Seven years after his last front office job in the NFL, Mike Maccagnan is back in the league.
The former Jets general manager has been hired by the Eagles as a personal executive, the team announced. The decision comes the same day that Philadelphia made Adam Berry’s promotion to assistant general manager official.
Maccagnan started his NFL career in earnest in 1994 and bounced between various scouting roles with Washington and the Texans, taking on the role of director of college scouting with Houston from 2011-14.
In January 2015, he was hired by the Jets to take on the GM role, and hours later, he was joined by Todd Bowles, who took over as head coach after the team fired Rex Ryan.
That 2015 season proved to be a high-water mark for the tandem, as the Jets finished 10-6 under a strong offense led by Ryan Fitzpatrick, Eric Decker and Brandon Marshall, but missed the playoffs in the final week of the season thanks to a loss to the Ryan-led Bills in Buffalo.
The Jets went 5-11 the next two seasons and then drafted QB Sam Darnold out of USC with the No. 2 pick in 2018 before a 4-11 finish. Maccagnan was allowed to lead the 2019 NFL Draft — where they took defensive tackle Quinnen Williams in the first round — but was fired three weeks later.
Owner Woody Johnson said it took “a while” to come to the decision that came after reported friction between Maccagnan and new coach Adam Gase.
“The more I looked, the more I realized that I wanted to move on,” Johnson told reporters after the decision. “It was only through diving deep into the organization, it was only through going through this particular offseason deeply that I understood how this organization was lacking in certain ways.
“This isn’t a decision that I could’ve made at the end of the season. I could with Todd. I could not with Mike.”
Fittingly enough, the man who eventually replaced Maccagnan with the Jets, Joe Douglas, was also promoted by the Eagles on Wednesday to be their senior vice president of player personnel.
