By now it’s well known that the New York Jets offense hasn’t held up its end of the bargain in recent seasons. Starting in 2012, this unit has finished no better than 28th in the NFL in points scored. In fact, the last time the Jets offense finished in the top-10 in that category was all the way back in 2008 when Brett Favre was taking snaps under center.
Brett freaking Favre.
Even with this dude at quarterback, the Buffalo Bills finished the 2014 campaign with a 9-7 record, their first winning season in a decade.
The change in culture within the Bills organization under former head coach Doug Marrone, who abruptly opted out of his contract on New Year’s Eve, was stunning. Finishing on the outside looking in as it relates to the AFC Playoff race, the Bills found themselves as competitive as they have been since last earning a postseason trip during the Bill Clinton Administration.
Four of Buffalo’s seven losses this past season came by a single score. It finished with a plus-54 point differential, which was the team’s best mark since the aforementioned Favre season.
With injuries to C.J. Spiller and Fred Jackson throughout the season, Buffalo was still able to average over three touchdowns per game. While not great by any stretch of the imagination (18th in the NFL), it still is somewhat impressive considering what Marrone had to work with.
Like a man that’s unable to overcome his own flaws until he’s matured enough to look the mirror and realize it’s all his fault, the Jets FINALLY decided to clean house this week. Not that Rex Ryan is a bad coach (in fact he’s one of the top coaches in the NFL), but it was time for the organization and himself to move on from a relationship that just wasn’t sustainable any longer.
More than that, John Idzik’s brief (and disastrous) tenure as the team’s general manager came to an end when Ryan was given his pink slip.
Now that the Jets are firmly looking to the future, Marrone has been mentioned as a potential candidate for their head coaching vacancy. As a New York City native, the connections are obvious here. But more than that, he would give the Jets their first real offensive-minded head coach since the Rich Kotite years. To put this into perspective, Geno Smith was four years old when Kotite took over the Jets job in 1995.
Hiring an offensive mind that is well respected around NFL circles would move an archaic Jets organization into the modern times. A man in Marrone, who turned down the Cleveland Browns job and was vetted by the San Francisco 49ers prior to heading to the Bills in 2011, would be the guy to do just that.
Photo: USA Today
