The Jets are almost two weeks away from looking for a new head coach. When they find one, everyone assumes.
On Thursday, the Jets completed a second interview with the Titans’ offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith. He is the second candidate they have personally interviewed in New Jersey. They interviewed Robert Saleh, the 49ers’ defensive coordinator, on Tuesday night and Wednesday.
Both Saleh and Smith left and went for interviews with other teams. Both have attracted attention from almost every team looking for a coach. The jets get to the point where they have to decide if they want to be the team that will hit first for one of these candidates on demand or wait.
“As for when we will have a new coach, this is a broad and deep search,” Jets CEO and President Christopher Johnson said on Jan. 4 at the start of the search. “We will take our time, this is a process and we want to do it well. Clearly, we are not the only team looking for a new coach, time is always essential, but we will do it well ”.
This is where the Jets and the other teams are. A coaching search is always a balance between acting quickly to defeat other teams in front of a candidate, but also doing a thorough search. This has been complicated this year by COVID-19 restrictions. The Jets interviewed nine candidates, but virtually all of the interviews were conducted. Teams will not choose a coach and vice versa, without meeting in person. But team candidates in the postseason can’t do personal interviews until their teams are eliminated from the playoffs.
This allowed the Jets to bring Saleh (whose 49ers missed the playoffs) and Smith (whose Titans were eliminated on Sunday) for a second interview this week. They didn’t feel strong enough to try to block one of them during the visits, but will they jump if one of them is hired by another team? Will they have the patience to wait for a personal interview if Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy or Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll advance to the Super Bowl? That would mean waiting until February 8 to meet with them. They could do another virtual interview with them during the week before the Super Bowl, but they certainly wouldn’t hire anyone they haven’t met in person.
The danger of waiting so long is that any coach hired in February could have difficulty gathering his staff. Most coaching positions will be filled by then and it can be difficult to entice assistant coaches.
The first coaching appointment was made on Thursday, because Jaguars and Urban Meyer agreed on an agreement. But Meyer never seemed a real candidate anywhere but Jacksonville. The dominoes will really start to fall when one of the other six openings is filled.
Saleh and Smith are the hottest names right now. Saleh interviewed every team that has an opening, except the Texans. He left the Jets on Wednesday and left for Florida for an interview with the Eagles. The NFL network reported that it also has a second interview with the Chargers.
Smith interviewed every team except the Texans, who expressed interest in talking to him. He had a second interview with the Falcons before coming to New Jersey on Wednesday. After finishing with the Jets on Thursday, Smith was scheduled to fly to Florida to meet with the Eagles for the first time. He will also have a second interview with the Lions on Friday.
If one of these two is ripped off by another team, it will be interesting to see if the Jets move on to the other. That’s assuming they’re both at the top of the list, which can be assumed, because they had both of them in interviews this week before anyone else.
Or the Jets might wait to see who loses this weekend to see who they could bring in next week for an interview. Daboll, Bieniemy, Rams defensive coordinator Brandon Staley and Saints head coach Aaron Glenn (former Jets player) have practically interviewed the Jets and have playoff games this weekend.