The New York Jets are down to three finalists for their offensive coordinator role: Frank Reich, Greg Roman, and Darrell Bevell.
As we’ve broken down ad nauseam at Jets X-Factor, this is about as uninspiring a list of candidates as the Jets could have mustered up after abruptly canning Tanner Engstrand (undeservedly so, in the opinion of yours truly, although that is a subjective matter).
Reich, Roman, or Bevell have combined for precisely zero interviews with other NFL teams this offseason, whether for an OC role or another position. They each have extensive experience as offensive play-callers at the NFL level, including some tremendous peaks, but the 2020s have not been kind to them. It’s been a long while since they were at the apex of their coaching careers.
Ultimately, though, this is the universe we live in. The reality is that one of these three guys will be calling offensive plays for the New York Jets in 2026 (although we cannot rule out the hiring of a random candidate at the last minute, as they did just that with their defensive coordinator search).
So, if you’re a Jets fan, you might as well start talking yourself into them, or it will be a long seven-plus months leading into Week 1.
Here is a glass-half-full outlook for each candidate.
Frank Reich
The last four seasons have not been kind to Reich. He was fired in-season as the Colts’ head coach in 2022, fired in-season as the Panthers’ head coach in 2023, spent 2024 out of football, and went 4-8 as Stanford’s head coach in 2025.
It’s been a while at this point, but the good news is that Reich at least has a track record of leading respectable offenses across multiple teams, even with many different faces at the quarterback position.
Over his first four years with the Colts (2018-21), Indianapolis ranked seventh, 18th, 10th, and 12th in offensive DVOA. This is despite having a different quarterback every year: Andrew Luck, Jacoby Brissett, Philip Rivers, and Carson Wentz, respectively.
The bottom fell out in 2022, as the Colts finished dead last in offensive DVOA, this time led by an aging Matt Ryan. But Reich did a decent job over his first four years in Indy, and, overall, he deserves some slack for dealing with five different starters over five years.
Back in 2017, the year before he was hired in Indianapolis, Reich won a Super Bowl as the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive coordinator, helping the team rank ninth in offensive DVOA. When starting quarterback Carson Wentz went down late in the year, the Eagles turned to backup Nick Foles and averaged 31.3 points per game across a 3-0 playoff run.
Granted, head coach Doug Pederson was the offensive play-caller for that Eagles team, but Reich deserves some credit, especially for the breakout of quarterback Carson Wentz in his second NFL season.
Before coming to Philadelphia, Reich coordinated the San Diego Chargers’ offense. He led them to ninth in offensive DVOA during the 2014 season, although they dropped to 19th in 2015, leading to his firing. He landed in Philadelphia the following year.
Overall, Reich’s resume isn’t all that impressive. There really isn’t another way to slice it. Over 10 seasons as an OC and head coach, he has yet to oversee a top-five offense based on DVOA.
At the very least, though, you can say that Reich was pretty consistent at leading offenses that were average-to-above average from 2014-21. Over that eight-year span, his worst finish in offensive DVOA was 23rd (2016 Eagles with rookie Wentz), and his average finish was 13th. In seven of those eight seasons, Reich’s offense ranked somewhere from 19th to seventh.
The problem is that Reich’s two most recent NFL seasons were completely disastrous. The 2022 Colts finished last in offensive DVOA, and the 2023 Panthers finished 31st.
If you want to look at it from a glass-half-full lens, it can be said that these two seasons are outweighed by Reich’s respectable work over the previous eight seasons. You can also make the excuse that he has suffered from a lack of talent and stability at quarterback.
The Jets will have to hope that these excuses prove legitimate if Reich is the man they end up hiring.
Greg Roman
If the Jets hire Roman, they can at least count on a quality run game.
Across 12 seasons as an NFL offensive coordinator for four different franchises, Roman’s teams have achieved average rankings of fifth in total rushing yards and seventh in yards per rush attempt.
Ten of Roman’s 12 seasons resulted in top-eight finishes in rushing yards. He once had a nine-season streak of top-four finishes, although it ended with his recent Chargers stint.
Roman’s brilliance as a run-game designer gives his offense a high floor. Across 12 seasons as an OC, he’s produced an average finish of 12th in offensive DVOA, going no lower than 21st (this past season in Los Angeles), while finishing top-16 in all but two of his seasons.
