During Robert Saleh‘s final offseason as Jets HC, he attempted a backchannel effort to curb Nathaniel Hackett‘s power by bringing in a veteran play-caller. This stealth mission failed, as the Jets did not have their offensive coordinator position to offer. Aaron Rodgers helped see to that, helping to drive a wedge between the quarterback and Woody Johnson.
Hackett will soon be on the move, as the Jets are looking for a new coaching staff. Arthur Smith was among the coaches Gang Green eyed during Saleh’s search to add a shadow OC this past offseason, and the New York Post’s Brian Costello points to the current Steelers OC being back on the team’s radar — this time as a head coaching candidate.
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While Smith was not interested in the Jets’ role in 2024, as the Steelers had an actual OC position to offer, it appears likely he will soon receive an interview request. Smith needing to wait a year before HC interest came was a debated point during this season, but ESPN.com’s Dan Graziano now notes it looks like the former Falcons leader will be back on the radar for a top job soon.
Smith, 42, went 7-10 in each of his three Falcons seasons. Those campaigns featured different primary QBs (Matt Ryan, Marcus Mariota, Desmond Ridder). Considering Mariota is a backup and Ridder changed teams twice during the offseason, Smith’s seven-win 2022 and ’23 seasons may have aged better than expected. The Steelers have also coaxed decent play from Russell Wilson, after they had started strong with the less polished Justin Fields at the controls. While Pittsburgh has lost three straight, it still appears the team’s play-caller will draw interest — even if this would be a rather quick turnaround for a coach who did not post an eight-win season during his first try.
Entrusted to lead the HC search, ex-Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum attempted to set up a meeting between Johnson and Bill Belichick. That did not come to fruition, and the ex-Jets DC-turned-adversary took the North Carolina job rather than take his chances on another NFL carousel. Mike Vrabel is also viewed as potentially the Jets’ top choice, but the Raiders are also interested. And the Patriots may hold greater appeal for the ex-New England linebacker, though that job is not certain to be available. Johnson’s eventful 2024 also stands to make working for him in 2025 a complicated ask, and Sportskeeda.com’s Tony Pauline writes a feeling around the league has created the sense the Jets may need to overpay to land a coveted coaching candidate.
Johnson meddled on many occasions during the 2024 offseason and into the season, and the subject of his teenage sons being involved in personnel decisions and being persistent presences around players continues to be reported. This component will make Johnson’s effort to staff his HC and GM posts rather interesting, but one potential candidate has let it be known this would not dissuade him.
Rex Ryan said he would be interested in coming back. Not exactly shy about expressing strong opinions, Ryan has lobbied for DC jobs recently — interviewing for the Broncos and Cowboys’ positions over the past two offseasons — and worked under Johnson for six seasons. Ryan has not coached in the NFL since the Bills let him go late in the 2016 season. That absence would make a return to a high-profile post somewhat difficult to envision, but Pauline adds many around the league believe the 62-year-old ESPN analyst has a legitimate shot at the gig. He expects to interview.
Thus far, the connections between Ryan and the Jets have come from the former HC. This marks new ground, then, as it would not surprise to see the team at least interview its former coach.
Ryan led the Jets to back-to-back AFC championship games, notching wins over the Peyton Manning-led Colts and Tom Brady-piloted Patriots in the 2010 playoffs. A semi-miraculous Ryan reemergence would lead to the brash leader inheriting a defense high on talent but one that regressed this season, especially after Saleh’s mid-October firing. Of course, the Jets will then need to find a quarterback, as Rodgers is widely expected to be out of the picture soon.
Before a QB plan comes to light, one of the more interesting HC searches in recent years will need to be conducted. It appears Smith and Ryan are set to be part of it.
Mack Hollins and Jonnu Smith have Bern great this year. Maybe it was all Ridder’s fault…
I still say hire Rex and re-sign Rodgers to drive the entertainment value sky high…!!!
The price fans pay is sky high but I think you get the same entertainment value at the circus or zoo.
Smith deserves another shot at a head coach job one day, but after what happened in Atlanta, it probably shouldn’t be a team with no idea who their next quarterback is.
As for Rex, flapping his oversized veneers on TV is the correct job for him at this stage.
Nah, im not big in Smith at all. He just flat out refused to use best weapons in ATL and on a way more solid Steelers staff their offense is maybe slightly above average.
He’s worked with two different quarterbacks, both of whom were dumped by their last team, neither of whom historically excels at what he wants to do. They’ve got one good receiver and a dicey line. He’s still done good work. He also did great work in Tennessee. I had problems with how he did things in Atlanta, but I think he takes too much grief for it.
