Getty New York Jets coach Rob Calabrese during a training camp practice in July.
A strong theme this offseason from the national media was high profile players choosing to not join the New York Jets.
Mike Sando of The Athletic shared some conversations he had with a variety of NFL executives and one in particular bluntly gave his assessment of the green and white:
“What I heard on the Jets is, they were in on a ton of guys and got nobody. They don’t have a selling point to players right now. People don’t know what to think of Zach Wilson, players don’t necessarily covet playing in that market, and guys who have choices tend to wind up elsewhere. They are in this weird purgatory.”
Although apparently there were plenty of people who not only chose the Jets, but also decided to stay over other opportunities.
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A Very Juicy Nugget
Jets head coach Robert Saleh revealed a very interesting nugget at his press conference on Wednesday June 1:
“Rob Calabrese definitely has coordinator potential. I don’t want to put his business on blast but he was courted this offseason in terms of job and coordinator opportunities and he elected to stay. He is a very talented young man, very knowledgeable, played the position, and he’s a sponge. Calabrese is getting better every single day as a football coach.”
#Jets HC Robert Saleh shared a juicy nugget during his presser that QB coach Rob Calabrese was ‘courted in terms of job & coordinator opportunities’ this offseason & chose to stick around w/ NYJ 👀: 🎥 @nyjets #TakeFlight @Connor_J_Hughes
There was a lot of reshuffling of the coaching deck for the Jets this offseason and they were close to losing a critical piece.
We know Calabrese was “in the running” for the Kentucky Football offensive coordinator position, but as Saleh noted he had multiple teams (both college and pro) that were interested in his services.
The 32 year old has only been in the NFL since 2019, but he has quickly surged through the ranks and has developed a strong reputation as an offensive mastermind.
Less Is More
In a perfect world the Jets would like to promote from within if they need to fill a future position on the staff.
For example, there has been some outside speculation that Mike LaFleur is eventually going to pop off and will garner interest as a future head coaching candidate.
If that were to happen, Gang Green in theory could promote Calabrese who they are high on to the offensive coordinator role so they don’t miss a beat.
Although putting all that future talk aside for the moment, the Jets have decided a less is more approach as it pertains to their quarterback room this offseason.
After having multiple guys on the offensive staff as a form of training wheels for a first-time play-caller in LaFleur, they are now trimming the fat.
Last year they had John Beck (personal quarterback coach), Matt Cavanaugh (veteran in the room), and that was on top of all of the normal coaches they had on the staff.
Saleh described it in his Wednesday presser as a more “refined” and direct message to Zach Wilson, as opposed to having too many voices in the room.
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