Jets Work on Wildcat in Practice

The Jets spent a lot of time in practice today working on the Wildcat.

Jets spent most of practice running the Wildcat formation. More than I ever remember them doing it last year when you know who was here

— Brian Costello (@BrianCoz) June 13, 2013

Although Tony Sparano was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins when they popularized the Wildcat in the NFL, it was actually then Dolphins quarterbacks coach David Lee who came up with and implemented the idea. Lee had previously been the offensive coordinator at the University of Arkansas and ran the Wildcat with Darren McFadden and Felix Jones occupying the same backfield.

Brian Costello was asked who was quarterbacking the Wildcat. His reply:

@ershoopy NFL media rules prohibit us from reporting player deployment.

— Brian Costello (@BrianCoz) June 13, 2013

This would probably be a tougher mystery to crack had Rex Ryan not announced to the press yesterday that the team was looking at installing some Wildcat packages for Geno Smith. It could be done with a few different trigger men at quarterback, though, like in 2011 when the Jets had Jeremy Kerley, Shonn Greene, and Joe McKnight all take direct snaps from the Wildcat.

I am sure the thought of more Wildcat will lead to some groans, but I think this is the right thing to do. There is just not enough talent on this offense for it to be successful playing straight up. There are going to need to be a few wrinkles, and the personnel seems better suited to playing power football than anything else.