AFC Head Coach Poll

[RedBeardedSavage]

7 hours ago, JKlecko said:

I'm not disputing how poorly Zach played and the flaws he has.  Zach might have been able to learn and develop those things if he had not been thrown to the wolves his rookie season, had competent coaching, an offense that was conducive to his skill set, and a veteran QB to mentor him.  He was started immediately with the Jets knowing he had footwork issues, and hadn't developed that poise in the pocket yet.  You're wrong in your statement that Zach can't see the field.  He can very well at times.  He's inconsistent at it.  He was obviously having to think too much even this last year.  Players can't play their best, their fastest, and their natural ability can't shine through when they're having to think too much.  In the offense he played in at BYU, he wasn't really a pocket QB.  He was a bit of a gunslinger. 

The Jets tried to make him into a pocket QB and game manager, the total opposite of how he had played at BYU and opposite of his skillset, natural talent, and approach to playing QB.  Saleh hired his best friend's little brother who had never called plays, developed a QB, or been an OC before when he knew the Jets were drafting a QB.  That was totally foolish.  They jerked Zach around with style of play, benching him, then having him play again.  All of that goes on Saleh.

Regardless, Zach is gone, and Saleh not once in his career as a HC has he outcoached the opposing HC.  Saleh is too rigid, too conservative, and doesn't put players in the best situation to succeed.  Sauce is a perfect example.  Here's a guy that excels in man coverage, and Saleh has forced him to play strictly zone for the last 2 years.  Sauce is so good that he still made All Pro both seasons, but the opposing teams' top WR was still able to rack up yardage and TDs, and that cost the Jets games, where if Sauce had taken the top WR one-on-one, things could have been very different. Saleh has not been involved in managing the overall team's play, supervised the play calling and game planning and it shows.  The Jets abandon things when they're working, and they often try to go against what the other team's strongest points are rather than taking what the other team gives them.  That's all on Saleh.  The bottom line rests with him.

We disagree fundamentally on Zach, I don't think there's anything to argue about there. 

On Saleh, a few things:

• I keep seeing this "outcoach" argument - "Who can he outcoach? He's never outcoached anyone? He got outcoached." I don't know how this works - how does one differentiate a loss vs a loss where the coach was outcoached? Or a win vs a win where our guy outcoached theirs?
• Which game last year did a receiver rack-up yardage on us that "could've been different" if Sauce followed this player around? We had the #1 pass defense in the NFL:

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/opponent-passing-yards-per-game

"Saleh has not been involved in managing the overall team's play, supervised the play calling and game planning and it shows.  The Jets abandon things when they're working, and they often try to go against what the other team's strongest points are rather than taking what the other team gives them.  That's all on Saleh.  The bottom line rests with him."

• If we're talking about defense, our defense has been elite for two straight years, and that's something quantifiable 
• If we're talking about offense, we've had the worst offensive line in the league (plagued by injuries as well) and a backup quarterback. I don't blame anyone for employing the "give the ball to Breece and keep it close" gameplan given the circumstances

Genuinely, I think most of your criticism does not have enough specificity to hold up against scrutiny. It's vague, emotionally talk-radio-ish, and almost entirely without context.