The Vikings Are Getting Caught In the NFL Draft Silly Season Vortex.
The New York Jets hired Mike Tannenbaum in 1997. He worked his way up from crafting player contracts to player development to assistant general manager before taking over as GM in 2006. Tannenbaum oversaw the Jets’ most recent playoff run in 2010, their second run to the AFC Championship in as many years. The Jets fired him in 2012 and haven’t returned to the playoffs since.
Tannenbaum cut Kevin O’Connell, then a depth quarterback, on Hard Knocks in 2010. That was the season where Antonio Cromartie couldn’t remember his kids’ names, and players were running around with Shake Weights. Tannenbaum built the last good Jets teams, but he cut O’Connell in a pretty awkward way. He tells O’Connell he is going to cut him before O’Connell can sit down and is brutally honest with him to an extent that almost felt overbearing.
O’Connell took it in stride. He thanked Tannenbaum for the opportunity and said that he liked New York’s quarterbacks and coaches. O’Connell still has a voicemail from Rex Ryan after Ryan cut him for the second time. O’Connell has repeatedly discussed Bill Belichick’s influence on him, and Belichick cut O’Connell a year after drafting him. KOC has already beaten the five teams that gave up on him as a quarterback, and he never mentioned it, even in jest.
Tannenbaum is an ESPN commentator now, and his most recent mock draft is out. He has Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, and Jayden Daniels going 1-2-3, but things get crazy at No. 4. Tannenbaum predicts the Arizona Cardinals grabbing J.J. McCarthy with the fourth-overall pick and Arizona trading Kyler Murray to Minnesota for the 11th- and 66th-overall picks.
