Does Rex Ryan Have the Freedom to Choose the Jets’ Starting Quarterback?

Jul 27, 2013; Cortland, NY, USA; New York Jets general manager John Idzik speaks with the media following training camp at SUNY Cortland. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

It’s not easy to get inside the mind of Jets’ general manager John Idzik. The reason for that is simple, he doesn’t say very much. No, he’s not as tight-lipped as Bill Belichick, but he’s not exactly letting the information flow either. We have talked time and time again about how this new regime is getting rid of the leaks and keeping more in-house. What a great thing that is.

With that, when we DO hear things come from John, they are quite interesting. Following practice yesterday, we got just that type of information, when he was asked about his role in the starting quarterback situation. Take a look:

Well I have a pretty big role in that. I think we are going to discuss that much like we do anything. It’s going to be a collective opinion. We’re going to hash it out. And it’s not limited to quarterbacks. I know that’s front stage and center, but its every position, everything that we do, and it could be discussing schemes, different approaches to training camp. I think you have noticed that we changed our schedule around a little bit. We’ll discuss everything, and the beauty of our staffs, we have an extensive group, a lot of experience in the room. So we can trade that and that includes the quarterback situation. Obviously, we are going to talk with Rex, with Marty (Mornhinweg), with David (Lee), we’ll talk with the entire offensive staff, our scouts, and we have all our scouts here. We have a lot input in that.

When pressed further about who makes the final call, John had this to say:

Again, it’s a collective effort. And I think if you discuss it on a daily basis, this isn’t a one-time event that comes up and we have to make a quick decision. This is over a period of time, so there is a lot of talk, discussion, debate that goes over these types of decisions. So when you ultimately make that decision, it may look like, ok on Thursday at 4 pm Eastern Time they made the decision on the starting quarterback. Well that’s an accumulation of a lot of information and discussion and that’s what I mean that it’s a collective effort and it’s collaborative all the way.

Idzik was even asked if the head coach has the final say on the roster, and he answered by saying that when talking about who is going to play, they would have a lot of discussion. He would never concede that coach Ryan would have the final decision as to who starts.

I truly don’t know that I like that. Well, not completely.

The pervasive concept or working together, I do like. You absolutely want the organization to be on the same page, and comfortable about the direction they are moving in. It is important to dicuss these situations and have everyone with knowledge speak their mind. It probably would be unhealthy if Rex made the discussion talking to nobody.

But, why not say that Rex gets to make the final call? Doesn’t he? Shouldn’t the head coach be the guy to make the ultimate decision, after weighing everyone’s opinion? To me, a decision cannot totally be collaborative, especially one of this magnitude. It sounds almost like it will be done by vote. Well, maybe not vote, but some sort of a majority rules situation. If that happens, someone will not be happy about it.

It seems to me that, at least partially, Rex is having this decision taken from him. Am I wrong about this gang? Should Rex have the final say? Am I making too big a deal out of this? What do you guys think about this? I would love some opinions on this….