Cleveland has their man.

The Browns inked recently fired Jets coach Eric Mangini to a four-year contract. Of course, the part that matters to Jets fans is how much of the current New York staff he will try to lure to Cleveland. Rumors were flying around Bill Callahan, but unless he is moving up the coaching ranks by going to Cleveland.

Boland reports that Mangini has made inquiries to receivers coach Noel Mazzone and quarterbacks coach Brian Daboll. He also points out that he had never actually met Callahan until before this season, as he was a Mike Tannenbaum recommendation.

Also, Jeff Jagodzinski completed his interview with the Jets, and as promised, Boston College fired him. At the surface, you would think that if Jagodzinski was going to risk his job at BC for simply an interview, he probably imagines he has a good chance at the job. But the real reason is that he's looking to get back in the NFL, and some have reported he could become Seattle's offensive coordinator if he doesn't get the job here. UPDATE: Seattle will name Greg Knapp offensive coordinator, so that job is out for Jags.

That's all for now. I'll probably have an update at some point later, but there probably won't be any new Jets news until Rex Ryan interviews, probably on Sunday or Monday.

Oh, and one more thing, I'm going to be toying around with the layout of this blog a little bit. So if you go to JetsDaily.com, and you don't recognize what you see, don't panic, it's still me.

UPDATE (7:42 PM): ESPN reports Mangini is expected to name Jets QB coach Brian Daboll as his offensive coordinator and Raiders defensive coordinator Rob Ryan as his defensive coordinator. So the Jets will probably have a new quarterbacks coach, and those who hoped to get both Ryan brothers will be let down.

According to Rich Cimini, former Jets coach Eric Mangini is in the process of creating a new coaching staff to take with him to Cleveland, where he presumably believes he will coach next season.

In what should come as no surprise, Mangini is looking at his former assistants from the Jets to potentially bring with him. One of his targets is apparently offensive line coach and head coach candidate Bill Callahan. He's considered a deep sleeper to win the Jets' job, but both he and Brian Schottenheimer are set to meet with Woody Johnson, as Johnson is back in the USA, and he wants to speak to the former assistants about the job face-to-face.

44 votes is enough to get a new poll. Thanks everyone for voting.

17 of you, or 38% of the voters, want Brett Favre back in 2008. I can't say I agree with you, but I certainly won't say you're wrong. A full offseason with the team and he should be better with the offense, and he did play well at times during the season.

The other 27 voters, including yours truly, do not want to bring back #4.

Now, it's time to move onto a new poll. You are Woody Johnson, though presumably you aren't flying overseas in the middle of the coaching search. Who do you want to coach the Jets in 2009 out of the rumored candidates? I'll even include Mike Shanahan, as I imagine his name might pop up again.

Every time there is an NFL overtime game in which the team that wins the coinflip scores on that same drive, the same old arguments appear.

Critics argue that it's not fair that a coin flip decides the overtime winner. In their minds, a solution needs to be found, and many suggest college overtime as the proper solution, even if it's more entertaining than it is decisive.

Others point to facts saying that it really isn't that big a deal. From 2000 to 2007, about 30% of teams received the ball and scored on their first drive. The same website reports that 60% of the time, the team that receives the ball first ends up winning the game.

Something as irrelevant to the sport as a coinflip should not cause a major difference between winning and losing. While 124 overtime games is not a statistically significant sample size, clearly the winner of the coin flip has a major advantage.

I also have not found any statistics that differentiate between good and bad weather games. In a game like week 17's Buffalo-New England game, when the team who was going against the wind would barely throw the ball, whoever won the coin flip may actually choose the wind. At the very least, the percentage would likely be closer to 50% because both teams get an advantage.

In fact one team in that sample size actually chose the wind instead of the ball. Does it surprise you at all that it was the Detroit Lions? Of course, in that 2002 game, the Chicago Bears marched right down the field and scored, making then-coach Marty Mornhinweg look like a moron.

However, in every other case this century, the team who won the toss chose to receive. And in 30% of those games, the other team never touched the ball.

