Analytics guru offers bold fix for New York Jets

New York Jets owner Woody Johnson stuck with head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas despite the club's woeful record across the past three seasons. 

For a piece published Friday, ESPN NFL writer and FTN Network chief analytics officer Aaron Schatz suggested that Johnson still has time to change his mind and replace Saleh with former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel.

"There are too many good head-coaching candidates on the market and too many last-chance coaches heading into the 2024 season," Schatz explained. "Why not just make the change now? The Jets could jettison a coach with an 18-33 career record in exchange for a coach who has already had success. Vrabel had winning records in four of his six seasons in Tennessee, including leading the Titans to the No. 1 seed in 2021 despite a myriad of injuries." 

In total, Vrabel went 54-45 across six regular seasons with Tennessee and won the Associated Press Coach of the Year Award for the 2021 campaign. However, he most recently posted back-to-back losing seasons, and he also reportedly upset Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk by not "dispelling rumors" this past fall that he could eventually replace Bill Belichick as head coach of the New England Patriots. 

Vrabel earned three Super Bowl rings playing for New England from 2001 through the 2008 season. Jets fans may not love his association with a hated division rival, but the numbers indicate Vrabel would be an upgrade over Saleh.

"...Adding Vrabel should help both locker room management and game management," Schatz continued. "Vrabel might do a better job of managing (veteran quarterback) Aaron Rodgers, and he's a much more analytically sound coach in games. In the past two seasons, Vrabel ranked sixth and ninth in aggressiveness index (reflecting how often he went for fourth downs), while Saleh ranked 21st in 2023 and dead last two years ago." 

With all of that said, Schatz failed to mention that it's widely believed Saleh held onto his job this winter because he has a fan in Rodgers himself. One would think Johnson would've parted ways with Saleh in early January if Rodgers was willing to sign off on such a move after Week 18, and there's no reason to think the situation has changed over the past six weeks or so.