Bill Polian ‘seriously’ doubts Peyton Manning wants Jets GM job while brother is Giants’ QB

Bill Polian isn’t buying any speculation that Peyton Manning would have an interest in filling the general manager opening with the New York Jets.

While co-hosting Late Hits with Alex Marvez, Polian, who was the Indianapolis Colts’ president and GM while Manning was their quarterback and made him the top pick of the 1998 NFL Draft, said he had not addressed the topic with Manning.

‘I would  use a different word than hullabaloo … It would  start with B and end with T’

“This is my gut reaction,” the Hall-of-Famer said after Marvez referenced a “hullabaloo” being made over Manning and the Jets. “I would use a different word than hullabaloo and it would be two words and have fewer characters. It would start with B and end with T. But I doubt it, simply because (it) is not the kind of situation that Peyton Manning, I think, would want to be involved in. Furthermore, I doubt very seriously, given what I know of that family, whether Peyton would want to be in what amounted to a competitive position while his brother (Eli) is still playing in the same city.”

“Now, (team owner) Mr. (Christopher) Johnson, in the statements that I read, said that they are not looking for a traditional general manager, who is a personnel person. They’re looking for someone who can involve the entire organization and get the entire organization on the same page. I don’t know what that means, very honestly.”

Polian has plenty of misgivings about how the Jets appear to be structuring the GM position that opened after the recent firing of Mike Maccagnan and how they’re going about trying to fill it.

‘Obviously, you’re not going to hire a general manager who does not receive the Good House Keeping Seal of Approval from the head coach’

“The head coach (Adam Gase) clearly has almost all the power now because he and the owner are conducting the general manager search,” Polian said. “So, obviously, you’re not going to hire a general manager who does not receive the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from the head coach. And so the question then becomes, ‘Who is it? How does it all work out? How does it affect the (scouting) system? How does it affect the scouts?’ … The coach and the general manager have to be on the same page, but it’s usually the general manager’s responsibility to put together the system, hire and train the scouts, work with the front office office with respect to the salary cap. You can’t have an independent contractor as the cap guy. In my opinion, he has to report to the general manager or report to the general manager and the owner jointly.

“So this will be an untoward situation, it’ll be different. And it’ll take some getting used to. Now, (team owner) Mr. (Christopher) Johnson, in the statements that I read, said that they are not looking for a traditional general manager, who is a personnel person. They’re looking for someone who can involve the entire organization and get the entire organization on the same page. I don’t know what that means, very honestly. … The marketing department ought not to be picking the quarterback. The ticket department ought not to be having a voice on who plays left tackle, or what the scouting system is.”