Is that fair? Not particularly, considering all it takes is one big return or one big play to set up a long field goal, and the game is over. In Saturday's Colts-Chargers game, the Chargers won the toss, marched down the field, and scored a touchdown. 25 of the yards they gained on that drive were based on penalties. All of those calls seemed correct, but what if a team threw the ball deep down the field, and a referee threw a borderline pass interference penalty, almost automatically setting up a field goal?

That is the problem with NFL overtime. While San Diego was able to score a touchdown on that drive, most teams simply settle for field goals. It would be foolish to say field goals are easy to come by, but doesn't it seem kind of cheap if a team returns the ball to the 35, gets a first down, a face mask penalty, and a couple more yards before kicking a long, game-winning field goal in a dome?

Football requires offense, defense, and special teams to come together to win a game, but the current overtime rules too often only require two of the three aspects to win. As a result, the rules should be altered.

Still, it is one thing to say that the rules should be changed, and it's another to actually find a feasible solution. Most solutions thrown around in the media don't make sense.

College overtime? That's a laughable solution at best. Teams already start in field goal range, which is flat out stupid in a league with the best field goal kickers in the world. Maybe you can push the ball back a little bit and make teams move the ball a little more, but part of the sport is special teams, and with no punting or kickoffs, that aspect is completely negated.

Critics argue the biggest problem with the overtime system is that both teams don't get the ball, so many suggest that teams should take turns getting the ball. But I've yet to see a way that would really work. If a team scored, fine, kick the ball off and let the other team have a chance. But even that would give the team who kicks off an advantage because they would then know to go for it on 4th down.

Plus, is the goal to get each team the ball an equal amount of times? Or is it simply to allow both teams to touch the ball once? Questions such as these are difficult to answer, and they would complicate the system far too much.

So how can the NFL maintain the integrity of the game while giving both teams an opportunity to touch the football? In my mind the solution is quite simple.

The first team to score six points in overtime wins.

This would prevent teams from marching down the field, kicking a field goal, and winning the game that easily. It doesn't always allow for both teams to put their offenses on the field, but if a team can't prevent the other from scoring a touchdown, they do not deserve to win.

However, every system has its positive parts. Let's take a look at this critically.

What if no team scores six points?

Then whoever has the lead at the end of the 15-minute overtime period has the win. If one team kicks a field goal, and the other doesn't score, then the team with more points wins. That's obvious enough.

How would this affect strategy?

That's the best part of this system: it probably wouldn't have that big of an impact. Between two high-scoring teams, an offense might opt to be more aggressive and go for it on 4th downs to try and end the game right there, but in an overtime situation, teams should be more aggressive to try to win as soon as possible.

One criticism I have seen is that it ignores the safety. However, only two overtime games in the history of the NFL have been decided that way. And even if a team scores one, that would still give them two points, which might end up being the difference in the final score. We might see teams taking intentional safeties deep in their own territory rather than punt if they are ahead by three, but that happens in the fourth quarter of some games as well.

Wouldn't more games end in ties in this situation?

Well, yes, that is a minor problem. But ask a losing team who never touched the ball in overtime if they would prefer a tie or a loss. Ask the Philadelphia Eagles, who would have missed the playoffs if they had lost to the Cincinnati Bengals instead of infamously tying them.

What is wrong with a tied football game? Sure, there is no winner, but in some evenly matched football games, teams don't necessarily deserve to win or lose, and a tie might actually be the fairest solution.

Besides, in the vast majority of games, a team would win. In most games one team or the other will score six points in the overtime period. Other games could potentially end the overtime period 3-0, 5-2, 2-0, or 3-2. If the game ended 0-0 or 3-3, it would be a tie, and a well-deserved tie.

And if they changed and explained the rules, players would have no excuse for not knowing how a winner is decided. Am I right, Donovan McNabb?

Woohoo! Another day another rumor!

