Post columnist Steve Serby drafted some questions for new Jets GM Mike Maccagnan:

Q: A scouting report on Mike Maccagnan?

A: I must admit, I’m much better talking about players than I am myself. But for myself, I would probably say intelligent, intense, probably good-natured, kind of inclusive, competitive … but I don’t wear it on my sleeve. Not in an arrogant way — I would hope people if they were around me and they worked with me, they would think that way about me.

Q: How do you deal with the pressure of the hot seat?

A: The thing I realize is that every decision you make, you want to be as correct as you possibly can be, and every decision you make will be judged and analyzed. During the day, I don’t really have any issues with making decisions and in any kind of stress-related aspects of it. It kind of hits you usually late at night, when you’re kind of unwinding. What I tend to do, if I can’t sleep at night, if I wake up in the middle of the night and think about something work-related. I generally sit down and start writing out lists of things to do to be sort of proactive, and then on occasion, I’ll pick up a good book and read it. That usually puts my mind at ease, and you fall back asleep.

Q: What won’t you tolerate?

A: It’s accountability towards each other. If they’re not giving full effort, not doing things and representing the team in a proper way … it’s almost like building a house that’s going to have to weather a storm. The storm is the season, and to get to the end of the line with it, that it can actually stand that test. So I think at the end of the day, if a player is not team-oriented, and not motivated and not a consistent worker, those are things which, in my mind, are not positive traits you’d probably have to try to filter out.

Q: Your definition of leadership?

A: I think of character. You have to set an example other people are going to follow and admire. So you have to hold yourself to a higher standard. I think of being inclusive. I don’t like the idea of dictatorships, although at times you have to be a benevolent dictator, I think because you have to make a decision and move forward. But for the most part I like to think bringing people together, like being cohesive. I’m very team-oriented.

Q: Leaders you admire?

A: I like military history a lot. Abraham Lincoln, all the things he was trying to achieve and do. I was a big fan of Napoleon. Now, Napoleon may not have been the most benevolent leader, but the thing I liked about Napoleon was aside from being a great military tactician, a lot of people don’t realize all the things he implemented in France that became the Napoleonic code — the foundation for like social and legal systems and stuff like that even to modern-day civilization. I probably liked the benevolence of Lincoln a little more than the aggressiveness of Napoleon (smile). We’re in a zero-sum game, so it’s a stressful environment. I think I’d like to be successful, but also be known as a very good person in how they treated people.

Q: A scouting report on Todd Bowles?

A: I think he has all the natural parts and pieces to be a very, very good head coach in this league. I think he’s a very intelligent man, I think he’s a very driven person, I think his work ethic is exceptional. I think he has kind of innate leadership ability. … He’s a very good communicator with players. I think he has a nice mix of being disciplined, but also being kind of relatable to the players, and he has a very good sense of humor, which I think bodes well.

Q: Geno Smith was the 32nd-ranked quarterback in a recent poll.

A: Obviously it’s a poll, so … most questions related to Geno and all that, I’ll leave to Todd since Todd’s going to be the one handling all that stuff. But I will say this: we’re trying to make ourselves as competitive as possible, and we’ve done a lot of things hopefully to make this team a better team, and at the end of the day, we’ll see how the season unfolds. I’m probably more interested to see how we do than how people perceive us to be coming into the season from last year.

Q: Football players from previous eras you admire and why?

A: When I was really young, my first player I ever really was a fan of was Dick Butkus — his toughness, intensity. And then I was a big fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers back in the ’80s and late ’70s as a young kid … Jack Lambert. It was those kind of players, those really tough, aggressive, kind of warrior-type players.

Q: Your on-field mentality as a player at the Peddie School and Trinity College?

A: I was not the biggest guy in the world [205 pounds] by any stretch of the imagination. But the thing I always remember about playing football was sort of my intensity and just high effort every play. And I would get very kind of hyped up and animated. I was never a real rah-rah guy, I was always a very focused, like I had my job to do and I wanted to do it to the best of my abilities. But I always felt whoever played across from me, I wanted to come across as being a very hard-nosed, very aggressive player that would play hard every play.

Q: So you flipped a switch when you played?

A: There’s a quote I once read in a book, one of his characters said he had a fear of failure, a really burning desire not to fail. You want to be successful, but it’s more that fear of failure that you haven’t achieved something that you put yourself into.

Q: Executives you’ve admired?

A: Obviously Charlie Casserly had a very big influence on me. He was very professorial, so he was very inclusive. He was a very good guy to work for because he’d always explain things. My father’s an educator, so I came from that kind of environment. I try to emulate that myself. When I try to explain something to somebody, I try to give them as much information as possible so they understand it and then as they go to do whatever task I’ve assigned them to do, they can sort of take ownership of it and grow with it. I remember early on, being around George Young at times when I first started scouting, you’d go to a school with George, and he seemed to be so kind of stoic and cerebral, kind of the old-school GM. I was very impressed by Ron Wolf, quite frankly, and I remember telling my wife, “Hey, even if I don’t get the job, I probably had the best three days of my life sitting with Ron Wolf and just picking his brain about how he did things.” The other one was Bobby Beathard. He was a real person when you met him, not into all the pomp and circumstance and all the political aspects of the job. When people meet me, I would hope I’m fairly transparent. I don’t think of myself as being very politically savvy, I’m more just sort of a straight shooter and team-oriented.

