the new GMhttps://t.co/7Xv0PZP2b5
— Evan Silva (@evansilva) May 17, 2019
Gase was reportedly not a fan of the Jets signing Le’Veon Bell to a four-year, $52 million contract, and as the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Dave Hyde alluded to, it’s worth wondering why a franchise with a coach who doesn’t like to run the ball spent that much on a running back.
Where Manning fits into all this is a puzzle, and just what could possibly convince him — aside from the fact that Gase was his offensive coordinator in Denver — to willingly throw himself into a burning dumpster, is unclear.
What’s more, Manning has no front-office experience, so one wonders just how much influence he’ll really have in reining in an ambitious, power-hungry coach who has already engineered the firing of one GM.
And it’s not like “former Denver Broncos quarterback” is any kind of assurance of success in the GM ranks — just ask angry Broncos fans sick of the way John Elway has run that franchise, which hasn’t won a playoff game since Manning retired after Super Bowl 50 and which went 6-10 last year.
Again, it’s hard to imagine what Manning has to gain from accepting this job.
It’s equally hard to understand what Johnson is hoping to do by bringing on a GM with none of the duties of an actual general manager who is there as a “communicator” but may as well just be a figurehead and fall guy for Gase.
Since 2016, the Jets have won 14 games. The only teams worse in that stretch are the San Francisco 49ers (12 wins) and the Cleveland Browns (8). To put it bluntly, the J-E-T-S S-T-I-N-K.
And with 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo healthy once again and Browns stars Baker Mayfield and Odell Beckham Jr. set to surprise the AFC North, the Jets may very well be able to claim the worst record in football over a four-year stretch by the time this season is done.
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