Nobody can dispute Roman’s expertise in the run game. His issue is that he has fallen behind the times in the pass game.
Contrary to Reich, Roman has enjoyed the luxury of working with some great quarterbacks. Over his last six seasons, Roman coached Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbert. That gave him a high ceiling to work with, but Roman frequently failed to help these quarterbacks play their best, culminating in his firings at both spots.
Jackson’s passing production exploded after the Ravens dumped Roman.
Across two seasons under Roman (2024-25), Herbert had the two worst seasons of his career in both passing yards per game and sack rate, and two of his three worst in terms of QBR. He set a career-low in passing success rate in 2024, followed by a career-worst touchdown-to-interception ratio in 2025.
If the Jets hire Roman, they will be constantly overshadowed by the same question that he brought to his last two spots: Can he field a championship-caliber passing attack in the modern NFL?
Barring unforeseen progress that the veteran coach could not achieve at his last four stops, the answer will likely be “no” when Roman’s tenure in New York is said and done.
The good news for the Jets is that Roman offers a strong chance of building an offense that is at least competent, which counts for something when your franchise has not ranked top-20 in offensive DVOA since 2015 (16th).
Darrell Bevell
Bevell has spent 15 seasons as an NFL offensive coordinator.
Early in his career, Bevell displayed elite peaks. He had tremendous success with the 2009 Vikings and 2012-15 Seahawks, finishing top-10 in offensive DVOA in each of those five seasons while contributing to eight total playoff wins. Bevell was particularly stellar with the 2015 Seahawks, leading them to second in offensive DVOA.
So, here’s the good news: Of these three candidates, Bevell has displayed the most impressive peaks. With an aging Brett Favre in 2009 and a young Russell Wilson from 2012-15, he was consistently fielding elite offenses and marching deep into the playoffs.
The bad news is that those peaks were a long, long time ago.
The 2015 season remains Bevell’s most recent in which he led a top-10 offense based on DVOA. He last led an above-average offense in 2017, when he ranked 15th, although the disappointment relative to Seattle’s lofty expectations was enough that Bevell was fired and spent 2018 out of football.
Since then, Bevell has had three underwhelming seasons as an OC. He led the Lions to 19th in offensive DVOA in both 2019 and 2020, and then contributed to the disastrous 2021 season in Jacksonville, leading them to 28th under Urban Meyer.
If you want to be glass-half-full, we can say that Bevell has done some legitimately fantastic things as an offensive play-caller in this league, and he did it for an extended stretch of time. It is also impressive that he has enjoyed consistent playoff success.
Unfortunately, the last time Bevell oversaw an above-average NFL offense, the Raiders played in Oakland, and current Jets running back Braelon Allen was 13 years old. Suffice to say, that was eons ago in NFL terms.
The Jets will have to hope that Bevell has learned enough about the modern game in recent years to reclaim his elite peaks as a play-caller. If you’re in the mood for some Kool-Aid, it can be said that Bevell spent the last four years in a perfect spot to refine his approach.
From 2022-25, Bevell worked as the Miami Dolphins’ quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator under Mike McDaniel, one of the most innovative offensive minds in today’s game.
Together, Bevell and McDaniel had moments of brilliance in Miami. In 2022, they helped Tua Tagovailoa lead the NFL in yards per pass attempt (8.9). The 2023 Dolphins finished second in offensive DVOA, spearheaded by a passing attack that ranked first in yards per game behind Tagovailoa, who claimed the passing title.
The lows were low, as the Dolphins looked atrocious when Tagovailoa was absent. Over the last two years, Tagovailoa descended into mediocrity in the wake of accumulating injuries.
However, the McDaniel era in Miami featured tantalizing peaks, and they were achieved in a creative fashion, introducing concepts and strategies that teams around the league are still trying to copy. Quietly, Bevell was a key cog in that success.
If the Jets hire Bevell, they had better hope that Bevell learned quite a bit from his four years under McDaniel, and that he can apply those lessons to a fresh approach as an offensive play-caller in 2026.
There is an elite offensive designer and play-caller within Bevell—we’ve seen him do it before. The raw knack for play-calling is there. He just needs to adapt his philosophies to the modern game, something he could not do during his recent seasons in Seattle, Detroit, and Jacksonville.
For the Jets’ sake (if they choose Bevell), let’s hope that the last four years in Miami were the transformative experience he needed.
