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This move came out of left field, and was a game-changer for the Jets.
Nobody saw this coming.
On a January 27, the Jets hired Kevin Greene as an assistant coach.
Greene, a Hall-of-Fame outside linebacker, will coach the Jets’ outside linebackers.
Up until the point, the Jets had a nondescript off-season in terms of filling the openings on their coaching staff.
Greene changes the narrative.
Before I continue, I want to make it clear, as I’ve said many times, teams shouldn’t make moves to “make a splash.” Everything should be about pure football, like it is in New England.
But when you can marry the concept of making a good move and it also makes a splash, there is nothing wrong with that. And hiring Greene brings both concepts together.
This was a very important hire.
Greene was the outside linebacker coach for the Green Bay Packers from 2009-2013. He left for three years to be around for his sons high school football careers.
Now that they are out of high school, he jumping back into coaching.
Not only is Greene a very good outside linebacker coach, but he brings some much needed fire and energy.
Todd Bowles is the team’s de-facto defensive coordinator. He’s not fiery. I’m not saying he’s a bad coach. I’m just saying he’s very low key. And because he’s taciturn, a good compliment to him is some fire-breathing assistants.
And the hiring of Greene gives Bowles and the Jets some street cred. This hiring will help them raise the bar on filling out the rest of their staff.
It’s kind of like college basketball recruiting. When you sign a big-time recruit, it often leads to other big recruits coming on board.
When the Jets hired Greene, it was a move where fans and reporters in unison basically all responded, “Oooh, that is a good one.”
Now don’t expect Greene to be a miracle worker. You can’t coach an outside linebacker to be a great pass rusher.
While he’s got so much to give to his new pupils in terms of great technique and all the pass rush moves he has in his bag of tricks. He will also be a good “motor coach.” I heard Gregg Williams use that term the other day at the Senior Bowl – “motor coach.” Greene will keep his charges motor running high.
But there is only so much you can do to improve a guy’s pass rush ability. A lot of that is natural.
I can assure you the Denver outside linebacker coach didn’t make Von Miller into a great pass rusher.
Miller runs 4.4 has an amazing first step and great hip flexibility to dip under offensive tackles. You can’t teach that stuff.
So it’s incumbent upon Mr. Coffee to go out this off-season and bring in a “special” pass rusher in the draft or free agency.
I mentioned a guy from the Senior Bowl who I think they could steal in the second round – Illinois’ Carroll Phillips.
But whether it’s the players Green inherits, or those the Jets might add, they are going to get great coaching.
This was a spirit-lifting hire for the Jets organization.
January 30, 2017
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