It looks like the New York Jets will hire Aaron Glenn as their new head coach. Reports have begun to surface about possible offensive coordinator candidates if Glenn does, indeed, take the helm.
But there’s a fundamental flaw with many of those candidates. And it’s the same one that sunk Robert Saleh in his time with the Jets: nepotism.
Saleh wanted his guys, whether it was in the coaching room or on the field. Initially, that may not have been such a bad thing: Mike LaFleur, Greg Knapp, John Benton, and Jeff Ulbrich were all solid hires.
The major issue with that staff was the hire of Rob Calabrese with the assumption that Knapp would tutor Zach Wilson. Even before Knapp was tragically killed, having a rookie quarterbacks coach with nothing to recommend him was not a good idea.
Still, that was a staff that could have worked. The disaster came after the Jets fired LaFleur and Benton. Whether Woody Johnson played a role in LaFleur’s dismissal or not, it was evident that Saleh had the full capacity to hire new coaches. And boy, did he whiff.
Even if Nathaniel Hackett was brought in to please Aaron Rodgers, Saleh could have worked around that. He had the chance to hire an excellent pass game coordinator and run game coordinator or to put Hackett in one of those positions and hire a different offensive coordinator. He also had full authority on hiring offensive line and quarterback coaches.
Instead, Saleh went to the old faithful. He brought in Keith Carter to coach the offensive line — the Keith Carter whose players openly spoke out about how much they hated him. And he brought in Todd Downing as the quarterbacks coach — the Todd Downing whose most recent work had been authoring Derek Carr’s worst season as a pro.
There was no attempt at innovation or doing anything outside of Saleh’s box. The overarching issue with his tenure was his inherent conservatism and old-school mentality, and he hired coaches that reflected this vision.
Previously, LaFleur may have wanted to try something different, but ultimately, Saleh was responsible for the run-first, mistake-averse offensive approach.
That brings us to Glenn, or whoever the Jets hire. The temptation will always be for a head coach to hire assistants he already knows. That’s why fans and analysts have dug into Glenn’s previous coaching experience to find potential coordinator candidates.
But it’s incumbent upon the new coach to resist that temptation. That doesn’t mean he can’t hire a coach he knows, but that he should not limit his search to that circle. If the previous coach doesn’t have a track record of success, or at least some intriguing possibility that he can have it, what’s the point in hiring him?
When Saleh hired LaFleur, at least there was some possibility. He came from a good offense and ran a successful part of it. No one knows how a first-time offensive coordinator and play-caller will perform, but at least there was something to work with.
But hiring old re-treads whose mediocrity (or worse) is evident on paper is a recipe for mediocrity (or worse).
The Jets’ head coach must be willing to go outside his sphere of experience to find an offensive coordinator. It’s less critical on the defensive side of the ball if that’s the coach’s field of expertise. But offense is king in the NFL, and the Jets need an innovator on offense.
I think the best idea for the Jets’ offensive coordinator is to hire a quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator from a successful offense. Notice the emphasis on the passing game coordinator: despite the shift toward the run game this season, the foundation of all modern NFL offenses is the passing game.
There are no guarantees this will work out. However, in any given offseason, the proven offensive minds are generally interviewing for head coaching positions, not coordinator jobs. The previously fired coordinators on the market usually don’t have a job for a reason (with some notable exceptions).
Right now, that applies to pretty much every previously fired coordinator, which means that the only way to find a creative play-caller is to hire someone who has never actually called plays before. It could flop, but is there a better way to hire right now?
Perhaps that coach could be someone the head coach knows. For example, Brian Angelichio is the Vikings’ current passing game coordinator and crossed over with Glenn in Cleveland. He may even be preferable to Josh McCown (whom Jets fans were excited about before reports indicated he would not take a coordinator job), whose previous experience before this year with Sam Darnold was tutoring Bryce Young in his miserable rookie season.
Or Glenn could go for Tanner Engstrand, the Lions’ passing game coordinator, if Ben Johnson doesn’t grab him or the Lions don’t promote him.
But the net should be cast wider than that. The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt mentioned Klint Kubiak as a possibility if Glenn is the man. At least that’s not an overlap with Glenn, although Kubiak’s season with the Saints is a yellow flag (notwithstanding a horrible offensive line, lack of offensive talent, and major injury issues).
Again, look at the best passing offenses in the NFL — preferably ones without an elite quarterback. It’s too easy for a coordinator to take credit when they have Patrick Mahomes (Matt Nagy), Josh Allen (Brian Daboll), or Joe Burrow (Brian Callahan) as their quarterback. (I think Lamar Jackson is a little different because he rose to new heights under Todd Monken after three years of decline under Greg Roman following his MVP season.)
The top of passing offense leaderboard (based on FTN Fantasy’s DVOA metric), outside of those quarterbacks’ offenses, were the Packers, Buccaneers, Lions, 49ers, Chargers, Commanders, and Rams. Now, many of those teams have good quarterbacks, although some are arguably successful primarily due to their offensive environment and good coaching. (The Chargers’ passing offense was also wholly uninspiring this season.)
Of course, most of those teams also have/had excellent play-callers, three of whom are their head coaches (Matt LaFleur, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay). But the Jets couldn’t get any of the top offensive minds to coach them, understandably so.
The 49ers just promoted their passing game coordinator, Klay Kubiak (Klint’s brother; something about those Ks), to offensive coordinator. But what about Josh Grizzard (Buccaneers) or Jason Vrable (Packers, despite working under Nathaniel Hackett)?
I’m a little more reticent about Brian Johnson of the Commanders. Previously touted as an up-and-coming offensive coordinator for his work with Jalen Hurts, Johnson was the offensive coordinator in 2023 and repeatedly drew criticism for a vanilla offense.
Furthermore, despite the Commanders’ success with Jayden Daniels, offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury has drawn plenty of criticism for the same reason — a very vanilla system. That system is very rigid; for example, Terry McLaurin played 73.2% of his snaps at left wide receiver, which is typical for a Kingsbury offense.
Rams passing game coordinator Nick Caley has been mentioned as a possibility. Jets fans are not overly enamored with this choice due to Caley’s extensive time with the Patriots, albeit as their tight ends and fullbacks coach.
Ultimately, whether the new head coach has connections to these coaches or not, they and others like them should be under consideration for offensive coordinator.
Perhaps I placed too much blame on Saleh for going with nepotism, as that seems to be the default setting in the NFL. But whether it was a Saleh thing or an NFL thing, it’s a pattern the Jets’ new head coach must break, at least in terms of priority for a hire.
Otherwise, the Jets will end up in the same place they’ve been for decades: sunk in an offensive quagmire with a coach who can’t keep up with the modern NFL.
