There’s a General Manager vacancy in the National Football League. . .yes, at this time of the year. . .and though it’s taken a while for his name to come up, the “usual suspect” in the Minnesota Vikings’ front office has finally been tapped for an interview.
Our friends over at Gang Green Nation are reporting that the New York Jets have requested to interview Vikings’ assistant (to the) General Manager George Paton to fill their vacancy at the General Manager position.
Paton has had interviews with numerous teams over the past few years, and was reportedly one of the final two candidates for the San Francisco 49ers GM job a couple of years ago, a job that eventually went to former NFL safety John Lynch. Paton has been with the Vikings since 2006, and was named the team’s Assistant GM in February of 2012. Prior to that, he was the team’s Director of Player Personnel.
The Jets are in this position because they let their previous GM, Mike Maccagnan, conduct all of their offseason business. . .including spending about $200 million in free agency and conducting their entire draft. . .and then decided that the time was right to fire him. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. . .we’ll see how it works out for them.
Paton has, seemingly, been biding his time and waiting for what he deems to be the “right opportunity” to finally be the man in charge of an NFL front office. Are the Jets, ultimately, going to be that opportunity? We’ll have to keep an eye on things and see.