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It’s now official – Jeremy Bates is now officially the Jets’ offensive coordinator. The announcement came yesterday from the team.
What took so long?
Remember, on January 22, ESPN’s Adam Schefter announced that Bates was going to be the Jets’ offensive coordinator, and it took 23 days for this to become official.
In contrast, four days after the Super Bowl, Eagles QB coach John DeFilippo was hired as offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings.
I asked the Jets repeatedly what took so long, and I couldn’t get an answer.
At one point, a Jets official jokingly said to me, “He will be subject to intense interrogation and we will commence with a full review of both his flight and phone records.”
Eventually, I will get to the bottom of what happen, but when you have a gap like this, for a candidate, who I don’t think he had any other offers, what’s up with that?
When I get an answer in the coming months, I will let you know.
I was just on a Denver radio show with Steve Atwater. The reason they wanted me on was to talk about Kirk Cousins, but they did ask about the Bates’ hiring, since he has Denver roots.
What I basically said is that he’s certainly qualified for the job, and has a top-shelf offensive mind, but that four-year hiatus is a little bit of a red flag.
From 2013-16, Bates was out of football, doing a lot of hiking, including five months hiking the Continental Divide Trail (2,900 miles).
He was also fired after one season working as Pete Carroll’s offensive coordinator in Seattle in 2010. That was pretty quick, and it had to do with more than just not having a good offense that year – it was the first year of a rebuild. The expectations weren’t high.
So what I said on the show was, “It could be a great hire, unless whatever was going on in his past rear’s it’s head.”
Look, I’m not looking to be negative, just dealing with that big gap in his resume in his 30’s, which is rather unusual.
If he’s in a good place now, this should be a good hire.
And it would be in the Jets’ best interest to let him play the quarterbacks he wants to play.
What do I mean by that?
Bates isn’t it the PR stuff when it comes to quarterbacks. He’s not interested in Mike Maccagnan’s draft record. I’ve run this quote many times, but it’s illustrative of his attitude.
When asked by reporters why McCown was playing over Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg, he replied, “This is professional football. This isn’t Triple-A.”
So what I’m saying is simple, Todd Bowles, Maccagnan and Christopher Johnson need to put the QB politics on the side, and let Bates handle the QB thing.
Don’t make him keep quarterbacks on the roster, or play quarterbacks he doesn’t want to play. This isn’t about being right about personnel moves, this is about having a successful offense. The other stuff doesn’t matter.
Let’s be honest, the Jets QB set-up last year wasn’t good. I’m not talking about the starter McCown, but having two backups that weren’t ready to play. So political as was the Kabuki Theatre QB competition throughout the spring and summer. Look at Minnesota having Case Keenum and Philly having Nick Foles. That is what you want in a back.
So what I’m saying is, I think this can work out, if the Jets let Bates do his thing, and not throw monkey wrenches in his operation forcing him to play players he doesn’t feel can help him win.
February 15, 2018
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