Forget Doug Marrone, the guy Woody Johnson should hire is the coach’s agent, Jimmy Sexton — to run the whole Jets operation. Sexton is the genius here, having somehow not only made Marrone look like the second coming of Don Shula despite a record that screams mediocrity, but also squeezing a contract out of the Bills that guarantees him $4 million NOT to coach them in 2015. That kind of money without having to live and work in Buffalo? I’d take that job — or lack thereof — for way, way less.
I have nothing against Marrone, who was done the unparalleled indignity of being compared to Rich Kotite by one prominent Big Apple pundit in recent days. If you take a step back, you can see that, even with his middling marks — 25-25 in four years at Syracuse before the 15-17 record he had in his two seasons in Buffalo — he did what coaches are hired to do: better than the guy(s) who came before him.
Greg Robinson, Marrone’s predecessor at Syracuse, went an unsightly 10-37 in his time with the Orange, who hadn’t had a winning season in eight years when Marrone arrived at his alma mater in 2009. When Marrone left ’Cuse for even colder pastures after the 2012 campaign, he joined a Bills team that hadn’t enjoyed a winning record since nearly a decade before. This year, Buffalo went 9-7, led by a formidable defense and a seasoned QB, Kyle Orton, who played small ball reasonable well.
That said, 15-17 is still what it is. Another coach who came to the NFL from the college ranks and rang up an identical record, and even matching 6-10 and 9-7 marks (though in reverse order), was labeled a failure in the pros, even though that guy — Nick Saban — is in just about anyone’s estimation far better at his job than Marrone.
Marrone appears to be a competent coach, and may end up being a good hire if the Jets make that move. But he’s in no way a good enough candidate that Johnson should give him the job before naming a GM. In fact, it’s said GM that should hire a coach, and not Ron Wolf and Charley Casserly, neither of whom has much skin in the game, and only one of whom can definitively be called a success in his own GM days (hint: it’s not Casserly).
The GM should come first, unless Johnson has a unique opportunity to bring in a top-flight coach, any of whom would likely demand final say on personnel anyway. There are very few of those guys ever available, and one thing is for certain: Doug Marrone has shown absolutely no indication of being one, whatever his agent wants us to believe.
