Scheme fit is paramount in the sport of football. Winning doesn’t come from simply accumulating the strongest collection of talent. The players’ output must be maximized through a harmonious marriage of scheme and skill set.
The New York Jets are debuting a brand-new coaching staff in 2025. This new regime has promised to be malleable in both phases of the game, focusing on building a scheme around the roster rather than vice versa.
Still, we should expect the Jets’ offensive and defensive coaches to carry over some degree of consistency from their previous stops. They are not going to completely abandon their histories just to build an all-new scheme around the Jets’ roster. It is going to be a delicate balance between the coaches’ past tendencies and the ideal concepts for the Jets’ current players.
Thus, it is important for the players on the roster to at least somewhat fit into the schemes we have previously seen from the Jets’ new coaches.
Tanner Engstrand is set to run the Jets’ offense in his first season as an NFL offensive coordinator. While his lack of history as an NFL play caller makes it difficult to know exactly what an Engstrand-led offense would look like, we can safely assume that he will be heavily influenced by the recent Detroit Lions offenses. Engstrand was the Lions’ passing game coordinator from 2022-24.
Based on the Lions’ tendencies during Engstrand’s tenure as the passing game coordinator, here are two Jets players who might be questionable fits in Engstrand’s scheme.
QB Justin Fields
The Jets have already committed to Justin Fields as their starting quarterback, and they have promised to build an offense around his strengths. Surely, the Jets are not going to replicate a Detroit Lions offensive scheme that was built around Jared Goff, a completely immobile quarterback.
Jets fans can rest assured that Engstrand will implement concepts to maximize Fields’ athleticism that were not present in Detroit’s playbook. Still, it should be expected that the core elements of New York’s passing game are reminiscent of Detroit’s.
If that is the case, Engstrand will have some work to do with Fields. The fifth-year quarterback does not project as an ideal match for a Lions-esque passing attack.
Detroit’s passing game is predicated upon targeting the heart of the field. They love throwing in-breaking routes in the short-to-intermediate range. These routes are ideal for facilitating YAC opportunities. Additionally, they can be easily targeted off of play action, which the Lions frequently utilized.
In 2024, Lions quarterback Jared Goff targeted an in-breaking route (in, slant, cross, angle, or post) on 36.5% of his pass attempts, which ranked second-highest among 43 qualified quarterbacks behind only Brock Purdy. Meanwhile, Fields targeted these throws on just 23.6% of his attempts, which placed 41st.
Much of the nearly-13% gap between Fields and Goff’s in-breaking rates came from their disparity in one specific route type: the “in” route. Goff targeted an in route on 11.1% of his pass attempts, compared to Fields’ 3.7%. Put in a different way, Goff threw an in route once every 9 pass attempts, while Fields did it once every 27 pass attempts.
That’s triple the frequency in Goff’s favor.
Engstrand and quarterbacks coach Charles London must work with Fields on his willingness to use the middle of the field. If Fields continues to avoid the middle of the field in this offensive scheme, we will likely see a lot of him holding onto the ball too long and getting sacked.
Fields averaged 3.08 seconds to throw in 2024, third-longest among qualified quarterbacks. Goff averaged 2.68 seconds (15th-fastest out of 43), a full four-tenths of a second quicker. You cannot stand around with the football and execute the throws that Detroit relied upon; you have to be instinctive. See it, hit it.
Timing, anticipation, and release speed are paramount in the Lions’ passing game. If Engstrand brings any of Detroit’s concepts over to New York, Fields must improve dramatically in those three areas. They are among the primary issues that have caused him to fall short of his NFL ceiling.
WR Xavier Gipson
Xavier Gipson is hoping to carve out a role in the Jets’ offense for the third consecutive season. With the Jets prepared to host a deep wide receiver competition that features nothing set in stone beyond Garrett Wilson, Gipson has a chance to make an impression on the new regime, even after a disappointing year that saw him catch six passes.
The obstacle for Gipson is that it might be difficult for the Jets to find a role for him in this offense.
Blocking skills were critical for skill position players in Detroit’s offense. That should continue in New York with the Jets projecting to be a run-first team around Justin Fields. Gipson is undersized (5-foot-9, 189 pounds) and not at all known for his blocking ability (33.7 run-blocking grade in 2024, via Pro Football Focus).
With Gipson being useless as a blocker, it would be risky to use him in the slot, where he’d be aligned closer to the tackle box and thus have to play an important role in the run game. This would be particularly true on outside zone plays, which figure to be the bread-and-butter of New York’s run game. On these plays, the run would go directly toward the slot receiver.
The problem is that Gipson, as a 5-foot-9, 189-pound receiver, is best suited in the slot. He’s lined up in the slot on 53% of his career snaps.
Gipson has yet to show he is capable of doing any damage as an outside receiver. For his career, 17 of his 27 receptions and 175 of his 268 receiving yards came when he was aligned in the slot. Gipson is averaging 0.61 yards per route run in the slot (poor) and 0.44 yards per route run on the outside (very poor).
Perhaps Gipson could find a niche as a gadget guy. The competition in that spot will be crowded, though.
Malachi Corley, the Jets’ 2024 third-round pick, arguably has a higher ceiling in that area. Arian Smith, a fourth-round pick this year, could compete for jet-sweep and end-around touches in his rookie year while he works on his all-around game. Smith is far faster than Corley or Gipson.
Gipson could push for a roster spot via special teams, but even in that role, he has struggled. Outside of his game-winning punt return in the 2023 season opener, Gipson has stood out for fumbling and muffing returns more often than he has for anything positive.
It is tough to see where Gipson fits into the Jets’ 2025 picture under Engstrand. He would be a better fit on a pass-heavy, spread-out offense that could comfortably deploy him in the slot and develop his short route-running.
