Deion Sanders implored the Jets not to blow a potential opportunity after the team interviewed ESPN analyst and former NFL executive Louis Riddick for its vacant general manager position.
“Jets Please don’t mess this up and I pray this was a real interview and not that other thang y’all do,” the Colorado head coach wrote Thursday on X. “This man deserves a REAL CHANCE! He is knowledge & Class personified!”
The Pro Football Hall of Famer has been a longtime supporter of Riddick, a six-year NFL vet, who served as the Eagles’ director of pro personnel from 2010-13.
Riddick, 55, also worked as a pro scout with Washington from 2001-04, before being promoted to director of pro personnel from 2005-07.
He has since become one of ESPN’s top NFL analysts, and previously interviewed for the GM openings of the Giants in 2017 and the Lions and the Texans in 2020.
“The other” thing Sanders was likely referencing was The Rooney Rule, which requires NFL teams to interview at least one minority candidate.
Teams have been criticized in the past for interviewing minority candidates to fulfill the role, but with no intention of actually hiring them.
Sanders and Riddick were teammates on the Atlanta Falcons in the early 1990s.
The Jets announced Tuesday they completed interviews with Riddick and Ron Rivera for general manager and head coach, respectively.
Team owner Woody Johnson is spearheading the search with help from The 33rd Team — a group founded by ex-Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum — to hire a new coach and GM after firing Robert Saleh and Joe Douglas during the season.
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Phil Savage was named interim GM.
The Jets have also talked with former Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff, former Titans GM Jon Robinson and former NFL scout Jim Nagy for the role.
Sanders — whose son, Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders, is set to be one of the top picks in April’s NFL draft — did not further explain what he meant by “that other thing that y’all do.”
The Jets also interviewed Mike Vrabel for their head coaching position Friday.