I think we now know why the Jets were in such a rush to fire Eric Mangini at the end of this season. It's because the Jets are focusing in on Bill Cowher, and they seem to be willing to do "whatever is necessary" to make him their head coach.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, wait, didn't Cowher already tell the Jets "thanks, but no thanks"? Yes, he did, because Cowher says he wants total control of a team, and if he doesn't get it this year, he can easily wait until 2010. Plus, earlier today the Jets said they planned on bringing back general manager Mike Tannenbaum. And since Cowher has made it clear he wants to hire his own GM, that was it.

Until this afternoon, that is. The Jets have quickly decided to rearrange their entire upper level of management simply for Cowher in order to bring him in. The Jets official's response indicates they're willing to let Cowher replace current general manager Mike Tannenbaum with his own candidate. A Jets source also said Tannenbaum says he's willing to adjust his position to accommodate Cowher.

Personally, while I think Cowher is a fairly good coach, I don't think he's worth this much trouble at all. People seem to forget that before he won that Super Bowl in 2006, Cowher was best known for losing playoff games he should have won. That lone Super Bowl win seemingly erased years of playoff ineptitude from everyone's minds.

There's also the issue of total control here. Coaches with total control don't usually do well. Mike Holmgren was given total control when he came to Seattle in 1999. For four years he had total control and made the playoffs once. Starting in 2003, he relinquished his duties to focus solely on coaching and proceeded to lead Seattle to the playoffs four times and to a Super Bowl. 

Butch Davis also had complete control in Cleveland, same with Saban in Miami, and we all know how those situations turned out.

Bill Parcells is one of the few coaches with complete control to have had some success. He had complete control in New England and to a degree in Dallas (no one ever has complete control with Jerry Jones around), but even he didn't win a Super Bowl in either location. And he couldn't get the Cowboys to win a single playoff game.

In other words, there isn't a good track record for these guys. They become arrogant, want everything done their way, and it often ends badly - primarily because they're good at coaching, not running entire teams from the bottom up. It'll end exactly the same way for Cowher. He isn't Parcells and he isn't even that great of a coach. He's good, but not that good.

But hey, if the Jets want to make this decision, more power to them. I mean, it's not like they've made any horribly bad decisions of late. Oh yeah, except for letting Chad Pennington go and bringing in Brett Favre. Yes, clearly the Jets know exactly what they're doing.

Source: Cowher and Jets still to talk [ESPN]