Should the Jets Hand the Offense Over to a Trifecta of Former Head Coaches?

by John B on Jan 13, 2012 10:47 AM EST

Different head coaches bring different things to the table. Rex Ryan brings a lot to the defensive side of the ball both with his schemes and his player development. The Jets would probably be at their best if Rex could spend more time than the average head coach working hands on in that area.

That might mean less time with the offense. Rex probably knows less about offense than the average head coach. Make no mistake about it. He is responsible for the unit's success. For the Jets to be successful on that side of the ball, though, he is probably going to need to find good coaches to whom he can give wide latitude and trust they will do the job. Some former head coaches with experience having great responsibility come to mind.

The team took a first step to that in hiring Tony Sparano, a guy with a history of building good running attacks. Sparano alone will probably not do the job, though. There are two other significant pieces still needed. The passing game could use a proven authority. Todd Haley would fit well there. He has built successful passing attacks.

There is another very important position the Jets need to fill well, quarterbacks coach. The coordinator (or coordinators) will need to oversee the entire offense. The Jets have a young quarterback who has struggled in Mark Sanchez. They need to give him a position coach with a good track record of competence to give him consistent individual attention. My suggestion is an old friend of Rex Ryan, recently fired former Raiders head coach Hue Jackson. Jackson was a contender to become offensive coordinator after Rex was first hired three years ago.

Jackson's last few coaching stops have been pretty impressive. His two years in Oakland resulted in top ten offenses. His arrival with the Raiders directly coincided with the team gaining surprising respectablity after a long run as the league's laughing stock. Before he was in Oakland, he was Baltimore's quarterbacks coach where he helped mold Joe Flacco during the quarterback's first two years in the league into a high performer. A year as Atlanta's offensive coordinator in 2007 wasn't pretty, but his three years as Cincinnati's wide receivers coach before that saw T.J. Houshmanzadeh's breakout campaign and the late Chris Henry's development. He is thus somebody who has developed receivers and quarterbacks and run productive offenses based on the run game as well, a solid fit on any staff.

Landing these three former head coaches to take responsibility on the offense might be just as significant as any personnel upgrades this team makes over the offseason.

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Too many Chiefs?

Not enough Indians? Could be too much ego for one team. Also would Hue want to go from HC to QBC? I guess I thought Haley was going to take on the ‘fix’ Sanchez role if hired. (Plus how much $ are we going to spend on coaching when we need so many position players).

by mangold'sbeard on Jan 13, 2012 10:53 AM EST reply actions

Coach salaries aren't part of cap money

It basically comes down to how much the team is willing to spend on coaches, which seeing as how they didn’t want to give Schotty the money due to him… Not looking good :S

Also yeah I’m guessing Hue wants an OC job rather than a position coach job.

by Exystence on Jan 13, 2012 10:56 AM EST via mobile up reply actions

I thought the only chief would be Haley? bud um bum ch!

I think Jim Leonhard should be in the next Nike "Boom" Commercial or at least the next time he makes one of those tackles he needs to jump up with a can of Kool-Aid and shout "Oh yeah".

by Tamarack on Jan 13, 2012 11:14 AM EST up reply actions

The only thing that worries me about this...

…is you’re going to wind up with THREE guys who are very vocal and used to getting their way in some fashion or another. Sparano, Haley, and Jackson all have very strong personas (whether they’re more deep and brooding like Sparano, or more vocal like Jackson). You might end up with clashes if you combine the three without someone overseeing them who knows more about offense than Rex does.

If it works, it could be interesting. But there is both a skill and a personality component to setting up a coaching staff. Plus, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sparano/Haley wanted to bring their own guys in (and possibly made that a condition of their hiring).

by MiaJets on Jan 13, 2012 10:53 AM EST reply actions

RIGHT NOW we need at least 1 more

I’ve read numerous articles that Sparano will be great for ground and pound, but hes isn’t the guy who is going to develop Mark.

Now I prefer Peyton Manning, but if we are going to keep Mark we need a coach who will work with him. If we don’t bother getting Mark help this team won’t go anywhere. Haley is that guy.

by BringBackNamath on Jan 13, 2012 11:03 AM EST reply actions

i would like haley to be brought in

Peyton is not coming to new york! We already have too much money in that position in mark. Besides mark, we also use 20% of our availible cap space on corners. If we pay peyton manning what he is worth and keep sanchez as a backup, that is like 45% of the cap on two positions. Talk about a team that will have a lot of holes

by revis24fan on Jan 13, 2012 11:38 AM EST via mobile up reply actions

Hire Haley and Jackson

these are both good offensive coaches that would add a lot to our team. Jackson is just the type of guy to help get the best out of Sanchez and Haley was a good OC with the Cardinals. Sparano is far and away the worst of these coaches yet he has the title of offensive coordinator.

