Josh Thomas Says Jets Didn't Coach Him

I don't think the Jets knew he was on the team. I know I didn't. Wait, do the Jets have a secondary coach?

Here's another one about the Jets being a mess ...


Jets offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg hints at philosophical differences with Rex Ryan


FLORHAM PARK — OK, maybe it isn't to the level where Marty Mornhinweg is calling certain plays just to stick it to Rex Ryan, but there does seem to be a dissonance between the Jets' offensive coordinator and head coach on whether to pass the ball or run it.

Mornhinweg, the offensive coordinator, pretty much aired some frustration by saying as much on Thursday.

"In this league, you need to pass the ball very efficiently to score points, typically," Mornhinweg said. "Now, every game's just a little bit different. But certainly the passing game, you've got to get that going to win on a consistent basis."

The Jets this season have a run-pass ratio that's almost evenly 50/50: 441 rushes to 444 pass attempts. But that number is a bit misleading because they've run it 120 times against just 70 passes in their last three games—a period that happens to coincide with Geno Smith's return as their starting quarterback.

And all that running the ball the last three weeks—beginning, most notably, with their 49 rushes versus 13 throws against the Dolphins in Week 13—happened after head coach Rex Ryan came right out and said he'd like to see the Jets run it more.

"We still need to be able to run the football," Ryan said in the week leading up to that Dolphins game. "For us to have the best chance to win, we definitely need to run the football. ... Maybe other teams can throw it 50 times a game. That is not the blueprint for us."

Still, Mornhinweg admitted Thursday, he'd like to throw it more.

"Everybody would like to be more like that because you score more points," he said.

Asked if the Jets began running the ball more because that's what Ryan wanted, Mornhinweg was evasive: "Rex and I talk each week, every day," he said.

It should come as no surprise that Mornhinweg's more pass-happy, while Ryan prefers the run; their careers before they worked together screamed as much. But Ryan, who had already fired Brian Schottenheimer and Tony Sparano as his OCs, nonetheless made the decision to try to make this work heading into 2013.

From the beginning, the Jets made every effort to try to be as balanced as possible: They went into last season with a rookie quarterback in Smith, and a receiving corps topped with Santonio Holmes and draft bust Stephen Hill, who both got cut before this season even began. Though Chris Ivory did turn into a pleasant surprise as their primary running back.

Then came this year. Smith, the Jets had hoped, would be a year older and much better, or at least consistently better. They added Eric Decker in free agency and tight end Jace Amaro in the draft. And they also brought in Chris Johnson to bolster the backfield, which also includes Bilal Powell. Yet what was missing was a fast receiver who could stretch the field, or what they had hoped Hill would be before he was cut at the end of training camp.

Mornhinweg's got this much working in his favor: Passing offenses do have greater success in today's NFL. Here's a look at league's top five offenses according to Football Outsiders' DVOA metric:

• Packers: 366 rushes, 473 pass attempts
• Broncos: 390 rushes, 524 pass attempts
• Steelers: 379 rushes, 548 pass attempts
• Patriots: 389 rushes, 541 pass attempts
• Cowboys: 442 rushes, 421 pass attempts

And the Cowboys' have DeMarco Murray, far and away the NFL's leading rusher this season.

Ryan could easily counter that the Jets don't have the sort of quarterback any of the five teams listed above do. Smith turned the ball over 12 times in his first nine game before getting benched in favor of Michael Vick. (And in six of those nine games, the Jets attempted more than 30 passes, with three games of pass attempts greater than 40.) Decker was hobbled for several games with a hamstring injury, after which the Jets traded for Percy Harvin, the sort of deep threat speedster their passing game had been lacking. And with Ivory and Johnson primarily carrying the load, the Jets have the second-most rushing yards in the league (2,060), even though they're 11th in rushing DVOA.

They're also 3-11 and missing the playoffs for the fourth year in a row.

"The way we're built, that's a reasonable thing to do," Mornhinweg said of running the ball. "We're pretty good ... so it's a conscious choice."

It's just not the choice their offensive coordinator would prefer. And that's been part of the problem.

I hate the coaches we have, they suck, but this sounds like sour grapes.

a dickbag that loses his playbook/allows it to be stolen should not be considered to be a credible source.

Rex is a joke...