It doesn’t look like Mike LaFleur is going anywhere, as Jets head coach Robert Saleh told the media Monday that he still has “full confidence” in his offensive coordinator.
“I’ve been in his shoes, and I’ve told the story about how easy it would’ve been in 2018 for Kyle (Shanahan) to make me the scapegoat for (the Niners) going 4-12, but he sat down and committed to me,” Saleh remembered. “You’ve got to have the discipline to go back and tell the truth about what’s going on in the building, and not make knee-jerk reactions that could derail what could be a good football coach, or a good football player for that matter.”
In the latter process of that answer, Saleh invoked Zach Wilson, and his own situation.
“We have to make sure we are doing everything we can to make sure that we keep these young people, who we have invested two years in, on the track of development, and make sure we’re staying committed to the process of development we set out on two years ago,” Saleh said.
Wilson was benched twice this season, once voluntarily and a second time when Mike White, who took the job the first time, returned from his rib injury last week, and he was inactive most of the time he wasn’t the starter.
Questions already abound, and will surely only grow louder, about Wilson’s fitness to be the Jets’ QB of the future, but Saleh still believes that through all the turmoil, the former No. 2 pick can be the guy.
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“We’ve seen it. You talk about his rookie year, we’ve seen those flashes, you’ve seen those spurts,” Saleh said. “His rookie year, he had a lot of confidence in the preseason, and I think we all agree we looked at him in preseason action and were like, ‘Man, this is a very composed, confident young man.’ He walked around confident, and showed a lot of accuracy.”
Of course, injuries haven’t helped Wilson’s progression.
"His season got derailed a little bit with an injury, same thing this year, he misses pretty much all of training camp and the first four weeks of the season,” Saleh said. “So I do have conviction, I do believe in people, especially when football is as important to people and they work as hard as a guy like Zach does. There are so many more examples in the league where if you love ball and you’re willing to work at it relentlessly then odds are you’re gonna make it, and I think if any franchise would recognize that – there are so many former Jets having success out in the NFL right now.”
And, all Saleh needed to do was look across town to the Giants and Daniel Jones as a reason why not to give up on a young quarterback halfway through his rookie deal.
“This is year four for Daniel, and he’s finally flashing all the things that made him a first-round pick. It takes time. It takes time to get these guys, for them to see the amount of reps they need,” Saleh said. “Could you argue you haven’t seen enough, it’s not about whether or not you’ve seen enough, it’s about having faith in that the person you evaluated, the person you spoke to, the person that you invested in has the ability to get to where you think he’s capable of getting.”
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So, the easy decision – cut bait and move on – isn’t so easy, especially in a league where character counts.
"The easy answer is, well, just get rid of him, go get somebody new,” Saleh said. “The hard part is to stay true to your conviction and continue to develop a young man who you know can be capable of doing anything. But again, that comes with time.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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