Jets Hire John Viera

Edition #336

Good morning! ☀️

Welcome to the weekend. Baseball season is upon us as spring training games get underway, and I’m looking forward to seeing those New York Mets.

As I’m writing this, there are no updates on the Jets QB situation although Aaron Rodgers resurfaced from his retreat late on Wednesday. I’ll be honest, I’m just looking forward to that situation getting resolved, so we can move and focus on the rest of the roster.

Today we’re going to focus on a hire that went a little under the radar this week as the Jets brought in John Viera to join Nathaniel Hackett’s coaching staff.

⚜️ The Saints opened up over $10 million worth of cap space by converting some of Ryan Ramczyk’s salary. New Orleans is in cap space hell at the moment and will need to open up around another $30 million just to get back to being cap compliant. I mention this because the Saints seem to be our main competitor for Derek Carr and they’re starting to position themselves.

🚗 Mike Tannenbaum joined the team Carr camp saying:

“I would go after Derek Carr. Because right now your alternative isn’t really good. In our situation, we had Chad Pennington. He was a really good, solid NFL quarterback. …in this situation, I would not rely on the unreliable Aaron Rodgers. It’s just too many questions this year and next year. I’m not interested in giving up the 13th pick for uncertainty.”

🔵⚪ Tiki Barber was on WFAN talking Jets/Giants and Daniel Jones:

“If the Jets get stuck with nobody … forget possible. It could be a reality … if they get stuck with nobody, the guy who’s across the town, Daniel Jones, is more valuable to them than he is to the New York Giants. They didn’t draft Daniel Jones. They still got a lot of pieces they got to get in place before they’re viable — before they can even beat the Eagles. Daniel Jones makes a lot of sense for the Jets, as crazy as it sounds.”

⚡ New York Jets assistant special teams coach Leon Washington interviewed with Kevin Stefanski in Cleveland on Wednesday for their vacant offensive coordinator position, but in the end, Bubba Ventrone was hired to fill the vacancy. Hopefully, Leon sticks with the Jets.

👣 Vance Joseph has been hired as the Bronco’s defensive coordinator, a position that Rex Ryan was tipped for. Would have loved to have seen Rex back on the sideline, but maybe we’ll have to wait another year.

🦁 Former Jets cornerback and one-time scout Aaron Glenn is signing a contract extension with the Detroit Lions as their defensive coordinator. He had interviewed with both the Arizona Cardinals and Indianapolis Colts for their head coaching role.

🧀 According to ESPN Aaron Rodgers only lasted 2 days in his 4-day retreat, arriving on Monday and leaving on Wednesday. The veteran QB will now meet the Packers in the coming days to discuss his future, my guess? He stays in Green Bay.

Who is John Viera?

Earlier this week it was revealed that he would be following Nathaniel Hackett, but it’s not your run-of-the-mill coaching hire, in many ways, it’s actually quite innovative.

If you look around the league you won’t see a lot of “Instructional designer” coaches. But what does an instructional designer actually do?

Here’s how Nathaniel Hackett described it while he was in Denver: