Quote: FLORHAM PARK - Rex Ryan was on the phone in Mike Tannenbaum’s office, making the most important call of his NFL life. On a Friday night in April, a world away from a second-round playoff game in San Diego, Ryan spent 15 minutes trying to convince a nondescript safety to sign a form he had no good reason to sign.
The Jets wanted to acquire Mark Sanchez the following day, and they needed Abe Elam, of all people, to allow them to do it.
Elam had signed a one-year, $1.5-million offer sheet with Eric Mangini’s Browns, the Jets had matched it, and a quirky league rule prevented any matching team from trading a player to the signing team within a calendar year without that player’s consent.
But on the eve of the draft, Mangini made it clear to the friend who had just fired him four months earlier he wanted Elam in the deal that would give the Jets the fifth overall pick, and the quarterback out of their California dreams.
Before calling Elam, Tannenbaum thought to himself, “Why would he ever sign this piece of paper?”
He couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer, until Ryan grabbed the phone.
“And Rex starts giving this incredible talk to him,” Tannenbaum recalled Tuesday, “telling him he had a better chance to start in Cleveland, but that it probably won’t happen and we’d still want you to be a Jet.
“I thought to myself, ‘Wow, he’s so good. We’ve got the right head coach. Man, what a salesman.’”
Elam bought the used car, faxed back the signed sheet that night, and the Jets forwarded it to the league office at 11 p.m. Tannenbaum and Ryan left their Florham Park facility believing they were 85 percent home on the USC quarterback who had wowed them with his accuracy outside the pocket, and with tales of washing his teammates’ uniforms at his Mission Viejo home.
Neither coach nor GM had any idea how turbulent that final 15 percent of the transaction would be.
On draft day, Tannenbaum arrived at the office at 7:30 a.m., hit the gym, and then furiously worked the phones before the start of the 4 p.m. draft. He called Sanchez in California at 10:15 a.m Eastern. “I just want you to tell your parents they did a hell of a job raising you,” Tannenbaum told him, “and I’ll consider myself a successful parent if my kids turn out to be as nice and polite as you.
“Mark, I’ve been through a lot of drafts, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I just want to wish you the best. You might be a Jet, but there’s a better chance you won’t be. Either way, you’ve earned everything you’ve gotten and I hope you have a great career.”
The GM figured he could get Sanchez if he jumped from the 17th pick to Cleveland’s No. 5, but collected as much information as he could about the teams holding picks 1 through 4 – Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City and Seattle.
The Lions were taking Matthew Stafford, and Kansas City had already acquired Matt Cassel. Tannenbaum had solid intelligence on Seattle that told him the Seahawks wouldn’t select Sanchez, either. But the Rams worried him at No. 2. They demanded a first-round pick and David Harris for their slot, according to a league source, and the Jets found the price too steep.
Woody Johnson, team owner, was among the nine Jets decision makers gathered in their upstairs draft room, down the hall from Tannenbaum’s office. They sat in black chairs at a white conference table; a speaker phone rested in the middle with remote microphones nearby.
On one side of that table, Tannenbaum sat between his predecessor, Terry Bradway, and the VP of college scouting, Joey Clinkscales (“My go-to guys,” Tannenbaum called them), facing a wall carrying the names of all prospects and the message, “Talent and Character – You can’t have one without the other.”
On the other side, Ryan faced a wall carrying the line, “In God we trust. For everyone else we need data.”
The Lions took Stafford, and the Rams were on deck. The room fell silent. Tannenbaum turned to his lieutenants and delivered the following order:
“Everybody, right now, I want you to think good thoughts. Anything you’ve done from a philanthropic standpoint, think about that.”
Tannenbaum thought of the foundation he started at his alma mater, UMass, a scholarship program for interns pursuing a career in sports.
“And when they said, ‘the St. Louis Rams select,’” Tannenbaum recalled, “I was like, ‘Come on!’”
The Rams had been bluffing all along. They took Jason Smith, the tackle from Baylor.
“We’re still alive,” Tannenbaum shouted.
Sanchez was still on the board when the Browns went on the clock at No. 5. They had 10 minutes to make their pick, and Tannenbaum and Mangini – frenemies once joined at the hip -- played a little poker game.
“I felt like I wanted him to call me,” Tannenbaum said, “because I felt whoever was going to call first would have less leverage.”
Ninety seconds into the standoff, Mangini blinked. Tannenbaum’s phone rang, and his former coach was on the line.
Mangini wanted Elam, defensive end Kenyon Coleman, the Jets’ pick at No. 17, their second-round pick (No. 52), and another pick. Tannenbaum didn’t want to surrender a third draft choice.
