These Coaches Look Like They Can't Miss

OK, forget everything I said yesterday about hiring the GM first. No, really, I still think that’s the way to go, and that Woody Johnson would be making a mistake if he chooses a coach first (unless he can somehow use Johnson & Johnson’s research lab to clone Vince Lombardi, and, if that’s the case, do you really think Vince II wouldn’t ask for final say on all personnel matters?).

But let’s be honest, how much do any of us really know — or can we know — about Gang Green’s GM candidates? Ravens’ assistant GM Eric DeCosta may well have superhuman strength and be fluent in more than a dozen languages — including pig Latin, Klingon and Wookie — but where’s the evidence that he’s making smart calls on personnel, and that his influence is really that important in an organization where Ozzie Newsome and John Harbaugh have been the faces for so many years?

So while Johnson and his consultants use their Ouija board to evaluate GM candidates, I’d like to bring up a few potential coaching candidates that the new general manager might want to consider once he finds Florham Park.

I haven’t seen the two names on my mind on any of the other lists, including the one that features those that the Jets have reportedly requested permission to interview. That list, from what I understand, has on it such luminaries as Gary Kubiak and Tom Cable. No, really, it does, along with assorted other NFL assistant coaches, including Cardinals defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, whose body of work is simply too impressive to ignore — and, I’m guessing, every other team searching for a coach will feel the same way about Bowles, which may make him tough for Gang Green to land.

The two guys I have in mind both reside in the football cold-bed of Mississippi, and between them have absolutely zero NFL experience. However, Dan Mullen and Hugh Freeze have something few others out there can match: a record of success as a head coach in an ultra-competitive environment. Mullen and Freeze have turned Mississippi State and Mississippi, respectively, into SEC powerhouses via creative problem-solving, developing and managing talent and getting the whole team — not just the defensive or offensive units, like the coordinators and assistants the Jets are now eyeing—to buy in to what they’re selling.

Oh yeah, and with all the talk about how you build through the draft, who knows college talent better than these guys, who have been in the living rooms of many of the prospects the Jets will be looking at this year and beyond? The GM may pick the talent, but it sure doesn’t hurt to have a knowledgeable voice in the head coach. One more oh yeah — these guys are QB whisperers. Mullen made Tim Tebow into one of most efficient passers in college football history. Enough said.

Woody, get the GM first. But make sure you hire someone with an open mind instead of the same old tired thoughts. 

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