The New York Jets have a finalist for their offensive coordinator vacancy.
ESPN NFL Insider Jeremy Fowler revealed on Saturday, January 31, that veteran coach Greg Roman “will be part of the Jets’ in-person interviews for an offensive coordinator early next week, per sources.”
Fowler explained that the Jets “will whittle” their initial list of five candidates that they virtually interviewed “to three for in-persons.”
New York interviewed five candidates virtually and will whittle that list down to three for in-persons. Roman is one.
Roman, 53, has been coaching football since 1995. He has spent the majority of his coaching career at the NFL level, sans a three-year run between 2008 and 2010 when he was the offensive cooridator at Holy Spirit for a year and then spent two years as the associate head coach at Stanford.
Most recently, Roman had spent the last two seasons as the offensive coordinator for Jim Harbaugh with the Los Angeles Chargers. He was fired as the OC this offseason.
“Roman’s offense began the season looking like it would be among the league’s best. The Chargers‘ passing offense was seamless, and the offensive line protected Herbert in a Week 1 win over Kansas City,” ESPN’s Kris Rhim wrote.
“But the offense never returned to the heights of that opening game. Roman is known as one of the league’s most creative run-game architects, but his teams rely on having a physical, dominant offensive line. That foundation never materialized this season, in part due to injuries. The Chargers had 29 different offensive line combinations, which ranked third in the league,” Rhim explained.
The Group the Jets Will Be Selecting From
On Wednesday, January 28, the Jets announced that they had “completed” a first round of interviews for their open OC role.
That group of coaches included Frank Reich, Greg Roman, Lunda Wells, Ronald Curry, and Darrell Bevell.
From this group of five, the Jets will pick three to move on to the next round of the interview process.
Roman is one of those three, and we await to find out who the other two will be who join him.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly With Roman
Roman is an experienced coach. Across his 31 years, he has been an offensive coordinator for 13 seasons.
During that time, he has had highs and lows.
When Roman worked with Jim Harbaugh and the San Francisco 49ers, he boasted a rushing attack that was top five in the league for three straight years, per ESPN.
He had a ton of success running the operation for Jim’s brother, John Harbaugh, with the Baltimore Ravens. Lamar Jackson won his second MVP award in 2019 behind one of the best rushing attacks in league history. Roman was the NFL’s Assistant of the Year award for his contributions in that same season.
The concerning part for Jets fans will be his inconsistency with the passing game. According to ESPN, “he resigned after the 2022 season amid criticism from fans and players over a stagnant passing offense, concerns that resurfaced in Los Angeles.”
The Jets just submitted one of the worst passing offenses in modern NFL history in 2025. Roman’s history doesn’t indicate he’d be the right guy to fix those issues.
Insider Reveals Harbaugh Disciple Is Finalist for Jets OC Job: Report