Robert Saleh earns a promising ranking
While Robert Saleh has not earned the most glamorous of win-loss records in his first season as the leader of the New York Jets, leading his team to a 4-11 tally thus far, he has still shown some promising signs regarding his potential to become the Jets’ long-term answer at the head coaching position.
One of those signs comes courtesy of a recent chart shared by Ben Baldwin of The Athletic.
Baldwin’s chart showcases how often each team has chosen to go for it on fourth down in situations where doing so was the correct call based on win probability estimations. Saleh and the Jets rank favorably.
After a couple of uncharacteristic 4th down mistakes for the Chargers on Sunday, the Lions move to No. 1 in going for it when they should pic.twitter.com/LfLamUqVI7
— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) December 29, 2021
Out of 10 situations this season in which the more favorable call was to go for it rather than kick a field goal or punt, the Jets elected to keep their offense on the field six times, giving them a 60% success rate when it comes to correctly electing to go for it on fourth down.
That places Saleh and the Jets at fourth-best in the NFL behind Dan Campbell’s Lions, Kevin Stefanski’s Browns, and Andy Reid’s Chiefs.
The NFL continues to increasingly embrace the sports analytics wave each year, and it seems like the Jets are keeping pace under the leadership of Saleh.
Here is where all first-year head coaches rank on the above chart:
- Dan Campbell, Lions: 64% (1st)
- Robert Saleh, Jets: 60% (4th)
- Brandon Staley, Chargers: 57% (7th)
- Arthur Smith, Falcons: 47% (14th)
- Nick Sirianni, Eagles: 43% (15th)
- David Culley, Texans: 42% (16th)
- Urban Meyer/Darrell Bevell, Jaguars: 38% (20th)
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Saleh is set to return from a one-game absence due to COVID-19 on Sunday when the Jets take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Led by Bruce Arians, Tampa Bay is the NFL’s worst team when it comes to going for it in situations where it’s the mathematically correct thing to do, making the right call only 12% of the time. Arians will miss this week’s game against the Jets due to a positive COVID-19 test and will be replaced by assistant head coach Harold Goodwin.
