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The New York Jets search for a new special team’s coach continues. They fired their 2015 special team’s coach Bobby April, a move that Mike Westhoff said was “cowardice.” . . .
On January 7, the Daily News reported, “The candidate likely to replace former special teams coordinator Bobby April is one of Todd Bowles’ old college teammates: Falcons special teams coordinator Keith Armstrong. Bowles tried to hire Armstrong a year ago, but he was still under contract with the Falcons. A source told the Daily News that Bowles now wants to bring a friend onboard that he couldn’t get last year — making Armstrong the obvious favorite to land the job. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Armstrong’s contract with the Falcons is believed to be up soon.”
I found this story a little perplexing.
Yes, I’m sure Bowles had interest in Armstrong, but he’s got two years left on his contract in Atlanta.
And think of the logic here for a second.
The Jets special team’s job was open last year.
And Armstrong was a member of Mike Smith’s staff with the Falcons. Smith was fired after the 2014 season.
So if Armstrong was going to try and get out of there, a year ago would have been the time. That was the window.
But Armstrong re-upped in Atlanta under new coach Dan Quinn.
So why a year into Quinn’s tenure, would he jump to join his friend? Last year was the ideal time to do that.
I’m not looking to criticize a fellow journalist. I’m just saying that particular story didn’t pass the smell test with me.
It show you how highly-regarded Armstrong is. Quinn made sure he kept him on-board from the previous staff.
And it looks like the same thing is happening in Philadelphia.
I mentioned the other day that Eagles special team’s coach Dave Fipp would have been a target for the Jets. He was Chip Kelly’s special team’s coach the last three seasons. But Eagles new head coach Doug Pederson is retaining him.
And the same thing just happened in Cleveland.
Another name I mentioned the other day was the Browns’ Chris Tabor. But new coach Hue Jackson is retaining him. Just like Mike Pettine retained him from Rob Chudzinski’s staff.
One more to get out of the way.
Another name that was attached to the Jets in the rumor mill was Joe Philbin and Dan Campbell’s special teams coach in Miami, New Jersey-native Darrin Rizzi.
You guessed it, he was retained by new coach Adam Gase.
Elite special team’s coaches are hard to find. So you hold on to the good ones with white knuckles.
So we will see where this goes from here.
Perhaps if Todd Bowles had known how tough it was going to be to find an elite candidate, he might have kept Bobby April around.
April isn’t a bad special team’s coach. Perhaps he didn’t do his best job this past year, but as we have mentioned many times, the Jets’ personnel department didn’t do him any favors.
Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning-News, one of the best NFL writers around, does a yearly ranking of all 32 special team’s units in the NFL. He has a formula based on a lot of different elements. His 2015 rankings came out, and the Jets were ranked 31st. Only one team was worse – the 4-12 San Diego Chargers.
So the Jets have a lot of work to do.
So Bowles better hit this hire out of the park
January 18, 2016
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