After 15 years in New York, the Jets have relieved general manager Mike Tannenbaum of his duties. Head coach Rex Ryan will keep his job.
The team announced the decision in a statement from Chairman and CEO Woody Johnson:
Our 2012 season was a disappointment to all of us. My goal every year as owner is to build a team that wins consistently. This year, we failed to achieve that goal.
This morning, I informed Mike Tannenbaum that he will not return for the 2013 season. Mike devoted 15 years of service to the Jets, and I want to thank him for his hard work and dedication. Although he helped guide us to two consecutive AFC Championship games, we are not where we want to be, and a new General Manager will be critical to getting this team back on the right track.
Starting immediately, we will conduct a search for a new General Manager. I’ve consulted with a number of football executives and I have also engaged the services of Korn/Ferry International, the same search firm that conducted the NFL Commissioner search in 2006. Our process with Korn/Ferry will be led by Jed Hughes, who heads their sports practice and who previously led the General Manager search for the Seattle Seahawks, among others. When we have updates on this process, we will provide them to our fans and the media.
Rex Ryan will remain the Head Coach of our football team. I believe that he has the passion, the talent, and the drive to successfully lead our team.
Like all Jets fans, I am disappointed with this year’s results. However, I am confident that this change will best position our team for greater success going forward.
Though many have expressed concern over Rex Ryan’s performance as head coach this season, it is Tannenbaum’s philosophy and direction of the team’s personnel, particularly on the offensive side of the ball and on draft day, that has hindered the team the most. The guy know as “trader Mike” helped construct a Jets offense that scored 10 points or fewer in seven games this season and finished the year averaging 17.6 points per game.
Also contributing to Tannenbaum’s demise was the construction of several bad contracts, namely the contract extension of quarterback Mark Sanchez, a financial hit that will likely cripple the team for the next two years.
Woody Johnson is currently at the Jets facility and more firings are expected to follow. He is not scheduled to address media on Tannenbaum firing or any other subsequent firings. Rex Ryan will also not speak with the media today — his 4 pm presser has been cancelled.
ESPN New York has already compiled a list of potential candidates on the team’s radar. You can check them out here.
UPDATE: Mike Tannenbaum has just released a statement, via Jets PR.
I want to thank Woody and his entire family for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime — serving as the General Manager of the New York Jets for seven years.
I am incredibly grateful to have been a part of rebuilding a winning tradition for Jets fans over the past 15 years. My days with Coach Parcells through my years as General Manager of the team that went to back-to-back AFC Championship games have been the fulfillment of a dream I have had since I was a little kid and I’ll always be grateful to Woody, the two head coaches, Rex and Eric, as well as all of the players, staff and the entire organization for this opportunity.
While of course it is disappointing to not achieve the ultimate goal of winning a championship, I am incredibly proud of our overall winning record and success. I feel very fortunate to have been the general manager who drafted cornerstone players during a period that yielded four playoff victories and 22 Pro Bowl appearances.
I appreciate that it is rare for someone to stay with one organization with such a wide range of responsibilities for so many years. My time with the Jets will always be special to me and my family and it has prepared me well for whatever comes next.
There are champions on this team that haven’t been crowned yet. I am confident that the base we’ve established will allow the New York Jets to continue a winning tradition for years to come and I wish everyone in the organization the best of luck.
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My nephew has never rooted for the Jets and was born “fed up”.
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I’m satisfied that Mr. T will no longer play a role in draft, free agency, and trade decisions. I have not had confidence in him since the Pete Kendall negotiation breakdown in 2007. I felt that his mismanagement then was an important contributor to the team’s 4-12 record that year. This past season the same kind of poor player value perception was clearer because there were more, and more excessive, examples and because when it happened at the critical QB position it couldn’t be hidden by hyperbole and disguise.
The opportunity to build depth with a new GM is an absolute necessity. A concern I have is that Rex is remaining. I like him for his intensity and I think that he can become a good head coach, but he isn’t yet. I worry that a new GM will want to decide for himself whether Rex has the necessary stuff to become part of an organization that he envisions.
While I don’t think this is crippling, among the better candidates there may be a reluctance to take Rex on when other GM positions don’t offer a similar burden. I’m getting from the Woody (Tannenbaum letter) language that Rex has a year to demonstrate breadth and get his head around more than the Defense.He’d best improve on 6-10 and get them into the playoffs or he’s out next year — and maybe before next season ends.