What doomed Smith in Atlanta was allowing the New Orleans Saints to score a touchdown from victory formation — in Week 18. Smith got the sack not long after.
The falcons had 5x the weapons Pitt does. The dude is just a bad coach.
I haven’t been impressed with Smith or the Pittsburgh offense.
The passing scheme seems outdated and can easily be shut down with cover 3
He’s done some real good things in the run scheme , but doesn’t have a RB (najee)
My verdict is that although he’s been mediocre, Mike Tomlin does such a poor job hiring assistants, that I’d prefer to keep Smith over whatever risky under qualified scapegoat Mike T would bring in next
Idk Smith is a total loser. He’s made a career out of a few years with Derrick Henry. I could run an offense led by Henry. Then he goes to ATL and totally blows. Then when he’s hired to Pitt all you hear is ‘they don’t need 2 WRs Smith’s offense uses TEs’. Well he couldn’t use Pitts. He can’t use Muth. His offense is so anemic it’s insane.
Tannehill broke out under him. Henry leveled up under him. He wasn’t just a passenger.
Tannehill ‘broke out’ because Henry took the pressure off…. They had AJ Brown and Corey Davis… He had a ton of talent.. He was the #1 passenger. Actually #2, Vrabel was 1.
You can put “broke out” in quotes, but Tannehill was really good under Smith. And Henry became much more effective when Smith took over. Talent was there, yes, but Smith’s scheming made a huge difference, and the offense got a lot worse when he was gone.
Tannehill had one good year in 2019. If you look back to his Miami tenure and then every year after 2020 he’s basically the same exact guy he always was. About 7 YPA, 20-23 TD. His INT’s went down in TEN, but his attempts were also down massively… Tannehill got better because he threw less and had a HOF RB now to take off the load. Smith’s scheme wasn’t special… Henry was special.
The offense got worse the next year because Henry only played 8 games… Any team would lose offense when you lose Henry and replace him with D’onta Foreman lol.
Their offense was worse the whole rest of the time Henry was there. And while 2019 was a high point, Tannehill was a good starting QB his whole time with Smith, better than he was in Miami.
The offense took a noticeable downturn when Smith departed. He’s not an elite coordinator, but when you consider the landscape of the coordinator scene in the NFL, there really aren’t many more proven coordinators available right now. The ones that are will be head coaches soon themselves, but they themselves are few in number.
Smith isn’t going to blow anyone away, and he’s got some flaws, but as far as coordinators go, you can definitely do worse.
Agreed his run scheme is admirable.
Warren was banged up most of the season and najee is pretty much just a goal line back at this point.
I think his passing scheme benefitted heavily from having AJ Brown tho
Brown absolutely helped. Sometimes on here people act like great talent makes coaching irrelevant or great coaching makes talent irrelevant to a silly degree.
Talent definitely outweighs coaching at the pro level, just not sure to how much of a degree
It’s a complicated question. Teams like the Bills or Ravens wouldn’t be Super Bowl contenders without their elite quarterbacks, but they’d also have a harder time building Super Bowl contenders around elite quarterback contracts if they weren’t regularly developing solid starters out of mid-round picks, which I think has a lot to do with coaching, scheme, organizational stability, etc. And I think a better coaching staff wouldn’t have a hard time taking this Burrow-Chase season to the playoffs.
There’s no coach in the world that can outweigh talent. Not one. If the talent isn’t there the team isn’t going to cut it. Look at the Browns. They’re enamored by the coach (2x COY) and the talent is so miniscule on the roster so it doesn’t matter one single bit. Coach A may be able to motivate the lack of talent a little harder and further than Coach B, but that’s about it. Tomlin’s a perfect example. He will get 10 wins out of a 6 win roster, then get immediately obliterated once the playoffs and more talented rosters show up.
Stefanski led the Browns to 11 wins last year despite Watson and using Flacco straight off the couch. That’s outweighing talent to a large degree, even if you’re right that it’s not enough to win a championship. The best teams have strong talent and strong coaching.
They had the top defense in the league. They won in spite of the 16th ranked offense not because of it.
Getting the 16th offense in football out of Deshaun Watson and Joe Flacco was impressive coaching that played a pretty big role in getting them there.
They had the 2nd rated O line. We can’t say ‘Well the Steelers line is banged up’ in defense to Smith but then not mention the Browns had the 2nd rated O-Line in argument for Stefanski.
