NFL teams
Johnette Howard, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Woody's week? His best in a while

NFL, New York Jets

NEW YORK -- When the Jets' search for their latest general manager began much the same way their last hunt did, with the downbeat news that two, then three, then four of their original targets turned them down, it was only fair to wonder if Jets owner Woody Johnson himself was the impediment. Not just the Jets' unbudging, four-decade history of being an also-ran.

Remember, Johnson was no longer insisting the new guy accept a shotgun marriage with Rex Ryan as his holdover head coach this time around. There are only 32 of these GM jobs in the league and, as we're always reminded, such opportunities are precious, precious things. Yet when the Jets dangled a promotion at four of their early GM candidates, all four looked at the Jets and their No. 6 overall draft pick and potential $40 million in salary-cap space and still said, "Nah." Which felt like some bad déjà vu.

It seemed questions about Johnson's judgment or ability to construct a winning organization should be in play as much as the dampening effect of the Jets' questions at quarterback.

So give Johnson credit: He restored a little shimmer to his image late Tuesday night.

His hiring of Todd Bowles -- the hottest head-coaching candidate on the market other than Seattle defensive coordinator Dan Quinn -- was a coup. Especially when you throw in that Bowles, Arizona's defensive coordinator the past two years, had a chance to interview with Atlanta the next day and inherit a team with quarterback Matt Ryan.

Yet he chose the Jets anyway?

Nobody can be totally sure what kind of head coach Bowles will be. Same as no one can be sure what kind of executive Houston Texans personnel man Mike Maccagnan will be once he's running his own show as the Jets' new GM.

But Johnson felt like an even bigger wild card during the process of reconstructing the Jets' management team.

As an owner, he has never projected the gravitas or presence Giants owner John Mara does, a fact Mara so vividly reminded everyone of yet again with his commanding postseason news conference after the Giants' 6-10 season. When Mara admitted he wanted to fire everybody on the team after the Giants' dreadful Jacksonville loss, and then publicly put Tom Coughlin on notice, saying the cover provided by those two Super Bowl rings of his is approaching its expiration date, the feeling Mara projected was that he's a man who is fully in charge.

But Johnson? Not so much. Hardly ever.

He wasn't just responsible for not anticipating that John Idzik and Ryan might have disastrously separate agendas if he forced them together -- years earlier, he actually thought Tim Tebow would be a great idea here, too. He ate up the attention that Rex or stunts like the HBO "Hard Knocks" show brought, though it contributed to the Jets' circus atmosphere (if not enough PSL sales). He wouldn't consider a Darrelle Revis reunion at a discount, though the 2014 Jets were crying for cornerbacks. Only when Revis went on to have a Pro Bowl season for the Pats did Johnson reverse field.

Johnson also did nothing when Idzik refused to spend $20 million in cap room last year, except to surface late in this disastrous four-win season to say Idzik wasn't acting on ownership's orders when he didn't spend even though the roster had grievous, obvious holes. Instead of making Idzik more accountable then, Johnson first said something silly about believing in the wisdom of saving for a rainy day.

Which ain't exactly convincing coming from an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune.

The result? Even back when the Jets did have more talent on both sides of the ball than they do now, the question that's dogged this franchise in recent years has been about its judgment. Not its resources.

Bowles is Johnson's fifth head coach in 15 years.

Two winters ago, it seemed like an encouraging sign when Johnson had Bill Polian -- one of the most respected former executives in league history before he joined ESPN as an analyst -- helping him with the Jets' GM search. But Johnson ignored the warning that his loyalty to Rex would be a handicap, and it was; it landed him only the hopelessly miscast and overmatched Idzik after other candidates bailed.

This time around, even the sight of Johnson being flanked for this search by two new advisers -- Charley Casserly and Ron Wolf -- was no guarantee of better results.

And it will take a vantage point more distant than this to judge how it works out.

But right here, right now, Johnson seems to have done about as well as he could've when it comes to his new head coach.

Even if you acknowledge the move made sense for both sides -- Bowles couldn't be completely sure the Falcons or anyone else would offer him a job, and the Jets couldn't be sure Quinn wouldn't stiff them, too, when the Seahawks finally finish their playoff run -- Johnson still deserves applause.

He was decisive.

He was confident enough to realize there were stronger choices than early candidate Doug Marrone, though it required ignoring the past shunnings the Jets have endured.

Even Bowles' reported plan to hire well-traveled, 63-year-old Chan Gailey as his offensive coordinator -- though panned as uninspiring -- makes sense on one level: First-time head coaches like Bowles are usually wise to surrounded themselves with far more experienced assistants like Gailey, who has been a head coach a couple of times in Buffalo and Dallas, remember, and was on the Steelers' staffs in the late '90s when they won four straight division titles and went to Super Bowl XXX.

Gailey's quarterback for the title game was the extremely pedestrian future Jet Neil O'Donnell, who was only marginally better than Geno Smith.

So Woody Johnson actually had a good day at the office Tuesday. His best in a long, long time.

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