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The New York Jets hired Aaron Glenn as their head coach after a disastrous 5-11 season. While his hire has fans and players excited due to his New York roots, there was one candidate who drew a lot of interest. The Jets were the first team to interview Mike Vrabel before the Patriots fired Jerod Mayo. The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported that Vrabel was impressive in his interview with Woody Johnson.
“Mike Vrabel came in, blew the doors off, just blew Woody away, loved him,” Russini reported. “They were ready to hire him, they were going to do anything they needed to do, including giving him full roster control and essentially the power to report just to the owner. Everything that you could possibly ask for, and God only knows what they would’ve given him in terms of the financial part of it. I’m sure whatever Vrabel would’ve wanted. So they meet with him, from what I understand Vrabel was interested.”
Russini finishes with a line confirming what many thought once Mayo was fired. “He liked Woody, he liked what he was hearing, he liked sort of what they were about, then if you remember, this was a Friday, that Sunday Jerod Mayo gets fired, interesting timing.”
The Jets would have secured the top head coaching candidate if they had hired Vrabel. But making him the general manager, ala Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots would be risky. He famously sparred with Jon Robinson while with the Titans and his disagreements with Ran Carthon got him fired. But having no one between Vrabel and Johnson would have been risky.
The Jets are going with a more traditional route, bringing in a coach and general manager together. While the original plan was to bring in Lance Newmark, who worked with Glenn in Detroit, things have changed. Broncos assistant GM Darren Mougey is the rumored favorite in the clubhouse.
Vrabel is under general manager Eliot Wolf with the Patriots but has brought trusted executives to join the front office. He is the guy in charge in New England but there could have been no question about it in New York. If Woody Johnson had blown him away with an offer, maybe the events change.
The Jets may have pushed the Patriots to fire Jerod Mayo by giving Mike Vrabel a deal he nearly could not refuse. Whether that comes back to bite them will be seen.
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