I don’t think we disagree very much it’s just the way we’re saying it. You don’t think coaching/personnel make a difference. And I don’t either. Just I think it’s 90% talent 10% coaching and you think it’s a more 55/45 situation if I’m not mistaken.
I think it’s too complicated to even come up with percentages. For example, Stefanski was helped a lot by having Bill Callahan, who’s an incredible offensive line coach… but even an incredible offensive line coach can’t make the right side of Tennessee’s line look good in year one with that talent… but he definitely makes a big difference in player development… and then of course there’s drafting and scouting. And health luck and a million other things. I think this is part of why coaches who create a stable, professional culture are so important. The other stuff can swing wildly over years.
I can agree with that. But the OC isn’t bringing that stability, the HC is. Smith hasn’t shown to be a good HC (21-30 never finish above 3rd in division). Is he a decent OC? Maybe. I’ll give him that he helped Tannehill to his best year while giving Henry a career high in attempts but outside of that there’s reason for skepticism about him bringing stability. I don’t think he’s made the Steelers offense anything to write home about though. Obviously it’s a step up from Canada, but so is a dead cat.
All I’m saying is Pitt is gonna go 10-7 9-8 with or without Smith and it’s because of the talent (albeit declining) on defense and MT motivating those guys. The Jets can have him run their perennial nose diving ship, then they can fire him in 2 years like they do the rest. He doesn’t move the needle though, and not many guys can there.
lol at the dead cat, but not wrong. I think Smith gets too much blame for Atlanta. He did some creative things on offense, and the last two years were among the worst two year spans I’ve ever seen in terms of QB personnel entering the year. Ridder is that bad. But we largely agree, even if I’m rosier on Smith than you are. As a Jets fan, I stand by my original comment: “Smith deserves another shot at a head coach job one day, but after what happened in Atlanta, it probably shouldn’t be a team with no idea who their next quarterback is.”
Yeah I can agree with all that. He needs to be somewhere that has stability at least at the QB position. Could Smith succeed in Dallas? It’s totally possible (if they got a RB lol).
Side bar : Of all our convos I never realized you were a Jets fan. I truly feel bad for you. You fans deserve better than Woody running that place like a day care. As a hardcore Pittsburgh Pirates fan, I truly understand how frustrating it is when your team could compete but are constantly in a window of losing because on incompetent ownership.
I could see Smith and Dak being a good fit. I’m still struck by what Dallas let that running back group look like entering the year. It’s frankly difficult to do that badly at assembling backs.
And thanks. It’s never been easy to be a Jets fan, but this year has been hard. I do think it helps my objectivity a bit, since I’m a fan, but under no delusions that my team gets the benefit of the doubt. Also my empathy. I know what it’s like to suffer.
Rico Dowdle is laughable as an RB1 – then throw 2024 Zeke into the mix? Man they gave everyone a good chuckle this season.
The browns roster was loaded
Flacco actually played really good.
Stefanski is a great mind, but we saw what happened this year when Flacco was replaced by Winston
Surely Stefanski deserves some credit for putting Flacco in a position to play like that when he hadn’t played that well in years. They also lost their three best offensive tackles for most of this year.
I never said he didn’t
Admirable? This year the Steelers are 3rd in attempts and 10th in yards while being 24th in YPA 18th in TDs…… His time in Atlanta wasn’t much better last year and he had Bijan. The dude isn’t good, the Steelers should of went with Kingsbury but Tomlin needed a ‘yes man’.
The Steelers have a banged up line and so-so backs.
So you’re admitting it’s the personnel then and it’s not Smith?.. If Smith’s scheme was so admirable it wouldn’t matter if you and I were out there running..
Remember when I said people on here treat coaching and personnel as an either/or thing to a silly degree?
You still have to have good players. Without good players, any coordinator or HC is useless. Vince Lombardi couldn’t coach the current Raiders team to 10 wins because the talent is so minimal on the team is all I’m saying. It’s no knock on Lombardi’s ability to scheme or manage a game. It’s a knock on the roster itself..
Smith and maybe a Fields reclamation project?
It’s so laughably bad over there. What the heck? They need to annunciate a real plan, some way to sell hope. Treat the job like it’s the best job n the world that will go to the truly best candidate. A GM first, some young genius front office guy from the chiefs, bills, eagles, ravens, Vikings, etc.
