Somebody can alert Woody Johnson to stop the New York Jets’ general manager search because the only candidate he needs just stood up: Mike Francesa.
He brought Mike Piazza to the New York Mets, he advised former Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan, maybe it’s time to just give Francesa the job. To be clear, Francesa isn’t lobbying for the position, but he knows he can fix a Jets franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs in 14 seasons, and he can fix them fast. The plan involves keeping Aaron Rodgers and hiring Rex Ryan to be their defensive coordinator. Boom, playoffs.
“I told you, I could build a team for the Jets right now, where I would finish completing this roster,” the sports radio legend said on The Mike Francesa Podcast. “Because it’s not a bad roster. It’s a pretty good roster. I would bring Rodgers back for one more year – I know this is not going to happen – I would put him under a veteran head coach or I would put him under a dynamic offensive coordinator mind as a head coach. I would hire Rex and give him unusual authority where he’s not the head coach, but he’s got more than typical defensive coordinator status.”
Francesa used Ryan’s father as an example, citing Buddy Ryan serving as the Chicago Bears defensive coordinator while Mike Ditka was the head coach. Despite their volatile relationship, Ditka left Ryan to handle the defense and it led to a Super Bowl.
“I would like to see Rex recreate that job with the Jets. ‘I’ll give you money, I’ll give you a soap box, but you’re not the head coach,” Francesa said. “Run the defense. You can brag about your defense all the time, you can talk about it ’til the cows com home.”
Maybe it worked in 1985, but a head coach and defensive coordinator getting into a literal fistfight at halftime in 2025 will probably be covered differently than it was 40 years ago. If you’re going to fix the Jets, you have to bring something better than forcing a new head coach to hire Rex Ryan as their defensive coordinator and giving the boisterous coach free rein to say whatever he wants publicly.
