A lot of folks here have ignored the fact that the Jets assistant GM has also been fired. When that happens on a team, it seems to me the next tier in the Organization chart for coordinating with a GM is the HC and that is where the temporary GM title lands until there is a new one.
I found it interesting to learn that this is the Jets owners 2nd year at the helm. He said he was much more involved with what was happening as the new season began and had watched the internal dynamics of his operation close up and that he said he decided a more strategic thinker at the GM position was required.
My conclusions, assuming that what the owner said is true
(what he did certainly makes sense to me and should be the kind of review any CEO should be doing with their key management people) are:
1) In hiring Adam Gase the owner sent a message to anyone who was watching that there was a focus on not only the teams offensive play, but the decision making methodology they wanted in a head coach.
(I know a lot of folks on this board disagree with Gases play calling and offensive planning. They support their position by compare what Gase did to what they wanted done based solely on their presumptions of what we had and how it should be used. Those presumptions are just that, presumptions, nothing more and nothing less.)
2) Since the draft was coming up and most of the groundwork had already been done, it made sense to see how their GM could do as opposed to making a change in the GM position at that time without giving the candidate the time to organize the scouting department and outlining what was wanted from them.
- By letting their GM follow through with the tremendous financial opportunity the Jets had and their strong draft positions and the opportunity to develop a strong relationship with their new HC; they gave him everything they could to help him succeed.
- Since their GM had worked successfully at getting the Jets a serious QB last season, this was certainly a reasonable position to take.
3) After their draft, which wasn't too bad in my opinion, the owner determined that there needed to be improvements made in some aspect of how their GM managed things and for that reason they released him.
- This was clearly not a knee jerk reaction or it would have happened immediately after the draft - not 3 weeks later.
The only effect I see that Adam Gase had in getting the Jets GM fired is that he represented the kind of decision making methodology the Jets owner wanted and his being there made it easy for the owner to compare how the GM and the HC did things, along with the details of why those approaches were taken. Keep in mind that many of the Jets posters wanted to get rid of their GM before Gase was even on the their team.
This all comes down to an owner looking at the inner workings of those folks managing his team and making decisions based on what he saw and moving towards how he wants his front office management to be run.