Jets CEO and chairman Christopher Johnson wants a “great strategic thinker” to run the football operation. He needs someone who can work with coach Adam Gase. And at the intersection possibly resides one and only one name.
Peyton Manning.
Rumors are flying within league circles that the Jets may make a run at the future Hall of Fame quarterback who has periodically been linked to NFL management possibilities. And Gase, who worked with Manning in Denver, possibly would be one of the few guys who could draw Manning back into football.
Manning wouldn’t be a traditional G.M., but Johnson has made it clear that he’s not looking for a traditional G.M.
“It’s more than a talent-evaluation guy,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I want a great manager, a communicator, who can collaborate well with the building. I’m convinced we’re going to find that person.”
Manning definitely would be that person. But it’s unknown whether Manning would be interested in being that person. If he is, it would fulfill a match more than 20 years in the making; in 1997, Manning supposedly would have left Tennessee early if he had an assurance that the Jets would make him the first overall pick in the draft.
Getting Manning also would go a long way toward removing the current stink of dysfunction enveloping the Jets, even if that stink is more than a little overblown.