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At the Senior Bowl,
the New York Jets and the Detroit Lions, the two coaching staffs overseeing the college All-Star teams in the game, promoted assistant coaches, for the week, to more important positions, to give those assistants valuable experience coaching on a higher level.
For the Jets, assistant special teams coach Leon Washington coached the special teams, linebacker coach Mike Rutenberg served as defensive coordinator, quarterback coach Rob Calabrese was the offensive coordinator, and former assistant offensive line coach, Jake Moreland, coached the offensive line.
Notice the word “former” in the description of Jake Moreland.
Moreland coached the National Teams offensive line during the week, and then in the game, February 5.
Then, nine days after the game, Moreland left the Jets, to become the tight ends coach of the Denver Broncos.
And now he can take all the great information he got from coaching all those offensive linemen, on the field, and in the meetings, to Denver, and help Broncos GM George Paton evaluate those linemen even better.
Before I continue, I want to make it crystal clear I’m not criticizing Moreland in the least. He took a better job likely with a higher salary. He was an assistant offensive line coach with the Jets, and now he’s lording over a position group. And I do think he’s head coaching material down the road, either on the college or NFL level. He’s a smart, passionate coach who is a very good communicator.
But if the Jets knew he was going to bolt nine days after the Senior Bowl, would they have made him their offensive line coach in Mobile? Probably not.
NFL staffs that coach Senior Bowl teams are afforded an amazing opportunity to get their hands on players and really get to know them.
“You can hide at Combine, but with a week’s worth of work it’s a lot harder to hide,” said Robert Saleh. “The biggest thing is their mentality, their ability to absorb the playbook. So we bring in a playbook that’s not so hard that they can’t get it, but we also don’t want it to be so easy that you can’t see if they’re able to absorb the information you’re giving them. So the mental part is really really big, what they can grasp and how quickly. Remember, NFLÂ game plans change every week.
“The other part is you’ll see it’s going to be adversity for these kids. Someone’s going to drop a pass, miss a block. Think of the pressure on these young men to perform their job under this pressure. When they make a mistake, how do they respond? When they get to a place like New York and get pounded [for a misplay], can he handle it?”
So with the offensive linemen, Moreland was able to see this stuff, and Denver certainly needs offensive line help, and this should help them evaluate some O-Line prospects.
Once again, none of this is a criticism of Moreland, who did what he thought was best for his career.
But if the Jets knew he was leaving for Denver less than two weeks after the game, they certainly would have had John Benton oversee the offensive line, and would not have promoted Moreland for the game.
Another assistant coach who did the same thing was game management coach Matt Burke, who went to Arizona to be their defensive line coach. This should help the Cardinals scouting of Senior Bowl players as well.
Yes, assistant coaches move around a lot in the NFL, but moving after getting that unique Senior Bowl vantage point on a coaching staff, is a totally different animal.
February 18, 2022
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