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The Jets lost a valuable assistant coach recently, and the story kind of went under the radar.
A few days ago, Cleveland coach Mike Pettine named Paul Ricci as the Browns strength coach.
Ricci spent the past two seasons (2012-13) as an assistant strength and conditioning coach with the New York Jets
Jets strength coach Justus Galac, and Ricci, did a heck of a job last year. The Jets led the league in the least amount of time that starters missed due to injuries
They did a nice job of keeping guys healthy with a terrific strength program, and also did a terrific job rehabbing players to get them back to the field healthy.
It should come as no surprise that Pettine named Ricci as his strength coach.
Aside from the one year together with the Jets two years ago, Pettine and Ricci were with the Baltimore Ravens for a number of years.
Ricci spent nine seasons (1999-2008) on the strength and conditioning staff of the Ravens, including the staff that helped the team claim a victory in Super Bowl XXXV . . .
Let’s take a look at another coaching staff move this off-season of note.
The Jets promoted Bobby April III to linebacker coach, replacing Brian van Gorder who became defensive coordinator at Notre Dame.
Rex Ryan raves about April, who he thinks is a young coach who is a rising star.
We will see how this works out, but April is very young, and the man he replaced 30-year coaching veteran, who has seen it all, and who Rex leaned on quite a bit last year.
There is question the Jets saved money in this transition. I’m not saying that was the motivation, but it’s an angle that can’t be ignored.
I’m not going to lie. April could turn out to be outstanding, but if I’m running an NFL team, and a position coaching job opens up, I’m going out and getting a world class veteran assistant/teacher to handle the job (like van Gorder). I’m not hiring a very young former quality control coach, who has never coached the position on the major college or NFL level, to lead my linebackers, a darn important position in a 3-4 defense.
This is the NFL.
You look at a guy like Karl Dunbar, the Jets defensive line coach.
He played defensive line in the league and has coached the position for many years in the NFL.
He is an amazing teacher of technique. He knows all the tricks of the trade.
When he talks, the Jets defensive line listens.
One of the problems with a very young coach, who on top of being young, never played the position on a high level, is they don’t have a lot of gravitas with the veteran players. What is April going to teach David Harris?
I remember in a practice a couple of years ago, Tony Sparano Jr. was teaching Braylon Edwards some tricks about playing receiver.
Are you kidding me? Sparano was right out of college. What is he going to teach Edwards?
This is the NFL.
Hey, April could turn out to be outstanding.
We shall see.
But if I’m running an NFL team, I’m sparing no expense with coaches, and hiring the best of the best. There is no salary cap on coaches. So you might as well take advantage of that.
February 12, 2014
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