Jets Turn to Ex-GM Tannenbaum for 2024 GM Search

The bizarre Jets 2024-25 season just got a tad bit weirder.

With no general manager currently under contract, it was reported today that the Jets will hire The 33rd Team to aid in their search for the new front office spot.

Here’s where things get rather strange.

The 33rd Team was formed and founded by Mike Tannenbaum five years ago. Tannenbaum served as the general manager for the Jets from 2006-12. He worked with the team starting in 1997 as the director of player contracts.

Making things even stranger is the fact that Tannenbaum and former NFL executive Rick Spielman will LEAD the search for a new general manager alongside owner Woody Johnson. According to the report from ESPN, the Tannenbaum-Spielman duo will do deep-dives on candidates with the assistance of data and other tools stemming from The 33rd Team. Up until this point, the company had solely operated in the realm of College Football.

Spielman had nearly a decade as the general manager of the Minnesota Vikings. There’s no doubt both men have ample experience in the game of professional football. Having said that, hiring your ex-GM to help find your new GM is just another example of purely perplexing decision-making.

There might not be another franchise in the sports landscape globally who’d make this decision. The Jets haven’t made the playoffs since 2010, and the Aaron Rodgers experience up until this point has been an unmitigated disaster.

The team is a virtual lock to not make the playoffs this season. With a roster chock-full of bloated contracts — not to mention the eventual prospect of also finding another head coach, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether the Jets can turn things around in short order.

Will Tannenbaum help the Jets turn things around in the wake of not being able to do so nearly a decade ago?

Only time will tell.