Speaking the same language

Getting on the same page.

That has been going on the last few months between the Jets’ player personnel department led by Joe Douglas and the team’s coaching staff, lorded over by Robert Saleh.

The Jets are making significant scheme changes on both sides of the ball under Saleh, and it’s incumbent upon Douglas and his staff, to get players who fit what the new staff is looking to do.

And after months of meetings, the scouts are pretty clear about what Saleh and company are looking for in players.

So according to Jets Director of Personnel Operations Dan Zbojovsky, in the current meetings: “We will hear how those players fit our schemes according to the coaches, which this year is specifically huge for us. [The personnel department] spent a lot of time in February getting familiar with the new scheme, making adjustments to what we were looking for, which players fit us a little better than they did previously.

“The more we come be together and discuss those things, and hear our coaches discuss players, and how they fit, and what traits they are looking for, the better for all of us.”

A perfect example of an ideal fit is guard Dan Feeney, who has been a terrific zone blocker going back to his college days at Indiana. In Mike LaFleur’s Jets offense, they will be doing a lot of zone blocking.

Aside from working with the coaches on getting a good feel for what they’re looking for in players, the Jets’ scouting department, who Douglas retained from the previous regime, had to get used to Douglas’ grading system. While they obviously did that last year before Douglas’ first draft, they’re even more comfortable this year. When a new GM comes on, the lingo and grading system often change.

“We did a lot of work initially talking about historically how certain players fit into the [system], and this allowed out scouts to relate to it and hit the ground running last year,” Zbojovsky told newyorkjets.com. “This year we continue to build on that, communicate and make sure we are all speaking the same language.”

But no matter what the grading system, the game tape is still the most important thing.

“The main thing always falls back to the film – the games the players played through the fall,” Zbojovsky said. “That is done already and has been reviewed. That is always what you are going to fall back on, what happened on he field.”

And when Douglas and company break down players, they fall into several categories.

“High-end starter, low-end starter, all the way down to players who would be good to bring into camp,” Zbojovsky said.

While games are the most important things, over the last few weeks, there have been updates on player files based on what has happened since the seasons ended, things like Pro Days and Zoom interviews.

“We will have updated spring reports from our scouts to discuss things that have happened since the end of the season, how their opinions may have changed on players, and how will those players fit our scheme according to our coaches,” Zbojovsky said.

So the last few months, aside from all the film work and Pro Day visits done by the scouts, it’s been about getting on the same page.

April 20, 2021

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