Jets Hire Tony Dews as RB Coach
Edition #568
Good morning! ☕
I hope you all had a better weekend than the Wyatt-Hupton household, a nursery sickness bug was transported home by my 3-year-old just in time for the weekend, not a lot of fun, fortunately, we’re all fighting fit today. The Super Bowl teams are confirmed, I worked the NFC Championship game last night and have to say it was a great one. Lamar Jackson still has that big-game no-show tag to dispose of, and the Jets hired themselves an RB coach.
🏆 The Kansas City Chiefs will play the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl. The Lions have to be kicking themselves this morning, as they really let that one get away. I have no issue with Dan Campbell going for it on 4th down, it’s what got them to the NFC Championship in the first place. The first 4th down stop was based solely on Josh Reynolds not executing, it hit him in both hands. The 2nd was Steve Wilks playing smart with the 49ers defense. Lions love to target the middle of the field, and the 49ers lined up in man coverage. The Lions ran a mesh concept which is a man coverage beater 99/100, but the 49ers dropped out of man and into zone after the snap and that shut down the crossing routes. It was smart. The issue is the Lions didn’t execute, they had a lot of drops and that decision to run on 3rd down was crazy, just milked too much time.
📈 Who was the most improved player for the Jets last year? According to PFF it was Quincy Williams: “Linebacker Quincy Williams was a breakout candidate for many prior to the 2023 season, and he did not disappoint. He started the season with an 89.3 overall grade in Week 1 against the Bills and never looked back, posting career-high figures in every facet and finishing the season with the second-highest coverage grade among linebackers — behind only teammate C.J. Mosley.”
✍️ PFF also released a new 5-round mock draft for every team:
🔢 Here’s a nice little stat nugget from the official Jets site: “The Jets scored in those final two minutes (of regulation) in seven games and allowed opponents to score just once, a Bills field goal to send opening night at MetLife Stadium into overtime. The Jets prevailed in this final two-minute-drive period, 35-3. The plus-32 point margin was the best in the final two minutes of regulation in the NFL regular season, ahead of, among others, Detroit (plus-20), Tampa Bay (plus-14) and Buffalo (plus-12).”
🟢⚪ One of the first things I do when the Jets hire a new assistant coach is head to the news and read through the responses from fans of his former team. I know fans can’t always be the most reliable judges, but it’s a good starting point.
When the Jets hired Keith Carter I saw a barrage of tweets and comments basically saying “good riddance”, I chose to ignore those and concentrated on the positives. 12 months later that looks a little foolish.
With Tony Dews, it’s considerably different. Most Titans fans seem genuinely upset that he’s moved on, and plenty are congratulating the Jets on a good hire. But who is Tony Dews?
Dews is a former college tight end who started at the very bottom of the coaching ladder. After coming through in Fairfax County, Virginia he spent his college years at Liberty. But not seeing a future playing the game, he decided to coach it, taking an offensive line coaching job at Bainbridge High School in Bainbridge, Georgia.
To detail his every stop would be a herculean task, in short, he’s coached every single positional unit on the offensive and defensive side of the ball apart from Quarterback. So he knows the game of football in intricate detail from a number of perspectives.
Millersville - 1998 - Defensive Line Coach
West Virginia - 1999-2001 - Offensive Line/Defensive Backs Coach
California (PA) - 2002 - Offensive Line Coach
Holy Cross - 2003 - Defensive Line Coach
Central Michigan 2004-2005 - Tight Ends Coach/Special Teams Coach
UNLV 2006 - Linebackers Coach/Special Teams Coach
West Virginia - 2007 - Wide Receivers Coach
Michigan - 2008-2010 - Wide Receivers Coach/Punt Team Coordinator
Pittsburgh - 2011 - Tight Ends Coach
Arizona - 2012-2016 - Wide Receivers Coach
West Virginia - 2017 - Running Backs Coach
Tennessee Titans - 2018-2022 - Running Backs Coach
Tennessee Titans - 2023 - Tight Ends Coach
All of that equates to 20 years of college coaching experience followed by 6 years of NFL experience. 26 years of coaching is a pretty good number to hang your hat on.
