Executive VP Candidate: Ray Agnew

Edition #742

☀️ Good morning! ☕

As much as this team infuriates me, and as tired as I am with the losing, the constant rebuilds the Woody interference and everything else, I’m a Jets fan. I’ve always been a Jets fan and I’ll always be a Jets fan until the day I leave this earth.

So I could carry on getting angry with what’s happening with the team in 2024, and accept that nothing is going to change and look forward to trading for Jordan Love in 2035, or we can start looking to the future in the hope that it may be different.

I’m reading a book at the minute called ‘The silence in between’ by Josie Ferguson (outstanding by the way, look it up) and as books often do it starts with a quote. This one by Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana:

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

I have to live in perpetual hope that Woody can change his approach, that this team can change course and fittingly for today’s newsletter I look to the Detroit Lions for hope. For many years they were an NFL punchline, since the start of the 21st century they’ve been to the playoffs just 4 times. That’s 17% of the time, and in amongst that they experienced a 2-14 season (2001) a 3-13 season (2002), 3-13 season (2006), 0-16 season (2008), 2-14 season (2009), 4-12 season (2012), 3-12 season (2019) and a 3-13-1 season (2021) under the current management group.

When the Lions hired Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell their fans must have thought the exact same thing that I we think right now, nothing’s going to change, it’s all part of the cycle, this franchise is a joke. After that 3-13-1 season and starting 2022 1-6, there were some calling for the heads of both Holmes and Campbell. Look where they are now. It doesn’t mean the Jets will follow. But they give me hope and right now, the one thing we don’t have is hope.

We’ll get back to talking about the 2024 team tomorrow as we prepare for Flacco and the Colts, but for today I’m going to talk about a candidate I like for the GM job. I’m also opening this newsletter up for everyone, so please feel free to share far and wide.

🟢 Jeff Ulbrich went to great lengths to explain that he’ll back the players to the hills in public press conferences, but in the privacy of the team meetings there is a whole lot of accountability going on - "So you understand me, in this forum [a press conference], I will always back the players," Ulbrich said. "I will in our team meeting rooms, in our meeting rooms, in front of the rest of the team, there's a high level of accountability, I promise you that. So I just, I've never ... that's just not who I ever will be. You know, that's family business, and we keep it in our family."

⚫ PFF outlined the team strengths based on statistics yesterday and you won’t be that surprised to see that the Jets are neither strong on defense or offense

🟢 Their offensive EPA on pass-plays is also extremely disappointing considering we brought in Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams to make us one of the most potent passing attacks in football

⚫ I said I’d be drip-feeding through some mock drafts, and this week it comes courtesy of ‘The 33rd Team’ and Kyle Crabbs. It’s another draft analyst who projects the Jets to spend a top-10 pick on a safety, which just won’t happen. Malaki Starks - “The once-proud New York Jets defense has fallen on hard times this season. Gone is the maestro, Robert Saleh. Former defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich is now serving as the interim head coach and spending less time with his defense — and it shows. The group has held just one of their last 6 opponents under 23 points, and that came on a short week at home against the Houston Texans. The run defense is struggling. The ball-hawking and playmaking in the secondary are missing in action. An elite safety prospect like Malaki Starks could bring a whole new element to the secondary. His versatility would be an awesome addition alongside the lockdown corners the Jets boast.”

🟢 ESPN did a comparison of Robert Saleh’s first five games in comparison to Jeff Ulbrich’s five games. I’m not sure it’s a completely fair comparison, but it’s very interesting insight especially on the defensive side of the ball. The Jets have regressed across the board but it’s pretty stark on defense.

⚫ The Jets have claimed Connor McGovern from the Saints. The Jets long-time centre is back again and adds some much needed depth to that offensive line.

🟢 Aaron Rodgers made his weekly appearance on the Pat McAfee show and talked a lot about how the Jets game performances don’t reflect their practice habits (where have we heard that before). But admitted that there is a lot of humble pie eating going on: "a lot of pies to be eaten around here this year, flavored humble ... but you have to hold on to that beautiful thing in life called hope."

I’ve been living vicariously through the Detroit Lions this season, watching their rise with envy as we experience yet another false start.

There are a lot of good GM candidates including the likes of Mike Borgonzi over in Kansas City and Terrance Gray in Buffalo, but Ray Agnew in Detroit is my early favourite to lead the Jets in a Executive Vice President/General Manager role, with the true authority to make all the key football decisions.

Agnew is the assistant General Manager for Detroit behind Brad Holmes and has had a front-row seat to the turnaround for the Lions.

According to his official bio in Detroit “Agnew assists and consults Executive Vice President and General Manager Brad Holmes with all functions of the player personnel department” and is a “key asset in helping Holmes with roster construction and team building”.

