10:25am: Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News disputes the report (all via Twitter), saying Casserly’s work has not been on behalf of the Jets. The writer notes that Casserly has been researching head coaching candidates as a member of the league’s “career development advisory panel,” which includes “exploring contract language” for at least one college coach.
8:11am: It seemed inevitable that change was coming in the Jets organization, and it appears like those moves will happen very soon. NJ.com’s Dom Cosentino reports that Charley Casserly, a newly-hired consultant to Jets owner Woody Johnson, has been reaching out to potential head coach and general manager candidates. Cosentino notes that both Rex Ryan and John Idzik are expected to be fired this weekend, and he adds that the current head coach has already cleaned out his office.
This matches up with the quotes from the New York Posts’ Bart Hubbuch, who claimed Ryan was addressing his job in the past tense during yesterday’s press conference.
“You do this to win it all, and there is no doubt about that,” Ryan said. “So obviously, I have come up short there that way. As far as all of the other stuff is concerned, I came in and I wanted to give a different identity to this team and I think we did accomplish that.”
As Cosentino observes, the situation is similar to 2013, when Ryan had discovered that Idzik was exploring potential head coach candidates. Ryan and the Jets ultimately finished the season with two straight wins, and the head coach kept his job. It doesn’t seem like we’re heading for any repeats this time around, considering the Jets can’t finish any better than 4-12 (the 2013 Jets finished 8-8).
Casserly was the former general manager in Washington and Houston, and he’s spent the last couple of years on the NFL Network. The team was rumored to be seeking Casserly’s guidance earlier this week.