Who is person to get granular on this stuff?

The Cleveland Browns have fired three assistant coaches – offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, running backs coach Stump Mitchell and tight ends coach T.C. McCartney.

Their season ended over the weekend in Houston in a wildcard card game, they had their exit meetings, and they announced the moves.

Look, assistant coaches getting fired sucks. These are human beings with families, often kids in school, and mortgages.

This isn’t a board coach.

So why am I bringing up Browns coaching moves on this Jets’ focused website?

While I don’t call for coaches to be fired, some have speculated that the Jets need some staff changes after going 7-10 and missing the playoffs for 13 straight years.

And the radio silence coming out of Florham Park, takes me back to something I wrote the other day about the set-up at the top of the Jets’ football operation.

If you need some changes on the coaching staff, how would that come about?

Robert Saleh isn’t the firing type. He’s extremely loyal. Some might argue to a fault. We saw what happened last year after the season.

“I hear the owner wants LaFleur gone and Saleh is digging in the trenches. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I heard the owner wants to get rid of the entire offensive staff.” – Former NFL GM Michael Lombardi said on VSIN, January 10, 2023.

LaFleur was eventually let go to “pursue other opportunities” as it was put.

Now in that case, the owner seemed to get involved, but that was an expected move with the media and fans pounding the drums for LaFleur to be fired. Nobody expected him back, and the owner gave the fans what they wanted. That was low-hanging fruit.

But when it comes to more granular, less high-profile positions, like position coaches, who is going to force that, if it’s necessary?

John Benton and Miles Austin weren’t brought back last year due to issues not related to coaching.

Saleh isn’t going to want to fire any of his guys and Douglas runs the personnel department.

So my point is, when you see all these moves around the league, like the Browns today, a few days after their season ends, and you hear crickets out of Florham Park up to this point, it once again points to maybe a slight flaw in the set-up.

They need a football czar, or Woody needs a true right-hand man who is a football guru with a background as an NFL coach or personnel man.

It’s just not a great idea to have the coach and the GM both report to the owner.

I know there was a report when Christopher was filling in for his brother, that Douglas was over the coach, but now with Woody back, there is no evidence of that setup having any teeth, at least in terms of Joe telling Robert what to do.

There were some issues in how the Jets were coached in some games this year. There were fundamental problems in some of these games, like when committed 12 penalties and got out-coached in a loss to the Browns.

You can’t act like it all had to do with the Rodgers injury.

So my point is simple, while I hate when people get fired, if you have to do it, who is the football guru, above the GM and coach, who is going to break down the film and tell the owner what needs to change?

I’m just not sure that football person exists.

Douglas picks the player, and doesn’t seem to lord over the coaching staff, nor does he seem to want that role.

“I love Robert and his staff, they do a phenomenal job,” Douglas said after the season.

October 17, 2023

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