While he was coaching Derrick Henry in Tennessee, no player in the NFL had more rushing attempts, rushing yards or touchdowns. Henry led the NFL in rushing in both 2019 and 2020 and finished runner-up to Josh Jacobs in 2022. As a team, the Tennessee Titans ranked second in the NFL in rushing during those five seasons with Dews as the RB coach, averaging 139.9 ground yards per contest.
Interestingly the Giants interviewed Tony Dews last off-season for their vacant RB role, that role was filled by Jeff Nixon who left after one year to coach at Syracuse. It was a step up considering it was a coordinator position, but considering the talk coming out about the Giants locker room, I’m not surprised by the changes.
Dews is going to be an interesting hire because it’s hard to separate coaching from talent. His first job in the NFL was to coach Derrick Henry, which is a pretty good gig. But if you look back to 2021 when Henry was injured for a good portion of the season, D’Onta Foreman and Dontrell Hilliard both picked up the slack. Foreman averaged 4.3 yards per carry, the same as Henry, Hilliard didn’t get as many carries but he averaged 6.3.
If you look at pro football reference and take into consideration the successful rush % number, it tells a similar story. A successful rush gains at least 40% of the required yards on first down, 60% of the required yards on second down and 100% of the required yards on 3rd and 4th down.
Henry - 44.7%
Foreman - 48.9%
Hilliard - 46.4%
So while it’s easy to disregard him because of the talent he’s been working with, there are some signs that he can coach up players of less ability.
Any coach worth their salt will get good production out of Breece. I mean the guy just had 1500+ all-purpose yards with an offensive line that used 10+ combinations and a passing game that wouldn’t scare a community college…but what can he do with Israel Abanikanda? And what can he do with whatever veteran running back we decide to sign? That will be the key.
He also has some extensive offensive line coaching experience in his bag, maybe he can lend his old buddy Keitch Carter a hand because he sure as hell needs it.
Finally, I will say that I like the Dews hiring. But I’m not sure I like hiring Titans every off-season, they’re not exactly the beacon of success flashing atop the promised land.
It is very hard to get excited about a running back coach when the organization is sticking with all the offensive coaches from last year.
I don’t know what he can add to Hall’s game but hopefully he can add to Abanikanda’s game, like his pass blocking which according to the company line wasn’t good enough for him to be in a game last year, forcing them to use Cook and his 3.2 yd a carry.
After watching those games yesterday and looking how those teams were built, I find it very hard to get excited about next year with this current regime.
The Lion’s GM and HC were hired weeks apart in 2021, the same time as Saleh.
To be fair, they were given a fantastic gift when the Rams gave them Goff, 2-1s and a 3 for Stafford.
But look what they did with those picks. Look at the discipline, look at the coaching, look at the offensive schemes. Right or wrong, Campbell went fourth down all year, live by the sword, die by it.
The Chiefs got decimated in the Super Bowl against Tampa Bay because their older offensive line got destroyed by injuries during the playoffs.
What did they do that offseason, signed Thuney to a free agent contract and drafted Creed Humphrey with a 2 and Trey Smith with a 6th, instant Super Bowl winning offensive line.
What they did in one off season, JD hasn’t been able to accomplish in 4.
Again, look at the Chiefs drafts the last 5 years with them picking at the bottom of the round and the Jets when picking from the top of the rounds. It’s all there in plain sight, an excellent GM and HC, great coaching, great scouts, no BS about White House visits or all gas, no brakes.
The Ravens are still using Ozzie Newsome’s blueprint on how to run a successful football franchise, JD must have been sleeping in class all those years there.
Ditto with Frisco, it’s all there, coaching and scouting.
If any Jet fan thinks that Rodgers can turn this around by himself then they must be living in a world with pixies, fairies and unicorns.
Hi David, I see PFF has NYJ drafting Fuega. That’s my current choice. I want guys with a nasty edge and the size to use it. Separately there’s always chatter that AVT is the best option at RT. IMO, he’s played at an all star level at RG but is only a good RT. Keep him at RG and a chance to be the All Pro we think he is.