Rex Ryan is off the hot seat, at least for another year. Jets owner Woody Johnson announced today that general manager Mike Tennenbaum would not be back with the team. Johnson released the following statement,
"Mike devoted 15 years of service to the Jets, and I want to thank him for his hard work and dedication. Although he helped guide us to two consecutive AFC Championship games, we are not where we want to be, and a new General Manager will be critical to getting this team back on the right track."
Along with the announcement, Woody Johnson went on to give his head coach a vote of confidence, indicating that the new GM would not be firing Rex Ryan in favor of another candidate.
"Rex Ryan will remain the Head Coach of our football team. I believe that he has the passion, the talent, and the drive to successfully lead our team."
The peculiar way this situation has been handled raises more questions in the Jets organization than it actually answers. Ideally, when a team blows up their front office, everyone from the GM down goes. In this situation, the head coach will stay while a new general manager is brought in, and that's not exactly a recipe for success.
A relatively recent example of this came in 2009 when the Jaguars axed their top personnel man but kept head coach Jack Del Rio. Since then, the team has floundered about. The Jets are a slightly better organization, but the end result may be very similar to that in North Florida.