Fired Broncos coach Mike Shanahan appears to be back in play for the Jets. He had told the NFL Network he planned to wait two weeks before talking to any team, which initially helped influence the Jets to move on. But less than 24 hours after they declared Shana.han off their radar, there were indications the Jets, with plenty to keep themselves busy with, are willing to wait the two weeks.

Courtesy of Erik Boland.

I can't wait for what rumors tomorrow will bring. I'll report them when I hear them, but remember, take everything with a grain of salt. A pretty heavy grain of salt, since it's unlikely that Mike Tannenbaum will bring someone completely random in to be the coach, but no one will know for sure until the actual hiring occurs.

This will be the last update for a while today. Basketball double-header for me today. First, I'm checking out my old high school, Christian Brothers Academy, in a game against Middletown South. Then, when that ends, I'm heading up to the Prudential Center in Newark for the first time, watching my Villanova Wildcats beat Seton Hall.

According to Mike Francesa, reports that Brian Schottenheimer is the early frontrunner for the head coach position are false.

Here are the two tiers of coaches, with the first tier guys obviously being the better candidates. Other than the two tiers, there is no particular order.

First Tier
Steve Spagnuolo
Rex Ryan
Russ Grimm

Second Tier
Brian Billick
Jeff Jagodzinski
Ron Meeks
Brian Schottenheimer
Bill Callahan

Francesa also said that Spagnuolo's interview was "solid." Previous reports said that his interview hadn't gone that well, but while it wasn't spectacular, it was good.

Jagodzinski is probably interviewing tomorrow, but who knows what the deal will be with Boston College.

The biggest surprise on this list by far is the inclusion of Grimm in the first tier. Grimm has yet to interview because Arizona is in the playoffs (same is true with Ryan), but the Jets are definitely interested.

The end of 2008 season perturbed many Jets fans. It's easy to look at Brett Favre's nine interceptions and point to that as the main reason for the team's failures.

But that only explains the offense.

What happened to the defense that was an elite run-stopping unit for 11 weeks? As badly as Favre played, it wasn't his fault that the defense turned feeble at the end of the year.

Eric Mangini took the fall for each side's shortcomings, but his firing was a public relations nightmare in the sense that they said absolutely nothing negative about him neither in the press conference nor in the days to come.

There was obviously a lot more underneath the surface. Some of it has risen, such as Thomas Jones and an anonymous Jet's frustrated quotes about Brett Favre. However, all the players were positive and seemed sad that Mangini was gone, leaving many, including myself, to wonder if Mangini took the fall for Favre.

Finally, we have a reason for his firing.

I present to you, from the Journal News, Jane McManus's Jets blog.

Sirius NFL Radio Jets reporter Lisa Zimmerman did some reporting in the wake of Eric Mangini’s firing, and several players and two high-placed Jets staffers told her that after the loss to the Denver Broncos, Mangini panicked.

She reported on air that Mangini tore up the defensive schemes that the team had been using and installed a new set that defensive players weren’t comfortable with. Despite objecting, the players were told they were to learn the new system.

Several pointed to problems in the secondary given the way the Jets rotated defensive backs with S Kerry Rhodes and CB Darrelle Revis. The communication problems, she reported, extended to the offense and even within the coaching staff itself.

The unsuccessful tinkering and internal problems would explain why Mangini was fired immediately after the loss to Miami, when Brett Favre’s interceptions seemed a large part of the problem.

This would be the first legitimate, on-field reason for his firing. If this is true, it's very disappointing because I thought Eric Mangini was a level-headed coach. If anything, I thought he was too level-headed, playing too much by the percentages, and not adjusting the way he should have. It turns out that he might have made too drastic an adjustment.

However, it comes as no surprise that communication was an issue with the Mangini Jets. Pete Kendall and Chris Baker took turns complaining about that in the past two offseasons. Mangini tried so hard to cut off communication with the media and have his players and coaches create non-answers to the media that it permeated into the locker room.

It also helps explain why the team has had no identity and why the defense seemed to be late getting into position (if they got there at all) on many plays, especially down the stretch.

Very, very interesting. Hopefully more information leaks out in the coming weeks because we as Jets fans want answers!