NEW YORK (AP) — Mike Maccagnan helped lead the Jets‘ coaching search this offseason Dexter Williams Jersey , spent big money in free agency and oversaw the team’s draft.Now, stunningly, he’s out as New York’s general manager. announced the decision to fire Maccagnan in a statement posted Wednesday on the team’s Twitter account.“It was a decision that evolved,” Johnson said during a conference call a few hours after the announcement. “And it took a while and maybe I was slow with that decision, but I finally came to it in the last few days.”Coach Adam Gase will serve as the acting general manager while the Jets search for a replacement. He wasted no time in his new role, trading linebacker Darron Lee to Kansas City for a sixth-round draft pick, pending a physical, according to two people with direct knowledge of the deal. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither team had announced the move late Wednesday night.ESPN reported that Brian Heimerdinger, the Jets’ vice president of player personnel, also was fired.Maccagnan had long been on the hot seat, so the move itself isn’t necessarily a shocker. The timing, however, is particularly surprising because Maccagnan ran the Jets’ draft less than three weeks ago, including taking defensive tackle Quinnen Williams with the No. 3 overall pick.“There’s never a good time to make a decision like this, honestly,” Johnson said. “But it’s a process.”That included Johnson deciding to “get deeply embedded” in the organization’s football operations by taking what he called a “deeper dive” this offseason.“I was part of a lot of discussions about the free agents and sat in on dozens of interviews with the guys at the combine and sat in on scouting meetings and watched this process,” Johnson said. “I understood more fully Mike’s role in this building and what I’m hoping for in our future GM.”Johnson emphasized he wants “a strategic thinker” and added that “it’s more than a talent evaluation guy.” He also said he wants “a great manager, a communicator — someone who can collaborate well with the building.”There were reports during the last several weeks that there was tension between Maccagnan and Gase — which both denied.“This had nothing to do with Adam,” Johnson insisted. “I mean, I want good give-and-take between our GM and the coach. This was not one person or another winning a power struggle. This was completely my decision.”Maccagnan, who was hired as GM in 2015, had two years remaining on his contract after getting an extension at the end of the 2017 season. He was not relieved of his duties this past offseason when coach Todd Bowles was fired — leading many to assume that Maccagnan’s job was not in immediate jeopardy.“The more I looked, the more I realized that I wanted to move on Max Scharping Jersey ,” Johnson said while refusing to go into specifics.Maccagnan was fully involved in the coaching search and hiring of Gase. He also was active in free agency, spending more than $125 million to land the likes of running back Le’Veon Bell , linebacker C.J. Mosley and wide receiver Jamison Crowder. He also acquired left guard Kelechi Osemele from Oakland in a trade.The Jets also have what they believe is a franchise quarterback in Sam Darnold, who was the third overall pick in last year’s draft after Maccagnan engineered a deal with Indianapolis to move up from the No. 6 spot. Safety Jamal Adams and defensive lineman Leonard Williams are also recent draft picks by Maccagnan who have become building blocks for the defense. Starting wide receiver Robby Anderson was also a terrific find as an undrafted free agent in 2016.But Maccagnan’s draft history since coming to New York after 15 years in various scouting positions with the Houston Texans is otherwise shaky, at best.Only 11 of the 22 players selected in his first three years are still on New York’s roster. The first-rounders have been starters — Adams (2017), Lee (2016) and Williams (2015) — but Lee became expendable with the Jets having Mosley and Avery Williamson at the inside linebacker spots.Several other early round picks have been busts. Second-rounders Devin Smith (2015) and Christian Hackenberg (2016), and third-rounders Lorenzo Mauldin (2015) and ArDarius Stewart (2017) are all out of the league.And now, the Jets will move forward with someone else making the personnel decisions. Johnson said Gase will “assist” in the search.Eagles vice president of player personnel Joe Douglas is believed to be a primary candidate to replace Maccagnan. Douglas and Gase have a previous working relationship: Douglas was Chicago’s director of college scouting in 2015, when Gase was the Bears’ offensive coordinator.In the meantime, Gase will oversee all roster moves as the Jets enter the next phase of the offseason with organized team activities set to begin next week. During his three seasons as coach of the Dolphins, Gase had final say on personnel decisions. He’ll now have the same authority with the Jets — at least until they hire a general manager.When he was introduced as New York’s coach in January, Gase downplayed his power, saying it was “just kind of how it worked out in Miami” and that he “didn’t even ask” for a similar setup when the Jets hired him.In New York, the coach and general manager report directly to Johnson, a unique structure in the NFL. Most teams have the coach report directly to the GM, who then reports to the owner. Johnson, however, has insisted that that’s the structure he believes works best and will remain in place when the Jets hire Maccagnan’s replacement.Under Maccagnan, the Jets were 24-40 with no playoff appearances in four seasons. The team’s only winning season in that span came in the first year for Maccagnan and Bowles in 2015, when New York was 10-6 but fell a win short of making the postseason.