The New York Jets announced that they have hired Mike LaFleur and Jeff Ulbrich to be the team’s offensive and defensive coordinators, respectively, and in his introductory press conference, new head coach Robert Saleh also revealed that John Benton will be the run game coordinator.
And it will be LaFleur and Ulbrich who will call the plays on both sides of the ball, as Saleh believes his role as head coach is best served as that “CEO-type” coach the team was looking for.
“I will not handle play calling on defense, I have the utmost confidence in Jeff to do that,” Saleh said in his introductory presser on Thursday when asked if he would stick to his defensive roots. “As head coach, I think the message to be deployed is that this organization has to work together, locked in arms, to ensure the way we want things done us uniform across the board. Everyone has to find their connections to the players, and focus on all of us getting better every day.”
LaFleur was the passing game coordinator in San Francisco, on the same staff as Saleh under Kyle Shanahan, so Saleh knows first hand what the younger brother of Green Bay’s head coach is capable of. Same with Benton, who has spent the last four years as the Niners’ offensive line coach, and given that LaFleur has spent his entire pro career at Shanahan’s right hand, it’s pretty clear the Jets’ new offensive identity will look a lot like that of the 49ers.
“They’re as familiar with the Shanahan system and what we want to create as anyone – nobody in the world knows it better than Mike,” Saleh said. “We’re really excited for them to implement the system. There is going to be a clear identity of what we want to accomplish on every down. We’re really excited about the vision we’ve created.”
So what does that mean for Sam Darnold?
“Studying him and game planning for him…what I’ll say is he has incredible arm talent,” Saleh said. “He’s fearless in the pocket, mobile, extremely intelligent, and tough as nails. His reputation in the locker room is unquestioned. There’s a reason he was the No. 3 pick, and you can see those qualities on tape.”
To be fair, Saleh noted in his intro that it’s way too early to even speculate on any roster decisions or what the team may do with the No. 2 pick in the draft – “there’s a lot of evaluation we have to do for the entire roster, so any answers would be premature,” he said – but the staff will dive in immediately.
“There are a lot of things to dissect. You can read all the reports, and obviously we game planned for the Jets this year, but a lot has to be done in the coming weeks to answer where we are,” Saleh said. “I do believe there’s a lot of talent on this roster, and how those pieces fit to the schemes we will deploy is to be determined in the coming weeks. There’s a collaborative effort being made here to make sure we do the best we can for the organization, and as we move forward, everything we do is to win championships.”
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