John Idzik comes to the Jets billed as a “really smart guy” with a sturdy reputation around the NFL built mostly through his work negotiating contracts and managing the salary cap.
Idzik, the Seahawks’ vice president of football administration, whose father once coached for the Jets, emerged as the winner yesterday of a winding, two-week search to replace Mike Tannenbaum as general manager that featured interviews with 10 candidates.
While that money background will come in handy for a team hamstrung by one of the league’s worst cap situations, Idzik’s dearth of recent player evaluation experience raised some eyebrows because of the Jets’ poor overall talent level and by Woody Johnson giving him final say over all personnel matters.
His selection was immediately applauded by Seahawks GM John Schneider, who tried to ease concerns about Idzik’s talent-judging ability by describing him as a “football man.”
“John is a well-respected, lifelong football man who I believe will be a strong addition to the Jets organization,” Schneider said in a statement. “While he will be missed by the Seahawks organization, we wish him and his family all the best with this great opportunity.”
Idzik, who spent the past six seasons with the Seahawks after earlier stints (mostly on the cap side) with the Cardinals and Buccaneers, certainly has more football experience than Tannenbaum. He played at Dartmouth and served as an assistant coach in the 1980s and early 1990s at the University of Buffalo and Duke.
But the bulk of that playing, coaching and talent evaluation came more than 20 years ago (he also briefly served as a pro personnel assistant with the Buccaneers). That explains why Schneider, hoping to help Idzik land a GM job, recently had Idzik go on some college scouting trips.
But league sources yesterday described Idzik as a mildly surprising choice by the Jets after it emerged he would have full control over personnel (forget the talk of a Rex Ryan power grab) and wasn’t expected to overhaul a personnel department that consistently misfired in four seasons with Tannenbaum in charge.
Idzik could ease those concerns by bringing in a strong talent evaluator as his assistant, which might be the plan considering former Colts GM Bill Polian — a true “football guy” — consulted with the Jets on the hire and sat in on some interviews.
Even so, many around the league expected the Jets to go for someone with a stronger personnel background to replace Tannenbaum. That was because many of the NFL’s most recent turnaround stories — particularly, the Colts with Nick Grigson, the Seahawks with Schneider and the Falcons with Thomas Dimitroff — were executed by GMs who came up through the football side and not the financial side.
Indeed, the trend has been strong around the league in recent years against turning the total operation over to a cap specialist. The Jets will be going against the grain, though it appears Idzik’s peers are willing to give them and him the benefit of the doubt.
“He’s known as a really smart guy, a really bright guy,” an NFC GM said last night. “He’s more of a money person, but that doesn’t mean he can’t succeed if he surrounds himself with the right people. But he’s going to have his hands full with that team. People are going to have to be patient.”