Jacqueline Davidson, a team official responsible for assessing the value of trade packages, advised Tannenbaum against adding that third pick to the deal. The clock was ticking, and Woody Johnson was pacing around the conference table. Mangini turned over negotiations to Browns GM George Kokinis, and Tannenbaum covered the phone and asked Ryan if he could throw the backup quarterback, Brett Ratliff, into the pot.
Rex gave his blessing.
“OK,” Kokinis said. “I think we’ll do that.”
“And that’s when things really got nervewracking,” Tannenbaum recalled.
The Jets and Browns had to agree on compensation in the event Coleman or Ratliff failed his physicals (Elam had already passed a Browns physical when signing his offer sheet), and the league wouldn’t notarize the trade until it had received calls from both franchises confirming the terms.
Realizing he was running dangerously low on time, Tannenbaum called Joel Bussert, a league official. “Come on Joel,” he barked. “Are we on the clock? Are we on the clock?”
Tannenbaum was afraid that the 10-minute window would expire, and that Cincinnati – lurking at No. 6 -- would jump ahead of the Jets and trade Sanchez to the highest bidder.
With two and a half minutes left in the game, Bussert finally told Tannenbaum he was on the clock.
The GM called Sanchez just to make sure he hadn’t torn his rotator cuff or an ACL since they last spoke. So stunned and overcome with glee that the Jets had acquired him, Sanchez thought someone was impersonating Tannenbaum as a practical joke.
“Here, talk to your new head coach,” Tannenbaum told Sanchez as he passed the phone to Ryan.
Ninety seconds remained for Tannenbaum to call the two Jets officials at Radio City Music Hall – Vito Contento, equipment manager, and Tim Tubito, video director – and direct them to hand Sanchez’s name to an assigned runner. Matt Higgins, head of business operations, told the GM the team wanted Johnson to make the announcement on Twitter. Tannenbaum had barely heard of Twitter.
“Woody,” he said, “whatever you’ve got to do, tweet, toot, whatever, you’ve got to do it now.”
Johnson walked out of the room working his remote device with his thumbs, “and I was so nervous,” Tannenbaum said, “because we only had 60 seconds to go.”
A Same Old Jets moment to end all Same Old Jets moments was only a minute away.
“We’d already given up three players and two picks,” Tannenbaum said. “We’ve got to get our guy.”
Finally, with Johnson out of sight and 30 seconds left, Tannenbaum ordered one of his college scouts, Jay Mandolesi, to call Contento and Tubito with the official pick.
Sanchez became a Jet. And Tannenbaum, a boyhood fan of the Celtics, had himself a deal that would’ve made Red Auerbach proud.
Sticking true to my name, I have to ask... is this story really true? Is that really how it works?
To be honest, I find that really hard to believe. Call in the pick to an assigned runner? Why isn't this all done electronically?
I also didn't know that there was actually a chance to lose a pick you traded for (possibly, the Jets would miss their pick after giving the Browns the compensation).
Sorry for the newby questions...
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
have you not watched a draft? that's how it's done. it's as much a ceremony as it is a spectacle. maybe it'll move to electronic one day but it's just how it's done for now. for a period of 10 minutes for each pick, doing electronically to save a few seconds isn't a big deal.
Yes, the draft has been on my TV, but my eyes were not glued to the screen the whole time. Also, you didn't see the behind-the-scenes stuff (ex. Jets war-room with the owner pacing in the background). My comments were about all that behind-the-scenes/team war room stuff, not the Goodell standing at a podium, being handed a card part.
Going electronically to save a few seconds WOULD be a big deal, because (apparently) that CLE-NYJ exchange DID come down to seconds.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
Wow,, what a dance that is.. geesh.. I'd be pretty much ready to pull my hair out.. and to think,, Mangini and Kokinis did that two more times to get down to 22...LOL
#GMSTRONG
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynahan
"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe." Damanshot
To anybody who is mad that we didn't pick Sanchez, you have to remember we had 2 guys that many thought could be THE qb for the Browns. There is no way that a new head coach with as many needs as the Browns have could possibly just give up on the two Qbs. I have the hindsight of another season to watch both and I still haven't given up on them completely.
I'm glad we did the deal - as of today, I think the Browns got the better of the deal considering the holes we had at the time, performance over the course of the 2009 season, and the money savings. Coleman is a solid player, Elam wasn't terrible, and the jury is out on Ratliff. Mack will be our center for the next decade and MoMass played well for us in year 1. Meanwhile, Sanchez overall performed as you'd expect a rookie quarterback to perform.
How the deal turns out in the future is TBD. Will Elam improve, will Ratliff get a chance, will Mack continue and will MoMass improve? Will Sanchez improve and turn into the QB he was hyped to be? Those will be the questions over the next 2-3 years to truly tell how good the deal was. Will be interesting to see how it turns out.
