The Jets’ miserable season ended with a 28-9 loss to the Bills on Sunday and the fallout from the mess they made of 2012 started early on Monday morning.
A little after 9 a.m. ET, the team announced that General Manager Mike Tannenbaum will not return to the team in 2013. In a statement, owner Woody Johnson also announced that Rex Ryan would remain the team’s head coach.
“This morning, I informed Mike Tannenbaum that he will not return for the 2013 season,” Johnson said in the 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.”
Tannenbaum helped put together the roster that went to a pair of AFC Championship Games in 2009 and 2010, but he wasn’t able to keep the roster stocked with enough talent to avoid a 14-18 record over the last two seasons. Most damningly, the Jets went into games with the least talented offensive skill position players in the league during the 2012 season and they never found a way to put an effective offense on the field.
Tannenbaum also made several questionable contract decisions in recent years, including guaranteeing money to fading players like Bart Scott and extending Mark Sanchez before this season. The latter move guaranteed Sanchez $8.25 million for 2013 and put a massive cap hit in place if the Jets decided to cut bait, complicating their quarterback position as they try to improve heading into next season. There’s a lot of work to be done to get the Jets under the cap heading into next season, something that will be job one for the next G.M.
Recent reports indicated that the Jets might try to keep Tannenbaum in a cap management role going forward while finding a new personnel man to serve as General Manager. They’ve opted not to go that route, though, and Johnson announced that the team has hired a search firm to help them find the next man to run their football operations.