ESPN NFL

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Graham

There's a lot of static in the early transmissions regarding Bill Cowher and the New York Jets.

But what we learned from ESPN's Chris Mortensen is that if Cowher is truly interested in the Jets, then owner Woody Johnson would do "whatever is necessary" to land him, even retooling general manager Mike Tannenbaum's job description to give Cowher organizational control.

Adam Schefter of the NFL Network has reported Cowher won't coach anywhere in 2009, but even then Tannenbaum's job as he knows it might not be secure. Not with Mike Shanahan out there.

The Denver Broncos fired the two-time Super Bowl champion coach. Shanahan immediately shoots to the head of the free-agent coaching class and will be mentioned for every vacancy.

The Jets would love to hire a marquee coach. They're headed into a sparkling new stadium and strive to maintain relevancy in a crowded sports market that includes the defending Super Bowl champs and the New York Yankees.

But Shanahan also ran football operations in Denver and likely wouldn't curtsy to the thirty-something Tannenbaum.

Tannenbaum made several daring moves over the offseason to rebuild the Jets, who went 4-12 last year and improved by five victories. They fired Eric Mangini on Monday morning.

Tannenbaum signed All-Pro guard Alan Faneca, tackle Damien Woody, fullback Tony Richardson and outside linebacker Calvin Pace and traded for quarterback Brett Favre (releasing Chad Pennington to make room) and nose tackle Kris Jenkins.

But if the Jets are hell bent on landing a marquee coach, then Tannenbaum likely will get marginalized, essentially getting paid to not do what was supposed to be his job.