Quote: To be honest, I find that really hard to believe. Call in the pick to an assigned runner?
that, you see and is what you asked about. there are "runners" at the bottom floor.
no one shows the inners of a draft war room until a year after. like i said, "it's as much a ceremony as a spectacle." the number of times these things happen, with the amount of time needed, it's not a big deal to go electronically. they didn't almost lose out because they had to call a runner. it was because of all the other details in teh work.
In 2003 didn't Baltimore want to trade into position to draft Byron Leftwich but got a busy signal when they called the league? I assume it would've been the step where both teams call in to confirm the trade. Or am I wrong here?
lol, i wouldn't know. looking at those desks though, it looked as though each team had tons of lines available to them.
here's what wiki says
Quote: At the 2003 NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings and Baltimore Ravens agreed to a trade to move the Ravens into position to take Leftwich with Minnesota's seventh overall selection. However, one of the teams had second thoughts at the last minute and the Vikings missed the allotted time for their pick. As a result, they defaulted the selection and were dropped to ninth. The Jaguars, originally supposed to draft eighth, moved up and took Leftwich with the seventh overall pick.
People like to look back and say how different people would have been better picks and so forth....sometimes maybe..... but more often than not it has alot to do with the players coaches and philsophy of teams on whether a player succeeds.
Sanchez would look like a first round bust if he had of been here. Kinda like Masso or Robo....had they had Manning , Brady or a Brees tossing them the rock...we would be saying how we blowed our chance at robo or Masso since they are lighting it up in Indi.
Its not even a near perfect science.
You dont have to win every game just the next one!
I might disagree with wikipedia a little bit. Unless the rules were different back in 2003 - which i don't think so. If Minn had the 7th pick and the Jags had the 8th and Minn is on the clock. When their alloted time runs out they don't default and drop to 9th. At that point both the Jags and minn are both on the clock. if they both want the same player, whichever gets their selection in 1st gets that pick. If it is Minn then the Jags have the rest of their alloted time to make the pick. If it is the Jags then Minn and whomever was 9th are both on the clock and the scenario continues.
Am I perfect? No Am I trying to be a better person? Also no
Quote: To anybody who is mad that we didn't pick Sanchez, you have to remember we had 2 guys that many thought could be THE qb for the Browns. There is no way that a new head coach with as many needs as the Browns have could possibly just give up on the two Qbs. I have the hindsight of another season to watch both and I still haven't given up on them completely.
Agree 100%.
At this time last year it looked like we had two competent QBs. But if you turn back the clock with that 20/20 hindsight do you pick Sanchez?
As someome else in this thread stated, Elam and Coleman are at the very least solid depth. Mack is and will be a perennial starter. MoMass will prolly pan out to be a starter. Ratliff ????
and Sanchez's int to TD ratio is nothing to write home about.If the Jets, as a team, degrade even a little next year Sanchez may start showing even more warts.
The article makes it sound like the Browns got shafted and Elam got duped. Not so fast.........
I would add in the salary cap savings...which is huge.
We are surely paying less for (4) starters - Mack, Coleman, Elam, MoMass - than the Jets are paying for (1) starter - Sanchez.
That cap savings could bring us an impact FA and that FA could arguably be attributed to the draft day trade as well. A bit of a stretch for sure, but the salary cap game is very important.
I love reading about these types of things. I remember the story about when Savage wanted Baltimore to think we were taking Ngata, so he had someone call him when our turn to pick came up and keep him on the phone so the Ravens thought we were calling him to tell him we were picking him. Then, we had his name written on a card, but the real card was in our guy's pocket or hand where people couldn't see it with Wimbley's name on it.
Yes..I all too well remember that..Rac was playing that game too by talking on the phone..Phil had a chance to weaken Bmore and take the run stuff but nooooooo,he was in luv with Kam..and I told you guys he was enamoured with him previously..so Rac's wanting a pass rusher fell into Opie's play..and of course Phil got schooled by Ozzie who knew he wasn't taking Ngata..
Quote: I might disagree with wikipedia a little bit. Unless the rules were different back in 2003 - which i don't think so. If Minn had the 7th pick and the Jags had the 8th and Minn is on the clock. When their alloted time runs out they don't default and drop to 9th. At that point both the Jags and minn are both on the clock. if they both want the same player, whichever gets their selection in 1st gets that pick. If it is Minn then the Jags have the rest of their alloted time to make the pick. If it is the Jags then Minn and whomever was 9th are both on the clock and the scenario continues.
You're correct, but knowing this the Jags already had their man with the card at the podium as time expired. Effectively, the Jags were on the clock for 1 second...
Splitting hairs, but you're correct. Both the Vikes and Jags were on the clock at the same time.
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