Tortured Soul Posted January 25, 2006 Share Posted January 25, 2006 They seem to have good sources on this. I say pounce on him. January 25, 2006 -- There are strong indications that Jets offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger, who's been held to his contract against his will since Eric Mangini was named had coach last week, may be sprung free from his holding cell, two NFL sources told The Post. Though neither Heimerdinger nor his agent, Bob LaMont, returned phone calls seeking comments yesterday, the sources said the Jets and LaMont are "working on" an agreement that would free Heimerdinger from the final two years of his contract. More proof of the Jets moving forward with their offensive coaching staff is the fact they had former Rams offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild in Weeb Ewbank Hall for an interview yesterday. Friday, Mangini interviewed former Browns head coach and Texans offensive coordinator Chris Palmer. Although the job for which Palmer interviewed was uncertain, a person close to Palmer said, what else would a coach with his credentials be interviewing for? Mangini clearly is setting things up for Heimerdinger's departure. "Something should be done pretty soon" regarding an agreement to part ways with Heimerdinger, one source familiar with the goings on told The Post. The Jets' motivation, of course, is to put themselves in a position where they don't owe Heimerdinger any of the remaining $2.3 million remaining on his contract. Heimerdinger's motivation all along has simply been to gain his freedom to pursue another opportunity. Despite saying how "impressed" he was with Mangini when they met, Heimerdinger was up front with the new head coach from the start, saying he felt "bitter" about having been passed over for the job and that his feelings would always be an obstacle for him, were he to remain on staff. There has been rampant speculation that the Broncos would be interested in hiring Heimerdinger because he and Denver head coach Mike Shanahan are former teammates and roommates at Eastern Illinois and already have worked together in Denver. The Broncos lost offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak right after their AFC Championship game loss to the Steelers. Kubiak was hired as the Texans head coach. As of yesterday, though, there had been no contact between the Broncos and Jets regarding any permission to speak to Heimerdinger. It is believed Denver is waiting for the Jets to clean up their mess with Heimerdinger before making a move to rehire him. One obstacle the Jets are trying to avoid is having to swallow any of Heimerdinger's contract. For example, if Denver wanted to hire Heimerdinger for $800,000 per year for the next two years, the Jets don't want to be on the hook for the remaining $700,000, which would be the difference between his Jets' contract and the new Denver contract. Those financial issues will be sorted out in coming days in order to free Heimerdinger so he and the Jets can get on with their lives and end this unnecessary dance. In other developments, it was learned through a league source that the Jets have offered their offensive line coaching position to Tony Wise, who coached for the Dolphins before sitting out last season after he was replaced by Hudson Houck. Wise supposedly is being courted by the Lions, too, and hasn't made a decision. Current offensive line coach Doug Marrone, who has a year remaining on his contract, has been told he's under contract and has been denied the chance to look elsewhere. If Marrone were to be let go at this point, after some 10 head coaching jobs and countless assistant positions have been filled, the Jets could be accused of wrongly interfering with a coach's career. Another name that has surfaced as an offensive line coach candidate is Steve Marshall, who was with the Texans last year. As for Fairchild, he's been with the Rams since 2003, after having worked for the Bills from 2001-2002. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDH Posted January 25, 2006 Share Posted January 25, 2006 I just don't see Ralph giving him the type of cash that it's going to take. Just look at what is remaining on his NYJ contract, 2 years 2.3 million bucks. That's more than Mularkey was making per season and I'm guessing he's looking for a similar deal this time around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurker Posted January 25, 2006 Share Posted January 25, 2006 I like 'Dinger, but he's going to Denver to be with his old buddy, Shanny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenchBledsoe Posted January 25, 2006 Share Posted January 25, 2006 I like 'Dinger, but he's going to Denver to be with his old buddy, Shanny. 583200[/snapback] I have mixed feelings about Dinger's offense. I definitely believe that Denver is taking a step down going from Kubiak to Dinger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_wag Posted January 25, 2006 Share Posted January 25, 2006 jets are soft for letting him out of his contract.........first they let herm bully them into a trade for peanuts, and now this douche is writing his own ticket out of town.......they need a backbone........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
booya2 Posted January 25, 2006 Share Posted January 25, 2006 I don't really understand the virtue of hiring "Dinger." The Jets offense has been consistently mediocre to terrible for many years. The last time they had a high powered offense was when Parcells was there in '98. Since then they've ranked 15th-29th every year in points scored. We've had some anemic offenses in that span, but even our offenses has ranked higher over those years. I've heard Jets fans be very outspoken in their displeasure with Dinger's offense. Not that previous track record was a big factor in picking Jauron, obviously, but what would make anyone think this guy would be a good OC moving forward? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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