Tell the world “this person is in charge…” Have a real plan here, don’t throw darts against the wall.
so they just shouldnt interview people? are we fr? btw, Joe Douglas was some young genius from the Eagles. they literally did what youre saying they should do last time and might just do it again so relax
They didn’t exactly let Joe Douglas do his job unabated, did they? What I am saying is name a guy and give that person FULL CONTROL of all football operations.
I mean until this last year he did what he wanted and made lots of big trades. And who even knows if the reports about Woody intervening is even true, NY media isnt exactly known for their honesty
Word on that last remark. Ask the NYC media whether Week 18 will be Brian Daboll’s last game as Giants head coach.
Fine. They picked the wrong guy. So be it. Pick another one. It doesn’t mean the concept of picking a young “genius” is wrong. They just picked the wrong one, which isn’t shocking given the way they go about hiring people. Pick the right one. Model your front office after a successful one. Look at the Bills. Do it the Bills way. Find a Brandon Beane. They’re out there. You just have to have a discerning decision making process in picking him.
Bro at this point i dont know what to tell you. Its mid season still, theyre simply interviewing candidates. “Find a Brandon Beane” doesnt happen without interviewing some people.
The Jets FO might be a dysfunctional mess, but its not because they are interviewing people lmao
Woody is the cause for the Jets issues. He interferes too often. No different than his buddy in Dallas.
Why do the Steelers have all their rings and continuously post winning records? Ownership stays out of the operations. New England? Ownership status out of operations.
Pittsburgh earned its Vince Lombardi Trophies. New England stole them by way of cheating.
you realize this is what they have been doing pretty much the entire century. The last GM that had GM experience before becoming a GM was bill parcells and dick haley and even then they were defacto gms not hired as gm. They have gone through 6 first time gms over the last 20 years since then most were “young hot shot” gms. Maybe they should buck the trend and hire an experienced GM. The same with head coaches.
Wow, it’s 2025 n Rex Ryan might be HC of Jets again … really has a shot as long as he doesn’t put his foot in his mouth. Or anybody else’s feet. Rex is good for the league, need some entertaining oddballs.
Ryan is a mouth-breathing a$$hole that fled to Buffalo where his biggest accomplishment was preventing the Jets from reaching the playoffs.
Arthur Smith??? Are you kidding me??? Might as well hire PJ Fleck from Minnesota lol!!!!
To get us off on the right foot, Rex Ryan. Arthur Smith.
How about some more retreads, geez? Rich Kotite is available and has familiarity with the Jets organization. Hue Jackson is probably out there, he’s won a couple of games here and there. Joe Judge even knows his way around the Meadowlands already.
Maybe the Jets should try something new?
None of the coaches mentioned are right for them. Furthermore, they need to ask themselves if AR is the QB for another year. Shouldn’t be. He’s not Brady.
Jets need to take some of their assets and move them for draft picks. Meanwhile, look to hire a GM who has shown success while bringing in a new, young Shanahan/LaFleur type coach who can grow the kids with him. The Jets have some pieces that would be of value to many teams out there.
They already had a LaFleur from Shanahan and they fired him because of Zach Wilson.
Yeah lol i dont think these people really know what theyre talking about. We had a literal LaFleur and the entire coaching staff was all from the Shanahan tree, including Hackett. Not sure where Ulbrich is from, I know the Falcons forever but it was Salehs scheme anyways
Hackett isn’t really a Shanahan tree guy. He’s a nepo baby who entered the league working for his dad and had multiple OC jobs before he worked for LaFleur.
He actually did good work with Bortles in Jacksonville, once upon a time.
When the best thing someone can say about you as a coordinator involves Blake Bortles, your coordinator career is pretty bleak.
Fair enough, I wasn’t trying to stand up for the guy. Hackett seems to have had some type of schematic success in the mid to late 2010s that somehow got figured out and he never recovered. That’s my guess. Not sure what it would be, though.
Bortles did have one good year, I’ll give him that. Two, if you ignore (or go easy on) the turnovers in his sophomore season.
I mean he technically is part of that tree if he worked under MLF. Either way, Jets coaching staff through the ZW-Rodgers era has been largely Shanahan or LaFleur connected
Please take Arthur smith he’s trash
Some Falcons Fans still have Smith PTSD
Guys talk about smiths weapons but really who was his QB? His defense were always good even though the GM never game him pass rushers. And those weapons everyone keeps saying, how did they look this year(looks at the Kyle Pitts truthers)? Ijs 7 wins, solid D and good offense with ridder the guy can coach. Hell Pittsburgh is not screaming offensive options right now and they still move the ball. There are worse coaches to pick, if I was him I’d go to Jacksonville or Vegas.