I found myself totally confused by Rex’s pressers: he always seemed to be reciting what he wished people to believe rather than addressing what was actually happening. Reporters, commentators, and fans laughed at him. The NY Press is awful, I know, but Rex behaved as though what he said would be accepted if he stuck to it long enough or if he insisted that he “really believed this”. Frankly, it was laughable.
He would have been better off adopting a Bill B. strategy of unresponsiveness, rather than his hymns about “great practice week” and “best player in the league at his position” and “we will work on this and it will improve”. If you don’t plan to explain you’d better be prepared to keep quiet, otherwise what you say is going to sound absurd. When you suck it’s best to remain silent and get on with your job. I don’t think Rex realizes this even now.
Tannenbaum said something after the announcement that I believe is accurate: “there is a lot of talent that hasn’t been crowned yet in the Jets’ locker room.”
It’s going to take smart senior management to fill talent gaps, a willingness on the part of players to support coaches and each other, and a deft handling of emerging young players to get the most from them.
I don’t know where or how they deal with the cap $$$$ but something tellls me that there are creative money people who can find ways to skin that cat and a lot of what the press cries about on this subject is narrative.
I hope the Jets get a sound OC and that Mike Pettine stays (so long as Rex survives) and that the GM runs the show – but I mean totally. He must rein Rex in and focus him on the broader purpose of his responsibilities while allowing him to continue to apply his particular Defense brilliance – no mean feat.
Short of a miracle, I don’t think it’s doable in one year but 9-7 can be accomplished and 10-6 in a stretch. One final thought: Mark Sanchez has to be let go (traded if possible) or become the backup QB. Someone else (Not Vick) should be enthusiastically pursued or McElroy decided upon within weeks of the new GM coming on board. The reputation of the team won’t survive with Sanchez’s crushed self-confidence. I’m afraid that he’s lost. And the new GM MUST strengthen the O-Line at RT (or the qb’s blind side) or we cannot improve. There’s obviously much more that needs fixing but I’m limited and overwhelmed at the magnitude of what needs doing.
I still love them. Next year I plan to travel the 200 miles from my home, with my family, to see as many games as possible no matter how many they win so long as management remains serious about change and the vision and overall organization strategies are communicated well and are made transparent. Go Jets!
Robert
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Always love your comments and agree with everything you say. This is really well communicated and I think your points on Rex are especially poignant. I am so curious to see where the team heads with the next Gm — I know Woody said Rex is safe but I am not entirely convinced he is. I just hope we can get a really quality personnel guy who will change the way this team builds a team.
I plan to write a post shortly about candidates up this point. Hopefully we can make better assessments about direction team is heading based on guys they are interested in.
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Rays ace David Price ranted on Twitter about why the Jets kept Rex. I share the same outrage. I don’t know what David Price is going to do, but I am taking action.
I am boycotting this organization. I am tired of this garbage. Enough. I have had it with this clown show. I had it with the losing. I had it with this disorganization. I have had it with Jets fans who behave like Rex’s bobos. I am so fed up.
I mean wow what type of operation is are the Jets running. This is an amateur operation. What has Rex done to stay on? He never won a Super Bowl. He failed to get to the Super Bowl. He had two awful seasons. He ruined Mark Sanchez. He brought bad people on the team. He never developed talent. He created scapegoats. To sum it up, he accomplished nothing here. He is no better than Rich Kotite, Bruce Coslet, Pete Carroll, Al Groh, Herm Edwards and Eric Mangini. Let’s stop making him looking like a freaking Lombardi.
Rex should be fired. Any organization would have done that, but not the Jets. They fired Mike Tannenbaum as a way of holding a guy “accountable”. That doesn’t cut it. Firing Tannenbaum is a band-aid move. It does nothing since Rex has been in charge of personnel. He will have more power. What prospective GM would want the Jets job when he has to inherit Rex? He would want a new coach. This is why we are going to have someone promoted on the Jets front office. Odds are it will be Joey Clinkscales.
Firing Tannenbaum is nice, but it’s a band-aid at best. It basically means business as usual. It’s no wonder Jets are the Jets.
I will root for the Vikings in 2013.
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I do love the Vikings.
I think we all need to wait and see what the Jets do. This org is not beyond repair, though there is a LOT of work to do. I am trying to reserve too much judgement until I see big picture, which will begin after a GM is hired.
Very interested in seeing what happens. I for one do not think Rex’s job is safe, regardless of what Woody said in his statement Monday
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