What does Chan Gailey, Jets' potential offensive coordinator, think of Geno Smith?
jets offensive coordinator chan gailey 1/16/15
Can Chan Gailey win with Geno Smith? (AP Photo | Scott Audette)
Darryl Slater | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com By Darryl Slater | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
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on January 19, 2015 at 2:25 PM, updated January 19, 2015 at 2:29 PM
Everybody figured that Chan Gailey was a lock to become the Jets' next offensive coordinator.
That isn't so, Gailey said in a telephone interview Monday, because he is still negotiating a contract with the Jets. But if they do reach an agreement, Gailey insisted he will have no problem coming back into the NFL after two years away from coaching.
Signing on the dotted line with the Jets -- again, if it happens -- will be the easy part for Gailey. The harder part will be turning Geno Smith into a productive NFL quarterback. For most of his first two seasons, he has looked like anything but.
Gailey has a history of coaching second-rate quarterbacks, and has been able to do good things with some of them. So, what does Gailey think of Smith?
"It's probably not even fair for me to comment, because I haven't studied him," Gailey said. "You can watch the last Miami game, and say, 'Wow.' And then you can watch two others and say, 'Oooh, I don't know.' I think it's unfair for me to completely comment about where I think he is and where he needs to go, without studying the film."
Gailey was referring to the Jets' 2014 finale, in which Smith recorded a perfect quarterback rating of 158.3 in a win at Miami. He was the only NFL quarterback to attain a perfect rating during the entire 2014 regular season. Smith threw for 358 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions.
But for his career, Smith has 24 touchdown passes and 34 picks, plus seven lost fumbles. On a whole, he has not looked like a franchise quarterback, despite finishing 2014 strong. In 2013, Smith finished 37th (dead last) in the NFL with a 66.5 quarterback rating. In 2014, Smith finished 29th out of 33 quarterbacks in the league, with a 77.5 rating.
The Jets likely will acquire a new quarterback this offseason -- via a trade, free agency or the draft. But the former two options are limited. Even if the Jets draft, say, Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota sixth overall (presuming he hasn't already been picked), there are no guarantees that he would be ready to start in Week 1.
So the Jets are facing the distinct possibility of Smith beginning the season as their starter again.
If Gailey does join the Jets, he will take over an offense that has been miserable for the past four seasons, during which the Jets missed the playoffs every year, while going 8-8, 6-10, 8-8 and 4-12. Gailey said he still needs to familiarize himself with the Jets' offense.
"I don't know a lot (about the Jets' offense), to be honest with you," he said. "I know there's a fairly good mix of veterans and younger players. I know that there's some skill available. I feel like that we'll be able to take the guys that we have, and any new infusion that we get, and hopefully be able to turn it into a winning offense. There's a difference between a productive offense and a winning offense. And what we want to be is a winning offense."
Gailey ran a spread offense in his last stop, as the Bills' head coach from 2010-12, but that doesn't necessarily mean he will do so with the Jets. Gailey said he hasn't spoken with new Jets head coach Todd Bowles about what type of scheme the Jets might use.
"The thing that we've talked about is that I think he realizes I'll do what's best for the personnel that we have, and then how we have to play according to the defense we have," Gailey said. "There's a lot of things that you have to do to win games. It's not just putting up points and throwing the ball and getting statistics. It's not about statistics. It's about winning the game. You've got to think about everything when you're running an offense."
The Jets' defense has been much better than its offense in recent years. A coaching change alone isn't going to immediately make the Jets' offense better, especially considering their shaky quarterback situation. Gailey seems to understand that the Jets might need to be a run-focused, field position-based offense that leans on the defense at times, and doesn't take a lot of unneeded risks by throwing the ball a ton.
Not only has the Jets' offense failed to put up good numbers over the past four seasons, the Jets also haven't won many games. So while Gailey said winning games is more of a priority than accumulating offensive stats -- as it should be -- he surely understands that the Jets' offense needs to be more productive.
Once again, the Jets have hired a head coach with a defensive background, Bowles. Like Rex Ryan when he arrived from Baltimore in 2009, Bowles is also a first-time head coach.
He could benefit from having Gailey alongside him, as a former head coach. Gailey was the Cowboys' head coach from 1998-99 and Georgia Tech's head coach from 2002-07, prior to his three seasons running the show in Buffalo.
While Gailey could be an asset to Bowles in this regard, Gailey's own head coaching experience has made him a more well-rounded assistant coach, he believes.
"I think having been a head coach, you are a much better assistant coach," Gailey said. "I've said that from the first time that happened to me, and I really believe that. I think I'm a much better assistant having been a head coach. All those things that you don't realize that the head coach has to deal with, when you've never been one, you understand that and you try to take some things off of him, so that he doesn't have to worry about those kind of things."
