This is the Lockdown Jets podcast here on Thursday, October 10th, 2024.

I'm your host, John B from gangreneation.com coming at you with a bonus episode because there is another shakeup on the New York Jets coaching staff.

Interim head coach Jeff Ulbrock addressing the media on Thursday announced that there will be a new play caller when the Jets take the field Monday night against the Buffalo Bills for their week six matchup. Nathaniel Hackett will no longer call plays. Now, he remains on the coaching staff. He keeps the title of offensive coordinator, but he's really offensive coordinator in title only now. He has been stripped of his play calling duties. Passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach Todd Downing will take over play calling starting Monday night against the Buffalo Bills. And I applaud this decision. This was the move I was calling for when Ulbrick ascended to the interim head coaching job two days ago. In fact, I said, if he makes this his first move, I approve of the Jeff Albrick era. And I have to say right now, I approve of the Jeff Albrick era. This is a move that should have been made far sooner. In fact, Woody Johnson, when he fired Robert Salah, should have also fired Nathaniel Hackens. You know, Woody Johnson was actually serious about fixing the offense. He should have done it

himself. This never should have fallen to Ulbrook. Interestingly and ironically, Sala's last act of Jets head as Jets head coach was to demote Hacken. He had decided reportedly to strip Hackett of his play calling duties and give them to Downing. And then five minutes later, he was fired. Well, Jeff Holbrook took over two days ago when he spoke to the press.

He did not commit because he had just taken the job. He probably had not had time to think about it. But after a couple of days of thinking about it, Todd Downing takes over his offensive coordinator. Thus ends the era of Nathaniel Hackett, one of the least creative offensive coordinators you'll ever see, one of the least imaginative offensive coordinators you'll ever see, and one of the least effective offensive coordinators

you'll ever see. This move is long overdue. Hackett should have never returned to the team after

the 2023 season. He never should have been hired. Let's be honest. His record was awful. The Jets had a bad

offense in 2022, and Hackett organized one of the few

offenses in the NFL that was worse than the 22 Jets, the Denver Broncos, who finished last in

the league in scoring that year. Now, the bad news is Todd Downing is taking over, and Downing was last

an offensive coordinator for the Titans in 2022. And they also scored less than the Jets that

season. I don't think anybody should be under any allusion that Todd Downing is going to magically fix this offense. This is, if anything, a marginal upgrade. But maybe Downing can be a little bit more effective situationally. Maybe he can use personnel a little bit better. It makes some changes, maybe more carries for Braylin Allen, because Bruce Hall's not doing a lot right now, maybe better use of formations. Look, Todd Downing's not a miracle worker. In fact, he's very unimaginative. A lot of the same criticisms. Jets fans have of Nathaniel Hackett, Tennessee Titans fans had of Todd Downing the last time he was an offensive coordinator. But sometimes it gets so bad. And we saw this with the switch from Robert Sala to Jeff Albrecht. Sometimes it gets so bad that a change is necessary, even if just for the sake of change, because you feel like almost any move you make is likely to be an upgrade. It doesn't always pan out that way. And we're going to have plenty of complaints about Todd Downing, I'm sure. But at least the Jets have changed their play call. At least we don't have to watch Hackett call plays anymore. Ulbrook also announced that he is remaining the defensive coordinator of this team, which was interesting. I was expecting somebody else on the coaching staff to be elevated because Ulbrook has all these new responsibilities. It's always a balance. Most head coaches ascend to the job from a coordinator spot. And part of the reason they get head coaching jobs is that they succeeded as coordinators. So the question is always, do I stay hands on? Do I take a step back and focus more on my new responsibilities? Well, you know, sometimes when you step back, you're taking away one of the best voices you have, either on the offenses or defensive

side of the ball. If you're an offensive coordinator who became a head coach, you probably have a lot to offer on the offensive side of the ball. If you're a defensive coordinator who just became a head coach, you probably have a lot to offer on the defensive side of the ball. I think we can assume that Robert Sala had some degree of sway over the Jets defense because he's an excellent defensive coach. So there were lots of reasons to get rid of Salah. There were not many ways the Jets were going to be hurt by losing Salah because he was not a good head coach. But one of the few areas where his departure may hurt the team is I'm sure he had a lot of input over the defense. So Ulbrick probably is thinking, you know what? If I step away from the defense, then we have no continuity. You know, Salah and Albrecht were probably a team orchestrating this defense. So if Albrecht's not hands on, then it falls to everybody else. And you don't know whether the position coaches can step up. Now, there will be coaches on that side of the ball who will absolutely need to step up because, again, you're losing Sala. And say what you will about Sala. Sala was an excellent architect of a defense. He was an excellent implementer. He was pretty much, everything we said bad about Nathaniel Hackett on offense, the opposite was true of Robert Sala on defense. He was an excellent defensive coach. So if you lose already losing Sallie, you don't want to take Ulbrook too far away from the defense, even though he's got all these new responsibilities to focus on. So Jeff Ulbrick will remain the defensive coordinator and play caller. It doesn't sound like there going to be any formal promotions, but I'm sure they're going to be position coaches who are going to take on enhanced responsibilities because Exalo's gone.

And look, Ulbrick will probably try and focus a lot on the defense, but he's going to be drawn in other directions now. He's not going to be able to do everything he used to do with this defense. So we'll see how well these other guys step up. The header on the Lockdown Jets podcast, we'll turn our attention to the interview report. There was a piece of very good news for the Jets in an area where they've been hurting.

It's the offensive line. They're going to get a player back this week. We'll talk about who it is and what it means for this team as we continue here on this special Thursday edition of Lockdown Jets. This special edition of Lockdown Jets is brought you by Zbiotics. SeaBiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic.

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