I am not comfortable with Sparano as the playcaller and really hope we give that job to Haley or Jackson who are both accomplished playcallers. If this team intends to put a good offense on the field they will not leave it in the hands of wildcat Sparano and his boring brand of offense.

I think we need to have one playcaller and that is where Haley or Jackson would be most useful. Sparano should focus on the offensive line and the running schemes but he should have no hand with the QB or the playcalling. If we dont hire Haley or Jackson and leave Sparano in complete charge we are going nowhere.

by bklynbrewcrew on Jan 13, 2012 11:06 AM EST reply actions

It may a question of either Haley or Jackson and a minor coach

I don’t have the Offensive Coordinator/Coach score card from around the league, but Jackson and Haley will have opprotunities. I believe Haley is comparing the jets offer to the Cardinals offer right now.

by JetOrange on Jan 13, 2012 11:06 AM EST reply actions

You know what I don't get?

How can you NOT know a hell of a lot about running an offense as a defensive coach? It seems to me that to build a good offense or defense you would have to understand the other side of the ball quite well.

by cult hero on Jan 13, 2012 11:23 AM EST reply actions

I guess it's like playing chess against yourself?

What would I do, to exploit my own blitz heavy, man to man scheme?

by Clarke W. Griswald on Jan 13, 2012 1:53 PM EST up reply actions

Hue Jackson would be great as QB coach.

Especially if we don’t get Haley.

by ArunK on Jan 13, 2012 11:31 AM EST via mobile reply actions

Rex, Sparano have been around football all their lives and I am sure Rex knows offense b/c you can’t have great defenses w/o an understanding of offenses. Sparano never had more than just average QBs at Miami and Chad was always injured while there but Miami was pretty good when Chad was healthy. Sparano knows the passing games as setup by the run verses pass first and throw a couple of runs to keep them guessing. Run first is what Jets are built for and Sanchez is best when the run game is working. Schotty called too many empty backfield pass plays and very few play action. I always said he liked the horizontal pass plays and never even tried to throw downfield. It was Rex last year who told Schotty to take some shots downfield. Whoever the QB coach is, it will be better than what they had.

by Skimat on Jan 13, 2012 11:51 AM EST reply actions 1 recs

Wow

If we can add hue jackson, we’ll have 3 decent motivators on the same team. The only question is, would he settle for being a qb coach? I hope he will, because it would begreat to have him on this team. This team had these lame duck characters in schotty and cavenaugg and even callahan. I’d be nice to see guys with character besides rex and westoff

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by rexthejet on Jan 13, 2012 12:11 PM EST reply actions 1 recs

the only real question....

…is if we have three different motivators where do we put the Lombardy Trophy?

by Pat Reeot on Jan 13, 2012 12:22 PM EST reply actions

What's with the lack of polls? no offense, but definitely think offense needs to get people who succeed.

Rex can keep them together.

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by Max Strauss on Jan 13, 2012 1:29 PM EST reply actions

New update on coaching interviews:

According to Manish Mehta:

“Raiders WR coach SanJay Lal interviewed with the Jets yesterday, per source. I was told that Jets liked him a lot.”

Anyone know this guy’s work?

by MiaJets on Jan 13, 2012 2:25 PM EST reply actions

not suer

but.. the Raiders WRing core looked pretty damn good last year, very much improved. darius heyward-bey looked explosive!!!! and jacoby ford!!!! or maybe it was just me lol

Mark trumbo HR Counter-21

by Randy Yaws on Jan 13, 2012 2:39 PM EST up reply actions

hmm

seems as if he was the q.b coach back in A-Rodg’s days in Cal… i like that!….

Mark trumbo HR Counter-21

by Randy Yaws on Jan 13, 2012 2:40 PM EST up reply actions

i hope Sanchez saw Ochocinco's quote about Brady

“That stuff happens every day,” Ochocinco said. "Every … single … day. That’s what it’s like around here. Everybody is pushing for perfection and they’re pushing hard. I’ve never seen anything like it in my whole career. You understand why this team is where it is. … Tom is on you about the littlest things, that you were a step off where you should be or the angle is wrong or whatever it is. Really, he has me walking on eggshells and I haven’t done that since I was a rookie."