Former Jets defensive coordinator Mike Pettine has been hired by the Cleveland Browns as their new head coach.
The Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator was hired after he met for a third time with Browns brass, including owner Jimmy Haslam and CEO Joe Banner.
Pettine, 47, was not on the Browns' original list of candidates, but he emerged as others either took themselves out of consideration or were hired elsewhere.
Pettine was defensive coordinator in New York from 2009 through 2012. He is the first NFL head coach from the "Rex Ryan Coaching Tree."
I always thought he was an excellent coach. After reading Collision Low Crossers, that opinion has not changed. What impressed me in the book was the way he always demanded his players let him know if a particular play seemed too difficult so he could cut any plays that made them uncomfortable. In today's NFL where so many coaches try to look like geniuses with complicated schemes, his understanding that the players cannot execute a play unless they know something seems rarer than it should be. Pettine was also a guy who could stand up to his boss, and Rex would listen. That was valuable. Additionally, he came off as very thorough.
The real way this affects the Jets is it means Pettine will no longer be the defensive coordinator of the AFC East rival Bills. That is a good thing.