When the New York Jets announced that The 33rd Team was going to lead the search for the organization’s next general manager, it seemed like an understandable move. Rick Spielman had just helped the Commanders hire Adam Peters the offseason before. The company itself didn’t seem to have any conflicts of interest.
So far, though, I’m not sure you can say the same thing about the Jets’ search.
There are four known candidates for the Jets GM opening, including three who have officially completed interviews: former Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff, Senior Bowl Executive Director Jim Nagy, and former Titans GM Jon Robinson. The team also reportedly plans to interview ESPN analyst Louis Riddick.
On the surface, it is an uninspiring but understandable in-season list of candidates. But after some digging, it looks like The 33rd Team is drawing from within for candidates.
Candidates and their ties to The 33rd Team
The first and most obvious tie to The 33rd Team comes from Jim Nagy. The Senior Bowl Executive Director has never, as far as my research shows, interviewed for an NFL general manager position before.
However, Nagy is a frequent contributor on The 33rd Team’s website. During the 2024 college season, he has written about prospects who may end up competing in the Senior Bowl, and in January 2024, he wrote articles promoting prospects who were scheduled to appear in the game.
Nagy is the only former member of an NFL front office not listed as part of The 33rd Team’s front office on the website. Nagy does have a full-time job running the Senior Bowl, after all, an impressive part of his resume that he has in common with current Jets interim GM Phil Savage.
The second candidate with ties is Thomas Dimitroff. The former Falcons general manager has not had an interview with an NFL team for its top job since 2021, when he interviewed for the Lions GM job that eventually went to Brad Holmes. He has been out of the league entirely since 2020.
With the Jets unable to interview candidates currently with teams, Dimitroff jumped off the page as someone who made sense to interview before he even came in. That said, it’s still worth mentioning that Dimitroff and Rick Spielman were both scouts with the Lions from 1994-96. He also worked for two years with Joe Banner, another member of The 33rd Team, for two years with the Atlanta Falcons. Once again, it is an easy connection between a known candidate and one of the Jets’ top advisors for this search.
Lastly, there’s Louis Riddick. The former NFL executive turned ESPN analyst has been a common interview for teams. So, when he was connected to the Jets’ job, nobody was surprised.
Still, it’s worth mentioning that like Dimitroff, Riddick has a connection to The 33rd Team’s Joe Banner. The two were both with the Eagles from 2009 until Banner left the team in 2012.
Did this happen in the Washington general manager search?
Washington interviewed just one candidate with ties to The 33rd Team last year. That was Alec Halaby, who was hired to his first NFL job with the Eagles front office in 2012, shortly before Joe Banner left the team.
None of the other candidates for the Commanders GM search had any ties to The 33rd Team. Granted, only Spielman was part of Washington’s search. Mike Tannenbaum and The 33rd Team were not involved.
What does this mean?
Well, maybe nothing. The honest answer is that I have no idea what this means. It could be as simple as The 33rd Team using their connections to allow the Jets to interview candidates before the season ends.
After all, most of the high-profile candidates cannot be interviewed yet. In fact, most candidates in general cannot be interviewed yet.
It’s very possible that the Jets won’t hire any of the four candidates known to be involved at this point. We have no idea what is happening behind the scenes.
Nonetheless, for a team mired in dysfunction, this isn’t a great look. The advisory team bringing in candidates with strong ties to themselves and influencing an easily influenced owner just reeks of “SOJ.”
