Mangini to the Jets?

It's being reported that The Patriots' Defensive Coordinator, Eric Mangini, will shortly become the new head coach of the NY Jets. The deal has yet to be formally announced, but based on various news stories, it sounds like it's a virtual certainty at this point.

I had been pretty much ignoring this story up until recently, simply because I had found it hard to believe that The Jets would actually want to hire a guy with only one year of coordinator experience under his belt to take over as their new head coach, but it looks like it's going to happen.

Mangini seems to be a good up and coming coach. He did a great job as The Pats' secondary coach in prior seasons and while I would not say he was 'outstanding' in his 1st year as The Pats defensive coordinator, he did a decent job in his 1st year. The Pats D started out slow and then picked it up as the season went on, though it's reported that a big part of the team's 2nd half defensive turnaround had a lot to do with Belichick getting more involved.

I am happy that Mangini is finding success and I wish him well (except against The Pats of course), but I can't help but wonder what the Jets are thinking with this move. With only one year of coodinator experience, is Mangini ready to step in as a head coach in one of the toughest, if not the toughest market in the NFL?

I guess we'll find out. The Jets are in bad shape all around right now and I don't expect to see an immediate turnaround, though they can only go up from where they are now... I'm sure there will be some improvement, but next year could wind up being a tough one for the potential new head coach of the Jets. Could this be a repeat of the Pete Carroll years down in NY? We'll see.

In the meantime, this leaves The Pats in a lurch at the defensive coordinator position. What will the Pats do now? Will they look to fill the job from inside or outside the Pats organization? Pepper Johnson could be an internal candidate to move up and take the DC job. Or, does Belichick go out and get a coordinator to run the offense next year and then switch over to do double duty with the defense? Could Josh McDaniels be a potential internal candidate to run the offense?

With so many questions yet to be answered, it's already an interesting offseason for The Pats.

Update:

It's official. Eric Mangini is the new head coach of the NY Jets and I've got Elton John's 'Benny and the Jets' stuck in my head. "Eric... Eric... Eric Man-gini and the Jetttts."

Next season, Pats will face two teams in the AFC East that have Belichick proteges as head coaches. There's already Nick Saban coaching down in Miami and now Mangini and the Jettts (Sorry. Cant get the Elton out of my head). That means that The Pats, Jets and Fish will all be playing a very simelar style of defense next year. It also means that all 3 coaches are going to have a good idea what the other guy is going to try and do on defense. It should prove very interesting to see what kind of twists Belichick adds to his defensive schemes in order to keep our copy-cat AFC East rivals guessing.

We can now add Defensive Coordinator to The Pats' list of offseason needs.

Update 2:
Literally hours after Mangini took the Jets HC job, The Patriots named Dean Pees as their new defensive coordinator. No fucking around there. I love this team.

GO PATS

Comments

[B]

Yes - you are officially old!

I have the feeling that Mangini will almost be like Belichick going to the Browns. Lets see how well Mangini does on his own the first time around.

Remember even though Saban and Mangini both know Bill. Bill also knows them and he also know more then them!

[Me]

Wait a min, you are older than me bro, so you can't talk! Ha ha!

I don't know if I'd compare Mangini and the Jets (damn that Elton John) to Belichick and the Browns. When BB went to Cleveland he had a ton of experience as a def coordinator at that point as well as experience on the offensive side of the ball as well.

Mangini has one year at def coordinator under his belt and zero offensive experience...

Hey, if the Jets continue to suck with Mangini as their coach, you won't hear me complain about it! ;)