Coming Together

Edition #1025: Frank Reich starts building out his staff and another QB option may have become available.

Good Morning ☕

So the curtain has fallen on another season.

The Patriots lose. Sam Darnold is a Superbowl winner and 31 other teams now start planning the journey for next year.

Of course as a Jets fan I’m always going to detract from the Patriots, but they were completely outplayed and outcoached.

They rode the wave of fortune this year with a powderpuff schedule and then some fortunate bounces in the playoffs, including facing Jarrett Stidham in the AFC Championship.

Maybe this is the start of something special for them, that’s always possible. But I think it’s just as possible that the Patriots don’t get back to the big dance for a few years.

Anyway, we move on to the off-season.

Although it’s incomplete, we’re starting to see the offensive staff come together under Frank Reich. Over the weekend we saw two hires for the Jets ahead of the new season and news broke on Sunday that Derek Carr could unretire…is he a viable option for the Jets in 2026?

First let’s start with the hires.

Seth Ryan was hired as the Jets passing game coordinator. Son of Rex Ryan, grandson of Buddy Ryan, it’s safe to say the Ryan family has a legacy in green.

Ryan is an interesting hire, not only because of his family lineage, but also because of his youth. He’s only 31 and has only been coaching since 2019 when Anthony Lynn hired him with the Chargers as an Offensive quality control coach.

He followed Lynn to the Lions in 2021 and was retained as the assistant wide receivers coach when Ben Johnson took over play-calling in 2022. Which of course means that he’s familiar to Aaron Glenn (and Tanner Engstrand for what that’s worth).

In 2025 after Ben Johnson left he moved over to assistant TEs coach under John Morton (Jets former OC from 2017).

So Seth arrives with 7 years of coaching experience but nothing above the assistant position coach position, so this is going to be quite the learning curve for him.

My preference as a fan would have been to try and get someone like Darrell Bevell for that position after he missed out on the OC job, but having Frank Reich as the OC means that you can afford to try and find the next star coordinator by taking a chance on someone like Ryan.

The thing with a hire like this is I don’t really have anything to analyse. How much do you credit an assistant position coach with the development of the players? How much did Ryan have to do with Amon-Ra St. Brown’s development? Or Jameson Williams’s breakout campaign in 2024?

I have very fond memories of Rex Ryan considering he’s the last coach to take us to the playoffs, and obviously Buddy Ryan was the defensive line coach of that Super Bowl winning team that held the Colts to just 7 points, so he gets a fair amount of leeway with me and I’m excited to see his development.

So if one of their hires this weekend was as green as can be, the other was the complete opposite.

Alfredo Roberts has been brought in as the TE’s coach and Mason Taylor should be absolutely thrilled about that.

Roberts has spent the last five years coaching TE’s in Pittsburgh under Mike Tomlin. A period which covered the drafting and development of Pat Freiermuth.

Before that he had stops with the Chargers, Colts, Bucs, Browns and Jaguars, all as the TE coach and before going into coaching he spent 5 years in the league, first with the Chiefs and then the Cowboys.

As a player he was a much better blocking TE than a receiving one, but he was your kind of prototypical average TE in the late 80’s and early 90’s, strong at the point of attack, a reliable outlet but never really a feature.

What I like about the two hires is that Reich seems to be mixing experience ith real developmental potential.

The Jets have now hired every offensive coach outside the QB one, and that hire is going to be extremely important.

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Early Sunday morning a report surfaced that Derek Carr could consider unretiring for the right situation.

Disclaimer straight off the bat, I don’t think the Jets are the kind of situation that would draw someone out of retirement.

If you were with TJW during the 2023 off-season you’ll know that I was very much in the Derek Carr over Aaron Rodgers camp.

Obviously neither situation worked out overly well for either team, but who knows what would have happened had the Jets decided to put on the full-press to bring Carr to New York.

Let’s just run through the facts nice and quick:

• Carr is 34 years old and has been retired for just one season.

• He had a labral tear in his shoulder and damage to his rotator cuff last off-season which encouraged him to retire.

• He rehabilitated the injury and is now throwing fully without limitations.

• The Saints still hold his rights but are not expected to ask for a lot in terms of trade compensation if he decides to return.

• Carr has always shown a willingness to work with his team in terms of cap considerations.

I’m not going to sit here and say that Carr is the answer. But having another QB on the market (potentially) is never a bad thing.

In his final full healthy season in 2023 he completed 68.4% of his passes for 3,878 yards, 25 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. Then in an injury shortened 2024 when he was limited to 10 games, he still completed 67.7% of his passes for 2,145 yards, 15 touchdowns and 5 interceptions.

But here is an interesting note.

Frank Reich and Derek Carr have never been on the same team, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying by the current Jets OC.

According to multiple reports, the Colts repeatedly tried to trade for Carr in 2019, 2020 and 2021 while Reich was the head coach. All attempts were rebuffed by the Raiders but Reich never gave up hope.

When he was hired by the Panthers, he was the driving force behind them targeting Carr, and he met with Derek along with the Jets and Saints. Of course Carr chose the Saints but it’s clear that Reich firmly believes that he can win with Carr.

Last week we spoke about some of the things that Reich looks for in a QB, high completion, low interception, pre and post-snap processing. Carr is basically the epitome of a Reich QB, especially later in his career.

Reich has been wanting to coach car for 7 years now, could he finally get that chance in 2026? It would certainly bring the Jets back to respectability.

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NEWS & NOTES

• According to Zack Rosenblatt, the Jets have hired Ryan Slowik as their defensive passing game coordinator. Ryan is the son of long-time NFL coach Bob Slowik, brother of Bobby Slowik who is the Dolphins OC and Steve Slowik who is a scout with the 49ers. It’s safe to say they’re a football family. Ryan started with the Packers all the way back in 2003, spent a year with the Jets in 2015 as their Assistant defensive line coach and has been with Miami since 2022 in a number of roles culminating in the defensive backs coach/pass game specialist title he’s held over the last two years.

• Some pretty shocking news. “Former NFL linebacker Darron Lee, the New York Jets’ first-round pick in 2016, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend, the Hamilton County (Tennessee) Sheriff’s Office announced Friday.” - If you want to read more about that you can on ESPN.

• According to Aaron Wilson the Jets are moving on from offensive assistant Walter Kusmirek, who recently coached the offensive line group at the shrine bowl. It seems to be a decision made by Frank Reich as he continues to mould his team.

• Adam Gase may be getting back into the game. He’s scheduled to visit the Chargers early this week for their vacant passing game coordinator role.