Gang Green Nation
The duo was introduced to the fanbase on Monday.
The New York Jets have a new head coach and a new general manager. Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey were officially introduced to the fanbase on Monday in their introductory press conference.
In reality, this will be the least important task either of them conducts during their tenures. Press conferences don’t win games. Most of the time, the introductory event is a formality used to fire up a fanbase hungry for a turnaround. Unless you do something that turns into a meme along the lines of Adam Gase in 2019, the head coach and GM usually come away winning the press conference.
I think this presser was no exception. Glenn and Mougey both presented themselves well, projected the confidence necessary to fire the fanbase up, and avoided any major pitfalls.
What other takeaways are there?
Of course time will tell, but it would have been very easy for Glenn to say it directly if he wanted Rodgers back. My educated guess is that he would never outright say the team didn’t want Rodgers back but rather stay noncommittal. So that seems notable.
I wouldn’t categorize this under “good” or “bad.” It can work well with or without the head coach calling the plays. I would only say that this adds importance to Glenn’s defensive coordinator hire.
This marks the third time in the last decade the Jets have changed their head coach and general manager reporting structure. Robert Saleh nominally reported to Joe Douglas. Prior to that, the Adam Gase-Joe Douglas, Adam Gase-Mike Maccagnan, and Todd Bowles-Mike Maccagnan pairings reported directly to ownership. Prior to that, the head coach reported to the general manager.
All right. I’ll admit this is pretty boilerplate stuff. Any general manager introductory press conference will involve the new guy saying some version of this. The “keep our own” part is what drew my attention, though, with so many of the team’s key players approaching the expiration of their contracts.
Again, this is basic stuff. Everybody is going to play nice on day one. It’s easy to like the guy you are working with before there has been the potential for any conflict or disagreement. But for a Jets team where the GM and head coach have frequently not been on the same page over the last decade and a half, it does at least seem like there was a focus on finding a duo who work well together. That hasn’t always been true for this team in hiring decisions. I’ll call that a positive.
