Getty Image / Gregory Shamus
Michigan is a bad football team. The Jets are a bad football team. Jim Harbaugh should leave Ann Arbor and return to the NFL to coach New York, at least that’s been what plenty of people have been suggesting for the past couple of weeks.
Adam Gase will surely be fired by the Jets and Harbaugh’s seat has never been hotter at Michigan as the Wolverines are 1-3 on the year. Harbaugh was a great head coach in the NFL posting a 29-6 record with the 49ers before taking over Michigan. All of the pieces seem to be falling into place where the Jets could actually pull the trigger and try to land Harbaugh, which is exactly what New York Post writer Brian Costello thinks the franchise should do. For him, the timing has never been better.
“Jim Harbaugh has played a role in each of the last three coaching searches conducted by the Jets,” Costello wrote. “There is reason to believe he will be a prominent name mentioned again this time around.”
“The Jets have been interested before. The team interviewed Harbaugh in 2009 before hiring Rex Ryan. At the time, Harbaugh had been the coach at Stanford for two years and while impressed, the Jets felt Ryan was the right guy for them.
At the end of the 2014 season, the Jets gauged Harbaugh’s interest as it was clear his run with the 49ers was over, but Harbaugh had decided to go to Michigan and the Jets hired Todd Bowles.
Near the end of the 2018 season, there was a report that the Jets were going to make a run at Harbaugh after firing Bowles. The Jets quickly shot down the report and never chased Harbaugh, instead hiring Adam Gase.”
Perhaps the most important piece in all of this may be the pick the Jets receive in the NFL Draft. If they hold the first-overall pick giving them the opportunity to draft Trevor Lawrence you have to assume that the Jets’ job starts to look a lot better in Harbaugh’s eyes.
The ins and outs of Harbaugh’s current contract at Michigan will play a role in all of this as well both from a firing standpoint and a resigning standpoint.