“I think that by diving deep in the organization, I had a better idea of what was wrong and where I wanted to head with this,” Johnson said. “This is a long-term plan. We’re trying to win football games. And, I just felt we had to have a new GM to help us do that.” NASHVILLE http://www.texansauthorizedshops.com/authentic-kahale-warring-jersey , Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are out of town this week, and veteran linebacker Brian Orakpo couldn’t be happier.The franchise decided once the NFL schedule came out in mid-April to spend the week between back-to-back road games against the Cardinals and the San Francisco 49ers in Arizona.The main reason? Cut down the travel to keep players a bit fresher for the final month of the season.It’s a decision made by lots of NFL teams over the years. New England spent the week after beating Denver in Colorado for high-altitude training at the Air Force Academy before playing in Mexico City last month — and winning. Philadelphia spent the past week in the Los Angeles area after a loss in Seattle — and then beat the Rams.“I totally agree with what we’re doing because the jet lag is vicious,” Orakpo said. “There’s definitely a setback, and also the time difference, getting used to the time difference on the West Coast, there’s all these different elements. It really helps if we just stayed out there, not have to worry so much traveling back and forth because it’s a lot of mileage, especially when you’re trying to play at a high level in a football game.”Spending a week away from home during the season is something that neither the Titans nor coach Mike Mularkey had ever done. The Titans, who relocated to Tennessee from Houston in 1997, are among the six NFL teams yet to play in London, and they left Nashville for training camp only once in 21 seasons.The motivation is simple.“We’re trying to eliminate distractions,” Philadelphia coach Doug Pederson said. “It’s hard when you’ve got back-to-back West Coast trips like this, to be able to fly back home and then practice and come back out this way at the end of the week. So, try to keep the week as normal as possible for the guys, for the coaches.”The actual process of relocating an NFL team for a week during the regular season requires months of planning. Brent Akers, the director of team operations for the Titans, and his colleagues made at least seven trips to the hotel where the team is staying. They even rewired the building, so the Titans could simply plug in Monday and start working as if back home at the team’s headquarters.Packing wasn’t easy either.A 53-foot truck left Nashville on Dec. 5 headed to Arizona filled with 40,000 pounds of equipment including:–A Juggs machine for firing balls at players at practice.–Down markers.–Six water coolers for practices.–New computers, projectors and TV monitors to be ready and waiting for the Titans rather than pack up all that gear.–Tape and other gear needed by trainers to treat injuries between games.–Cleats.–Uniforms.–And, yes, weights. Strength coach Steve Watterson has an area set aside for workouts because the Titans must lift between games.At the hotel in Arizona, the Titans are using about 80 Cullen Gillaspia Jersey ,000 square feet of meeting space, not counting rooms for sleeping:–Offices for everyone from general manager Jon Robinson and Mularkey and position coaches to the media relations department preparing for their next game in San Francisco.–A ballroom now is a locker room.–Meeting rooms turned into a cafeteria.–A training room.–And yes, a workout space for all those weights.The Titans will only have to travel to Arizona State for practices, though Tuesday remains the players’ off day. Safety Johnathan Cyprien, who spent a week in London with the Jaguars, knew what to expect.“Oh yeah, we’re stuck together,” Cyprien said. “We’ll be stuck together kind of like college. You know, where you go to practice, you go to class and you sleep in the same room with the same guys all day. You have no choice but to get closer when you’re put in those situations.”Lastly, lots and lots of bags for essentially three separate trips in the span of 10 days. Usually, a road trip features 125 to 130 people, but this extended stay has 171 with the practice squad and other employees needed for a game week. Players alone will have at least three bags apiece.On Sunday night, the Titans will board their third different airplane, which must be big enough to carry home all that gear.Only time, and the three remaining games, will determine how helpful the travel plans were for Tennessee. Of course, both the Patriots and Eagles won after spending a week away, and Philadelphia went home as NFC East champs . The Titans (8-5) are hoping for a similar benefit trying to end an eight-season playoff drought coming off a 12-7 loss to Arizona.“It’s an opportunity for us to get away together as a team,” Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota said. “I think that’s going to benefit us and bring this team closer. I do think it will help us down the stretch.”
