Mike Tannenbaum has been one busy executive vice president for many months now, but the Jets general manager finally had some time to sit and chat with newyorkjets.com after Friday's practice. In the first of what may be a regular session with the GM, we talked about the many moves the Jets have made on and off the field.
Mike, what are your general thoughts on the Jets in the first two months of the season?
Tannenbaum: We've accomplished some good things through six games. There are some areas we need to improve on. We're 3-3 and we're striving to be a really good team.
What are the good things that you've seen?
Tannenbaum: We are developing a strong chemistry with a good mix of veterans and younger players who enjoy playing together. Brett Favre is an everyday guy — what you see with him is what you get. We're seeing balanced contributions on offense that are forcing teams to defend the whole field against us. And I've liked our improvement up front on both sides of the ball.
How about those areas that need improvement?
Tannenbaum: We're still seeking consistency and balance and we feel those areas will improve as the season progresses. We want to get better on third downs on both sides of the ball. And we need to cut down on mistakes — penalties and turnovers.
We heard your comments back at the ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the Atlantic Health Training Center back on Sept. 1. But now that you've been working here, what can you say about the move?
Tannenbaum: It's been an exciting time for the organization. Great things have happened for us. It's a really amazing time for the staff. We can't thank [senior vice president] Bill Senn enough for getting us into this beautiful new facility four months ahead of time.
Talk about the move from Long Island to North Jersey on Jets employees. It's not a West Coast trip, but it's more than just a relocation in the next town over.
Tannenbaum: A lot of our people from Hofstra and Long Island have moved with us to Florham Park. We've been thrilled with our corporate partners in the area. Burgdorff Realtors have done a great job of getting us all settled in the Morristown/Florham Park area. Andy Lee, our general counsel, and Regan Waters, our director of human resources, have done a great job on a day-to-day basis of working with Cartus in getting us relocated. We have a lot of new people with us as well, and familiar faces in new roles.
Who is one of those "familiar faces"?
Well, Dr. Ken Montgomery is spearheading our medical department. Ken's an experienced orthopedic surgeon who's been around our team for a number of years, and he's moved to the Morristown area.
He has some experienced people with him that he can rely on in Dr. Elliot Pellman and Dr. Elliott Hershman, and some great new people on his staff. But at the end of the day, Ken is like a football coordinator. When it comes to our medical issues, he has the final say. He interacts with Eric and me on medical issues and he's really enhanced and improved our procedures and protocols.
Mike, thanks for some time and have a good game Sunday.
Tannenbaum: Yes, we're looking forward to playing Kansas City and honoring the 40th anniversary of our Super Bowl III players at halftime. It's another great day in this exciting period of our team's history.
