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Rich Cimini, ESPN Staff Writer
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — A look at what’s happening around the New York Jets:
1. Front-office casualty: Folks in the scouting community were stunned by the news assistant general manager Rex Hogan is no longer with the Jets.
It broke on Wednesday, with the NFL world stationed in Mobile, Alabama, for the Senior Bowl, but his departure actually occurred immediately after the season, according to people familiar with the situation. That it stayed quiet for three weeks fueled an air of mystery. Curiosity was sparked when Hogan didn’t show up for the Senior Bowl, one of the biggest scouting events on the pre-draft calendar.
Hogan worked alongside GM Joe Douglas for nearly five years and was an important voice in draft and pro personnel decisions. Hogan was the Jets’ director of college scouting from 2015 to ’17, under former GM Mike Maccagnan, then returned after a two-year stint with the Indianapolis Colts to work as the No. 2 person in the football operation. In his season-ending news conference, Douglas made no reference to potential changes, but he emphasized the need for “reflection” and “learning from some of the decisions that didn’t work out.”
One was the decision to draft former BYU quarterback Zach Wilson with the No. 2 overall pick in 2021. Hogan, who developed scouting connections at BYU while working years ago as the director of football operations at the University of Utah, was known to be a strong advocate for Wilson during the draft process. An executive from another team, who knows Hogan personally, theorized it may have been a factor in letting him go.
Chances are, it was more than that. Teams make changes when seasons go wrong; it’s a fact of life in the NFL. The Jets haven’t had a winning season since 2015. Hogan’s ouster — one source described it as mutual — certainly reinforces the message everybody in the organization is on notice in 2024.
If the Jets replace Hogan, they likely will stay in-house. It’s late in the game to bring in someone from the outside. They could also wait until after the draft.
2. Willing his way: After a non-descript rookie season that caused extreme frustration at times, defensive end Will McDonald vowed to crush the offseason and return in 2024 as a different player. It wasn’t just lip service. McDonald, drafted 15th overall in 2023, already is back in Florham Park working out at the team’s facility. When the season was over, he went home to visit family in Wisconsin, took a brief vacation to Miami and flew back to New Jersey.
This is a pivotal offseason for McDonald, who played 192 defensive snaps as a rookie — tied with Philadelphia Eagles edge rusher Nolan Smith for the fewest offensive or defensive snaps among 2023 first-round picks. In fact, it was the fewest by a Jets first-round pick since defensive end Vernon Gholston (2008).
The Jets want McDonald to get bigger and stronger. He finished the year at 237 pounds, and his goal is to be at least 250 by the season. The team is hoping he can pull a Jermaine Johnson, meaning a giant leap from Year 1 to Year 2.
“Will is a hell of a player; that’ll always be the fact,” Johnson said. “So now, just kind of similar to what I did, I recognized what gifts God blessed me with. I recognized that the only thing that could stop me was what’s in here (points to his heart) and what’s in here (points to his head).
“I just went with that into the offseason and it ended up working out pretty good. I think if Will makes sure his heart and his mind are on the right thing this offseason, he’ll be just fine.”
Coach Robert Saleh said McDonald has “superstar” potential. Buried in a deep defensive-line rotation, McDonald’s opportunities were limited but he had three sacks. After four productive seasons at Iowa State, the lack of playing time was a shock to his system. It got to a point where he wondered if the Jets were the right fit. He hit the reset button and now is looking forward to a significant role. The Jets will be relying on him, especially if they lose edge rusher Bryce Huff in free agency.
3. Back to work: Saleh’s staff returns to work Monday after an extended break. There will be at least two new faces among the coaches — Tony Dews (running backs) and Shawn Jefferson (wide receivers). It’s a return engagement for Jefferson, who served as Adam Gase’s receivers coach and assistant head coach in 2019 and 2020.
4. Looking for bigs: The tackle-needy Jets, picking 10th overall, have been linked to Penn State’s Olumuyiwa Fashanu in many mock drafts, but there are two other tackles that bear watching: Oregon State’s Taliese Fuaga and Oklahoma’s Tyler Guyton, both of whom impressed in Senior Bowl practices.
Douglas has been talking up Fuaga for months, according to a person familiar with his thinking. This doesn’t mean he’s going to pick Fuaga because you never know how the draft will shake out, but it’s an intriguing option in a deep tackle class.
One school of thought making the rounds is Douglas could trade down, take Fuaga or Guyton in the middle of the first round and recoup a second-round pick. Currently, the Jets don’t have a second rounder, a big hole in their draft. It belongs to the Green Bay Packers from the Aaron Rodgers trade.
5. Another Brock Purdy? The Jets will receive three seventh-round compensatory picks in the upcoming draft, according to a projection by Over The Cap. The NFL uses a complicated formula based on free-agent losses and gains to determine compensatory picks.
If this projection holds, the Jets will have the last pick (256). They’ve never had a “Mr. Irrelevant” pick in the post-merger era (since 1970).
6. Super sleepers: Two of the key players in Super Bowl LVIII — San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy and Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco — were seventh-round steals. Which triggers a question: When was the Jets’ last impactful seventh-round pick?
You have to go back to nose tackle Jason Ferguson (1997), who started seven years before signing a big free-agent deal with the Dallas Cowboys.
7. Did you know? 49ers backup Sam Darnold, drafted third overall by the Jets in 2018, became the first quarterback in his star-studded draft class to reach the Super Bowl. His classmates include Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson.
8. Super connections: Other than Darnold, former Jets in the Super Bowl are wide receiver Mecole Hardman, defensive tackle Mike Pennel and running back La’Mical Perine — all on the Chiefs’ roster. Safety Trey Dean, who spent the season on the Jets’ practice squad, belongs to the Chiefs’ practice squad.
9. Four! Rodgers, who won the amateur portion of the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, returned this weekend with a noticeably lower handicap. There was some grumbling among competitors when he won last year with a 10-handicap. This time, he played to a 4-handicap and didn’t come close to winning.
10. The good doctor: Many of the foursomes in the pro-am field included two celebrity athletes, but not Rodgers’ group. His fellow celeb was Neal ElAttrache, the man who performed his Achilles surgery in September.
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