So the Jets followed their brutal loss to the Packers - a game they led by 15 points in the fourth quarter - by blowing another promising pursuit.
Gang Green announced via Twitter that there was no veracity to the rumors that the club is flirting with the fiery football coach Jim Harbaugh. The exact quote read: "There is no truth to the report of our interest in Jim Harbaugh."
If they are being honest with that assertion, then you don't have to be a windtalker to hear that the Jets were saying something more ominous.
We, the New York Jets, have no interest in a head coach in his prime, who not only played in the NFL for 15 years, but also has a wonderful, winning record, and is especially adept at turning forlorn franchises into contenders.
Sarcasm aside, what else are the Jets telling us? Harbaugh started in college at San Diego and turned that fringe football program around. Then he went to Stanford and muscled past the mighty USC Trojans of Pete Carroll. Then he graduated to the NFL and whipped the San Francisco 49ers into Super Bowl shape, won nearly 70 percent of his games (64-44-1), and was one wayward pass from winning a Lombardi Trophy.
Now Harbaugh has turned his alma mater, Michigan, back into a perennial power. The only pockmark on his Ann Arbor resume is his failure to topple his heated, hated rival, Ohio State, unable to beat one of the five greatest coaches in college football history (Urban Meyer). So the worst thing we can say about Harbaugh is he's not Urban Meyer. But who knows if Meyer could win in the NFL? We know Harbaugh has.
Unlike player contracts, often hamstrung by a hard salary cap, there's no lid on what an NFL squad can pay a head coach. And the $7 million Harbaugh inhales from Michigan is certainly a lot by NCAA standards, but with every NFL franchise worth at least $1 billion, they can double Harbaugh's salary with coins found in the couch.
Sure, this slice of cyberspace has pined for Jim Harbaugh's big brother, John, who has done a splendid job with the Baltimore Ravens, including a Super Bowl title in 2012. You could argue the elder Harbaugh has done his best job this year. While the Ravens were flatlining a month ago, they have surged into first place in the AFC North behind neophyte QB Lamar Jackson. Rather than go with the guy - Joe Flacco - who got him a ring, Harbaugh rolled the dice on the Heisman winner from Louisville and the crapshoot has paid off.
Not to mention Harbaugh is already in the NFL, and there have been rampant rumors that he and the Ravens have agreed to an amicable divorce at season's end. Maybe this late-season surge has changed things. None of us know until they finish the season.
But if Jim Harbaugh is a consolation prize, you jump on him. Fly him to MetLife, sweep him into the executive suite, bolt the door, and don't let him leave until you see him scribble on a Gang Green contract.
Harbaugh has sublime NFL experience, is still dialed-into the pro game, and, as a recent college coach, is hardwired into the blue-chip talent about to leave Saturdays for Sundays. Jumping from the NCAA to NFL helped Jimmy Johnson turn the Cowboys into a dynasty, and it helped Harbaugh turn the 49ers into a juggernaut. Not to mention Harbaugh was the only coach on earth to turn Colin Kaepernick into a high-grade NFL QB.
Imagine a 15-year NFL QB who squeezed every ounce of talent out of his body, coached Andrew Luck in college, and turned Kaepernick into a Pro Bowl player, working with Sam Darnold.
You hope the Jets are dismissing the rumors just to be coy or cute or as some covert move in the mating ritual. Maybe they can say they don't want Jim Harbaugh as a way of driving down the price. But the benefits of hiring Jim Harbaugh as the next head coach are endless. As are the meat-hook realities if they don't.