New York Jets fire Mike Maccagnan as part of front office shakeup

Despite spending a boat load of money in the offseason, Mike Maccagnan has been let go as the New York Jets shake up their front office.

There had been rumblings of friction in the New York Jets front office, and there had been speculation dating back to the draft that the Jets would move on from GM Mike Maccagnan. The Jets let Maccagnan conduct their free agency this spring and run the draft, but it wasn’t good enough to save his job as Adam Schefter reports he and VP of player personnel Brian Heimerdinger have been fired.

Maccagnan had two years left on his contract, and now he’s out of a job after the Jets let him run the entire offseason to this point. There had been calls to dismiss Maccagnan back in January, when the Jets moved on from head coach Todd Bowles, and it would have made more sense to start clean at that point.

Instead, the Jets opted to have Maccagnan involved in the hiring of new head coach Adam Gase, who has reportedly had issues with Maccagnan over personnel in recent weeks. Maccagnan came out last week and dismissed the rumors of issues, but there was clearly something to the rumors.

The Jets are now looking for a new GM, and for the time being Gase will fill that role on an interim basis.

For a franchise that has worked to get rid of its circus-like reputation, this is a horrendous look. The Jets not only let Maccagnan help pick their next head coach, but also let him spent almost $200 million in free agency and make the third overall pick in the draft only to fire him a few weeks later.

The Jets also issued the following statement about Maccagnan’s dismissal.

This also sets up an awkward shotgun wedding between whoever the Jets hire to be their GM and Gase, who’s already in place as the head coach and isn’t going anywhere. The last time the Jets tried this approach was in 2013, when the pairing of Rex Ryan and John Idzik led to two dysfunctional years before Maccagnan was hired.

This would lead one to believe that Gase will have significant influence over which GM is hired, and Adam Schefter has already tossed out one candidate with ties to Gase.

No one is going to say that Mike Maccagnan was the next Bill Polian, but he deserved a far better fate than what he got from the Jets. At a time when the franchise is trying to build a team capable of winning the AFC East, stability would have been the smart thing to do.

Instead, the same old Jets returned, bringing back the three ring circus that the Giants have tried to run with since Dave Gettleman took over.