The New York Jets are coming off a surprising 10-win season under first-year head coach Todd Bowles. Despite missing out on the playoffs, it was a successful campaign for the previously downtrodden franchise.
Though, it does appear that the Jets were extremely close to hiring a bigger name to be their head coach before ultimately deciding on Bowles.
According to Bob Glauber of Newsday, New York reached out to former Super Bowl-winning head coach Mike Holmgren to gauge his interest in the job.
Equally as interesting, it appears that Holmgren is the one that put an end to this possibility by turning the Jets’ overtures down.
“Former Packers and Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, who has coached in three Super Bowls and has one championship on his resume, was a serious consideration for (owner Woody) Johnson before Holmgren ultimately declined the chance to coach in New York,” the report read.
This came at a time when Johnson himself reportedly met with at least a dozen head coaching candidates before deciding on Bowles.
As it relates to the team’s reported interest in the former Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers head coach, Johnson had this to say.
“We were being as creative as we could, and we were looking for talent. Mike has a Super Bowl record, and we wanted to see what he thought about our process, how football had changed, how it had stayed the same, whether he had any advice for us, that kind of thing.”
There’s a lot to uncover here, but one thing that stands out the most is Holmgren’s lack of interest in the job.
Remember, he privately campaigned to be hired in the same role with the San Francisco 49ers two different times over the past two years, after the team parted ways with both Jim Harbaugh and Jim Tomsula in consecutive seasons.
While Holmgren’s link to San Francisco (part of the Bill Walsh coaching tree) likely played a role in that interest, it is surprising that he would turn down an opportunity to coach a team in the nation’s largest media market.
All in all, the hiring of Bowles, a former defensive coordinator with the Arizona Cardinals, worked out extremely well for the Jets. It’s hard to imagine that Holmgren would have had more success.