Report: Jets secretly met with Kliff Kingsbury's agent while Todd Bowles was still employed
The New York Jets might want to be more secretive the next time they conduct a coaching search. The team reportedly had a meeting with Kliff Kingsbury’s agent while Todd Bowles was still coaching the team, according to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News.
This wasn’t an instance where they met with Kingsbury’s agent the final week of the regular season, either. The meeting — which was run by Jets CEO Christopher Johnson — reportedly took place in late November/early December, according to Mehta’s report which read:
“General manager Mike Maccagnan, top lieutenant Brian Heimerdinger, agent Erik Burkhardt and Johnson had wine over dinner, exploring the possibilities of landing former Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury, while Todd Bowles twisted in the wind for the final month of a four-win campaign, according to sources.”
On top of that Johnson also attempted to have conversations with other coaches behind then general manager Mike Maccagnan’s back.
Kingsbury being linked to the Jets first surfaced in January from a report from Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson.
Johnson had to elude Maccagnan because he wanted to offer his new coach the ability to fire Maccagnan. The Jets eventually hired Adam Gase, and after an active offseason, Maccagnan was fired in May. Gase has taken over as the interim general manager as the team searches for a new one.
That whole soap opera may have influenced Minnesota Vikings assistant general manager George Paton to turn down the chance to become the team’s next general manager. It’s the third time Paton has turned down that opportunity with the Jets. Mehta theorizes the turmoil at the top could lead other NFL executives to follow Paton’s lead.
The chance of running a team with Sam Darnold under center should be appealing to candidates. While Darnold wasn’t perfect during his rookie season, defenders came away impressed. If Darnold can continue to develop, the Jets could have something special on their hands.
In order to take advantage of that, the Jets will need to find a general manager they trust to continue building toward a championship. Unless they can shore things up internally, that may prove more difficult than expected.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
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