Jets will do 'whatever is necessary' to land Cowher

Tuesday December 30, 2008 9:20 AM By Ryan Chatelain

Bill Cowher is expected to interview for the Jets' head-coaching job. (Photo by Getty)

By Ryan Chatelain

How badly do the Jets want Bill Cowher? So badly, apparently, that Mike Tannenbaum may be willing to give up the general manager’s job to land the Super Bowl champion coach.

Tannenbaum would restructure his job so that Cowher could bring in his own GM, ESPN.com is reporting. Cowher plans to speak with the Jets about the job, but no date for the interview has been set, according to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen.

ESPN reported Tuesday morning that Cowher was not interested in the Jets job because he wants to bring in his own personnel director. By the afternoon, however, the network was quoting a high-ranking Jets official as saying the team is willing do “whatever is necessary” to hire Cowher.

Meanwhile, Newsday is reporting that the GM position might not be a sticking point at all in the Cowher negotiations.

"We plan to speak with him," a team source said. "But there have been no discussion yet. We have gotten no indication from him that he would not take the position based on the front office power structure."