Q: Inspirational sayings?

A: In the movie, [George] Patton talks about how when Roman generals would be successful in the field of battle and they would come back to Rome and they would have a victorious parade where they would parade the vanquished foes and prisoners through the streets of Rome along with all the booty and all the gold they’d captured. And they said the Roman general would ride on this chariot, and behind him would be a slave holding a crown of gold of leaves over his head, whispering in his ear that all glory is fleeting. You want to achieve something, but don’t get caught up in all the glory and the trappings, because all that stuff is fleeting, it’s not permanent. It’s a very superficial thing you chase. On one level, you want to achieve that success, but on the other level, it’s like keep it in balance, and that it’s a fleeting thing and not to have that be your sole goal because it’s hard to sustain forever.

Q: Are you recognized around town?

A: (Chuckle) Sometimes I am. Every once in a while somebody may recognize you and it’s kind of a weird little feeling. But I’m very thankful and very respectful. On the other hand, as people get to know me, they’ll probably realize I’m pretty humble, too. It’s a different aspect of the job I wasn’t really aware of, or probably prepared for.

Q: The most fun venues to watch a football game as a scout?

A: Well, I think I got spoiled being at Wembley Stadium right off the bat [with the London Monarchs]. I used to like the old RFK, honestly that’s probably my favorite stadium I’ve ever been in. I like the old stadiums, the old brick-and-mortar kind of stadiums which don’t have all the amenities.

Q: One memorable scouting memory?

A: I was at Grambling, and Eddie Robinson had me talk to the team after practice. Coach Robinson introduced me to them, and said, “Mike Maccagnan here from the Washington Redskins would like to say a few words to you.” So I kind of walked forward, and I think I proceeded to tell them that “these are some of the best years of your life. Enjoy them. You’re going to have a lot of great experiences as a team, but also make sure you study hard, because what you do now will prepare you for the rest of your life.”

Q: New director of player personnel Brian Heimerdinger?

A: A very, very smart young man. He early on had a lot of qualities that really caught my eye. I think he has a very bright future in this business.

Q: A scouting report on Woody Johnson?

A: Extremely passionate about the Jets. Great owner. Really wants to be successful. And then when you’re around him, he has a very personal side to him. He’s very refreshing, I find, in a very positive way.

Q: Scouting report on your wife Betty?

A: She’s the love of my life. I think in this business, you really have to have somebody who is kind of your sole confidante. You deal with so much stress in any kind of work environment, so she ends up being the love of my life and my best friend. Everybody’s very competitive, everybody wants to win, but when things go bad, I always figure, “Hey, as long as I have her, I’m OK.”

Q: Who are you more like, your mother or father?

A: My dad has a very reserved demeanor, which I’m kind of like my dad. But I think I’m more like my mom. I was very independent when I was growing up, I think my mom always was too. She was a very, very special woman to me.

Q: Dyslexia.

A: I’m a slow reader. So when you read sometimes, your eye kinda jumps across and you have to re-read something twice. Every once in a while I’ll get the names mixed up, but they always make sure I don’t do it on draft day, so … I’m joking, I’m joking (chuckle).

Q: How much coffee do you drink?

A: I’ve been as bad as — my doctor’s going to kill me — like 12-15 cups a day (laugh). On the weekends, I don’t drink as much coffee. I am cutting back (smile). My wife will be happy with that.

Q: Favorite baseball cards when you collected them?

A: Mark Fidrych, they used to call him Big Bird. He used to talk to the ball and all that stuff.

Q: You and your wife have two dogs, Napoleon and Ashby.

A: They’re both mutts, they’re rescue dogs. My wife and I work with Shaggy Dog Rescue, and we’re foster family for ’em. We usually keep them anywhere from two-to-four months until they’re old enough to adopt out.

Q: Three dinner guests?

A: Napoleon; Lincoln; Gandhi.

Q: Why Gandhi?

A: When you think of that period of time in India going from British rule to their own independent country, and when you think about the path he walked, and what he went through, and survived until his assassination after he had achieved all his goals, I would think would be probably a very interesting person to talk to and just sort of hear his view on life.

Q: Favorite movie.

A: The Longest Day.

Q: Favorite actor.

A: Al Pacino.

Q: Favorite actress.

A: Meryl Streep.

Q: Favorite band.

A: The Replacements

Q: Favorite meal.

A: New York-New Jersey pizza.

Q: How do you view the AFC East?

A: I think it’s going to be a very competitive division, and I think that’s good for the NFL, it’s good for us. It’ll be interesting to see the defenses. It’s going to be some very physical football, I think, and hopefully the fans will enjoy that. New England just won the Super Bowl, they’re the team to beat, and the other two teams, along with us, have gone out and had offseasons where it seems to indicate they’ve gotten better.

Q: Would you consider anything short of the playoffs a failure?

A: I’m not in the prediction-making business. I just want to make sure we keep making moves that will help this team be successful over the long-term.