Will Mike Shanahan wind up being the Brett Favre of the 2009 Jets season?
No one saw Favre coming last summer, and no one could have imagined that Shanahan, fired Tuesday by the Denver Broncos, would be a possibility to replace Eric Mangini as the Jets head coach. He is available and, with Bill Cowher officially passing on the chance to coach the Jets, he's going to be a factor in the team's search.
In some ways, he's the offensive-minded version of Cowher. Cowher won a Super Bowl with the Steelers, Shanahan won two of them with the Broncos. Cowher's got an outsize profile, so does Shanahan, and neither man needs much selling beyond a look at their resume. Jets fans will surely remember the way Shanahan outcoached Mangini this season, and still have nightmares about the way he beat Bill Parcells in the AFC Championship Game 10 years ago.
Shanahan may pass the "can he help us sell PSLs" test, but does he pass the football test? It's a mixed bag. He won those two titles with John Elway and Terrell Davis, and won just one playoff game in the 10 seasons that followed. As he gained more power over personnel, something he'd likely want to hold onto, the team fell into mediocrity. They're .500 over the last three years, with no trips to the postseason in that span.
That said, Shanahan gets high marks for his in-game work and his offensive scheme has consistently churned out high-scoring teams featuring powerful running attacks. He's also 5-2 lifetime against Bill Belichick, something that's sure to get mentioned more than once as his name gets bandied about. Shanahan could do some very good things with no personnel responsibilities and the right defensive coordinator.
Given where the team is right now, however, that may be too hard to bring together. You have to figure the Jets will kick the tires, though.
