Ways that a new GM can fix what ails the Jets: 1. Make the product on the field more important than marketing the product on the field in the over all organizational plan. The Jets are over-marketed and under-performing. The first thing to fix is the organizational bias towards "WOW!" moves. What the organization needs is more "WOW!" play on the field that can then be transformed into "WOW!" marketing after the fact. 2. Fix the player acquisition strategy. There's no evidence that bundling draft picks to try to find stars works in terms of competitive position in the standings. It's not even clear that it leads to finding more stars than you would just exercising the picks. There's no evidence that buying several high-priced free agents at a time actually improves a team's performance much once the median is reached. An influx of free agent talent can make a bad team average but there's no evidence that it can make an average team great. There's no evidence that doing both of the above creates real championship opportunities. The teams that keep winning championships mostly just make their picks and occasionally supplement with free agency. 3. Establish team identities on offense and defense that will facilitate long-term player value decisions. The Jets have gone back and forth between 3-4 and 4-3 over and over again over the last 15 years. Bill Parcells started the process when he made Hugh Douglas expendable by moving to a 3-4. Then Herm made James Farrior expendable by moving to a 4-3. Then Mangini made John Abraham and Jonathan Vilma expendable by moving to a 3-4 again. It appears as though the Jets are moving back to a 4-3 at this point, although due to the aging of the linebackers and the Jets drafting the DL the impact may not be as heavily felt this time. However if David Harris is on the way out in a year the move to the 4-3 will likely be why. The Jets need to establish a defensive front and they need to stick with that through thick and thin so they don't keep giving away pro bowl caliber talent with every switch. On offense the Jets just need to keep the offensive line together and strong. The biggest single piece of the Jets fluctuations over the last decade has been repeated failures on the offensive line. Given that fact part of the Jets identity should be a great offensive line. Every time the Jets have been top of their form the last 15 years the offensive line has been top 5 in the NFL. Given that it is a wonder that the FO has continually allowed the talent there to decline producing repetitive collapses in the process. That's just three areas off the top of my head where a new GM/FO could have a huge impact on the Jets fortunes over the next decade.