2024 is his 4th season in Detroit in his current role, which has offered invaluable experience in seeing not only how a well-run franchise can operate, a franchise with a clear line of command. But he’s also seen what it takes to turn a franchise around, from the doldrums of the NFL to a team who many favour to be the NFC representation in the Super Bowl this season.

We can’t underestimate just how good the Lions turnaround has been. ‘The club's 12-5 record tied the single-season franchise record for wins in a season. The 2023 season was also the third season in club history to have multiple playoff games won, and the first time it occurred in a season for the franchise since 1957. The 2023 roster clinched Detroit's first Division Championship since 1993 and advanced to the club's first NFC Championship since 1991.’

But his experience obviously doesn’t start and end with his time in Detroit, although it’s that period that has interested me in terms of the Jets soon to be vacant position.

Before moving to Detroit, Agnew spent four years with the LA Rams as the director of pro scouting and before that he spent 18 years as part of the Rams scouting staff. So he’s worked in a shadow role as GM, he’s worked in pro scouting and he’s also worked in college scouting.

‘In Los Angeles, Agnew was tasked with evaluating all 32 NFL rosters in preparation for free agency and writing advance scouting reports for upcoming opponents. For the draft, he evaluated all players on the Rams' draft board and prepared grades alongside team need analysis for the draft process. Throughout the year, Agnew was also responsible for the preparation of potential trade scenarios.’

Before he stepped into the front office he was a former #10 overall pick as a defensive tackle spending 11 seasons in the NFL, over 450 tackles and 22.5 sacks winning the 1999 Super Bowl with the Rams. He wasn’t the best player on most of the teams he played, but this quote sums it up. "If you voted in the locker room most well-liked individual, most respected, it would have been Ray Agnew," former coach Mike Martz said. "Everyone loved the guy." - It’s one thing to be loved, it’s another to be respected. If you can gain both love and respect from the people around you, you’re doing a fine job.

I’ve read countless articles about Agnew now and it’s the small things that sell me on him. It’s the experience, it’s the respect, it’s the love, it’s a lot of things, but he also seems to understand this game on a deeper level thanks to having played it at the top level for such a long time.

"It gives him a leg up on all the other personnel people," Martz said. "Just being in the competitive part of it, watching guys how they played the game. He sees it immediately on tape the passion, the effort a guy has. I've seen him come out of the film room and I'd ask him about a guy and he'd just shake his head and laugh. He said, 'Kid just doesn't have a good enough motor.' It's things like that, he just gets it."

One issue that has plagued the Jets for as long as I can remember is poor free agency decisions. Signing the wrong people for the wrong reasons. Sometimes being a good player isn’t enough. You have to look deeper than past production and Mike Martz had another great story about Ray Agnew for the Detroit News:

"There was a receiver our geniuses in the front office wanted to sign and Ray said, 'Don't touch him. Don't touch him. Don't touch him,'" Martz said. "We signed him, against Ray's (advice). We had to cut him. He was just a bad individual.

"He wrecked us for a couple of weeks, just wrecked us," Martz continued. "I had to get him out of there. Ray knew it right away. He said, 'Don't touch him. You don't want this guy in our locker room, coach.' ...He has that intuitiveness that he knows what fits and what doesn't fit."

So for me the ticks just keep coming. From that same story there is a quote from Brad Holmes about Ray banging the table for a certain defensive tackle who came in and dominated the league:

"Because of his size and all that, there were questions about whether he was more of a sub guy, a package guy," Holmes said. "Ray was like, 'No, he's every down. I don't care about all this other stuff. No, he's a really good, every-down (player).' It was Ray who stood up and was convicted. He was like, "Look, I'm telling you, I don't care about the size, this guy is the real deal.' That's the kind of conviction he brings, and when he brings it, you know it's real. You can feel it."

Some people have wondered if he’ll ever get the top job because he just doesn’t want to talk about himself. He’s unwilling to take credit, credit for Aaron Donald, credit for trying to stear the Rams away from that unnamed receiver, credit for steering the Lions towards Hutchinson instead of Thibodeaux, or standing on conviction for Amon-Ra St. Brown. But that’s the part of this that I love, I don’t want a self promoter who likes to talk about his own achievements and grab the limelight, here’s what I want:

✅ Someone who has worked within the GM environment.
✅ Someone who has worked with a GM who has experienced success.
✅ Someone who has been part of an organisation who has seen a turnaround.
✅ Someone who has worked in college scouting.
✅ Someone who has worked in pro personnel scouting.
✅ A former player who can relate.
✅ Someone of conviction who looks beyond the numbers in the stat column.
✅ Someone who has been respected wherever he has been.
✅ 30+ years of direct NFL experience as either a player or front office personnel

I know there are pitfalls with every single candidate. But Ray Agnew ticks a lot of boxes for me, and while he may not interview well…it’s about looking past his ability to sit down and talk about himself, it’s about seeing the man, the person, the scout, the professional, the player, the expert, the experience.