The knee-jerk reaction is to pan the selection of John Idzik as new Jets general manager as a salary-cap expert and business-type executive who will be little more than a puppet who will empower, if that is possible, Teflon Rex Ryan, primarily because he may not be able to tell the difference between, say, Curtis Martin and Steve Martin.
The easy way to go is to trash the Jets for settling on someone other than a personnel whiz simply because they are the Jets, champions only of Murphy’s Law, a football wasteland saddled with salary cap and quarterback hell and a lame-duck head coach who for now has the owner’s ear and affections and a proclivity for the Buttfumble, on the field and off.
I say let’s give this guy a chance.
I say let’s wait before we know for certain how the back-door politics of personnel matters and who will truly have the final say will unfold.
I say let’s wait until we meet the new GM, because for all we know, we might like what he has to say as much as headhunter Jed Hughes and owner Woody Johnson liked what he had to say.
For all we know, the new GM’s vision very well could include importing his own savvy right-hand man with an extensive background in personnel to aid and abet him and bolster the talent procurement department.
If he can deliver Jon Gruden in 2014 — they were colleagues in Tampa, and let’s face it, 2013 looks like a lost season — then no one will be crying that this is just the latest Buttfumble.
No matter how much influence Ryan might yet wield in 2013, a season that will end with the New York Super Bowl in the stadium Johnson shares with John Mara and Steve Tisch, he will be shaking hands with the man who likely will recommend firing him if he misses the playoffs for a third straight time. No Jets head coach, for what it’s worth, has lasted more than five seasons on Johnson’s watch. When a new head coach is hired, he usually wants his own quarterback, and when a new GM is hired, he usually wants his own head coach.
As much as Johnson has a thing for Ryan, he also has a thing against unsold PSLs, and further fan unrest/revolt will only empower Idzik, because he isn’t the one who must win now, Ryan is — or at least should be expected to by everyone from Johnson to the Flight Crew.
Idzik graduated from Dartmouth magma cum laude, which means there will be times when he uses words that will make Ryan think he’s speaking a foreign language. In fact, he sounds very much like the anti-Rex.
“I think he’ll do fine. … I just hope that he likes it,” Idzik’s mother, Joyce, told The Post last night. “He’s always been a kind of private person, and you can’t do that in the New York market. But he does know that.”
He knows that from his teenage years as a training camp ballboy when his father, John, was Jets offensive coordinator under Walt Michaels from 1977-79.
“He was a little-bit-of-everything boy,” Joyce said. “He did some of the laundry, he was in charge of washing jockstraps [chuckle], that’s what his sisters and I kidded him about.”
The anti-Rex inherits loads of dirty laundry with these Jets.
“In our neighborhood, we’d say he never toots his own horn,” Joyce said. “His fellow [Dartmouth] football players never knew he was a straight-A student. They never knew he was going to be a Phi Beta Kappa. He just doesn’t talk about it. He figures his work will tell everybody everything.”
Idzik played wide receiver and has a beautiful mathematician’s mind.
“He used to say solving a problem in math was the same as catching a touchdown pass,” Joyce said.
But he should know that two plus two doesn’t always add up to four around the Jets. If he is in any way a marshmallow, he will be roasted and eaten alive. It’s one thing to have Ryan forced on him, it’s even worse if he allows himself to be bullied or persuaded over personnel.
“He’s quiet. People don’t realize how tough he is,” Joyce said. “He had long legs and people didn’t realize how fast he went. He doesn’t hesitate to say what he really believes. You can trust what he says. When he says something, it’s honest.”
Years ago, Idzik traded IBM for NFL. His mother remembers the call this way:
John Idzik: “Sit down, mom.”
Mom: “What?”
John Idzik: “I can’t stay away from the game.”
Idzik would seem to be the perfect choice to fix the dunce-cap situation, but the burden of proof absolutely will be on him to prove he is more than a Mike Tannenbaum clone.
Joyce Idzik was referring to her ailing husband when she said: “He used to watch the film with Johnny and they discussed which players were better than the others and why. I don’t think he’ll have any trouble with that at all.”
Ryan, more than anyone, better hope Idzik doesn’t. Because if Idzik does have trouble with personnel, if he doesn’t find a quarterback (Michael Vick at a greatly reduced price? Matt Flynn?) for new offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, the man entrusted to bring that side of the ball out of the Dark Ages … and a pass rusher not named Vernon Gholston … and a receiver not named Derrick Mason … and a running back not named Blair Thomas — and quickly — no one will be asking Ryan about any tattoo.
Ryan will be soaking up the sun on Paradise Island, as Ex Ryan. And Joyce Idzik’s boy will be introducing the new head coach of the Jets.
steve.serby@nypost.com