The Jets landed their head coach by hiring Robert Saleh on Thursday night.
Now what?
Saleh has a big task ahead of him, along with CEO Joe Douglas. There are a lot of good feelings around the Jets after hiring Saleh, but this is still a team that just went 2-14, has a huge question mark on the defender and a list of more needs than a newborn.
This will not be news for Saleh, who did his homework for the Jets just like them. He knows what he’s doing and he clearly thinks the Jets job is a good one, because he probably would have had other offers if he had waited.
The to-do list is long for Saleh and Douglas. Here are the areas that need to be worked on first:
Hire a staff
The coaching staff is underestimated. The media and fans focus on the head coach in these engagements and usually on a coordinator, but it goes much deeper than that. A bad coaching staff can sink a good head coach. One of the biggest problems for Todd Bowles when he was with the Jets was his coaching staff. Rex Ryan had a great coach at the beginning of his term, then he started to lose key parts, and the replacements didn’t work.
We know Saleh wants to bring Mike LaFleur with him from San Francisco to be his offensive coordinator. LaFleur is very thoughtful around the NFL and will bring with him Kyle Shanahan’s offense, so this move should get high scores. Beyond LaFleur, however, there were no whispers about who else was coming with him.
The key commitment for me after the offensive coordinator is the offensive line coach. The Jets desperately need a good one. Douglas said he wants to build the offensive line and those young players will need a good coach. Bill Callahan worked wonders under Eric Mangini and Ryan with the Jets line. Recently, the training in that room was not good.
It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. Even if he isn’t, he will definitely have a big hand in the defensive game plan every week. The jets want him to coach the whole team and not focus on one side of the ball, but his defensive expertise helped him get the job.
One of the things the Jets liked about Saleh is that he’s been around the NFL for 16 years. Some of the other candidates have much less experience in the NFL. Saleh knows people. He should be able to make a good staff.
What to do with Sam?
With the decision of head coach, the decision of Sam Darnold now affects the organization. The jets stay with Darnold for another year or take a defender with option no. 2 of the draft?
Sure, Saleh gave the team a few opinions on the subject during the interview process, but the Jets haven’t made a decision yet. Douglas and Saleh will weigh the options and find out which way to go. The Jets need to evaluate the defenders of the college, find out what they could get in a transaction for Darnold, and weigh all the factors before making a decision to change the franchise.
Evaluate theirs
Saleh needs to dig deeper into the list before the team leadership can start thinking about the free agency and the project. The listing decisions will eventually be Douglas’, but GM has said it wants the head coach to be its partner, so the two will work closely on them.
Jets list issues are well documented and will not be fixed overnight. The team is expected to have $ 70 million in salary cap by Over the Cap. They have 19 players scheduled to be free agents without restrictions.
Their top agent is Marcus Maye. Douglas said after the season that bringing Maye back is a priority. It should be. He was the MVP of the team and is one of the few good players that the previous regime developed. After Maye, the Jets have to decide if players like Jordan Jenkins, Brian Poole, Neville Hewitt, Tarell Basham and Breshad Perriman deserve to sign again.
Saleh got the job. Now he has to get to work.