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Mike Maccagnan is out as the Jets general manager.
The team announced that shocking news on Wednesday, despite the fact that Maccagnan just presided over a draft and a free agent spending spree.
Mike Francesa reacted to the firing on Wednesday afternoon on the “Mike’s On” app. Francesa thinks that Maccagnan’s personality played a big part in why he was ultimately beaten out by Adam Gase in what seems like a power struggle.
“You have to understand Maccagnan,” said Francesa. “Maccagnan is a guy who … is not a very in your face personality. He’s a guy that, in knowing him as I do, and I got to know him pretty well, he is a guy who did not give other people up, did not stab other people in the back … I never saw him as an alley-fighter. I saw him as a guy who did things by the letter of the law … and was more of a passive than a defiant personality.”
The Jets also announced that Gase had been named as the interim GM, but owner Christopher Johnson said the team will still look for a successor to the departed Maccagnan.
Gase was the Miami Dolphins head coach from 2016-2018. He was fired after last season and was then soon hired by the Jets. He has earned a bit of a reputation as a stubborn boss and, as Francesa put it, a “my way or the highway” kind of guy.
Francesa thought that Gase must’ve seen an opportunity to earn more power in the franchise when he was brought on board back in January.
“What I think happened here was Gase saw an opening. He saw that there is an owner that he could sway. He saw that there was a general manager who was not on the firmest of footing, who did not have a real tough guy personality, who was not going to fight him. When Gase elbowed him in the corner, he was not going to elbow him back, and that’s a lot of what I think went on here. And I think he saw a guy that he thought he could tip over, and he went to work … he saw an opening and he ran for it.”