New York Jets to interview Tom Heckert

The New York Jets have scheduled an interview with recently fired Cleveland Browns GM Tom Heckert, according to a tweet from Cleveland Plain Dealer beat writer Mary Kay Cabot. She adds that another team “is heavily pursuing” Heckert, but that the other team in question is not the Arizona Cardinals. That falls in line with a report from FOX Philadelphia yesterday that stated if Andy Reid wants to bring Tom Heckert with him to Arizona, then that could be a deal-breaker there.

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Now, on to the New York Jets. The prospective GMs they want to fill the vacant post left by Mike Tannenbaum are all some of the biggest names in the business, and they are all clearly light years ahead of Tannenbaum in all aspects of being a good GM. I mean, you could make the case for Tannenbaum being one of the worst five GMs in the NFL.

Tom Gamble, who has New York ties, is Trent Baalke’s director of player personnel for the San Francisco 49ers, and Gamble is one of the hottest names on the open market. The Jets have shown interest in him, and in New York Giants director of college scouting Marc Ross. The Giants top executive is another big fish in the water, and he would also be a huge upgrade for the Jets at the GM position.

The Jets have plenty of options, and they desperately want a highly skilled GM. They went as far as to ask Bill Polian to take the GM job, and he pretty much rejected it outright. That’s the thing for the Jets, it’s going to be extremely difficult for Woody Johnson and co. to adequately sell this team to a top-flight executive like Gamble or Ross, especially since there are other big openings out there.

We’ll see how much interest Heckert shows, and I think the Jets have a good chance at landing him if they want to go in that direction. Heckert just came from the Cleveland Browns, so the Jets just might be an upgrade in his eyes.

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.