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The Jets are almost two weeks into their search for a new head coach. When they find one, everyone guesses it.
On Thursday, the Jets completed a second interview with Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. This is the second candidate they interviewed in person in New Jersey. They interviewed 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh on Tuesday night and Wednesday.
Saleh and Smith left and headed for interviews with other teams. They both caught the attention of almost every team looking for a coach. The Jets get to the point where they have to decide whether they want to be the team that strikes first for any of these in-demand candidates or wait for them.
“As to when we’ll have a new coach, that’s a broad and deep search,” Jets CEO and Chairman Christopher Johnson said Jan. 4 at the start of that research. “We’re going to take our time, it’s a process and we want to get it right. Obviously we are not the only team looking for a new coach, time is always running out, but we are going to get it right.
This is the delicate point in which the Jets and the other teams find themselves. A coaching search is always a balance between acting quickly to beat other teams to a candidate, but also doing thorough research. This has been complicated this year by COVID-19 restrictions. The Jets interviewed nine candidates, but all interviews were conducted virtually. Teams will not choose a coach, and vice versa, without meeting in person. But candidates from playoff teams cannot meet in person until their teams are eliminated from the playoffs.
This allowed the Jets to bring Saleh (whose 49ers missed the playoffs) and Smith (whose Titans were knocked out on Sunday) for a second interview this week. They didn’t feel strong enough to try to lock one up when they visited, but will they pounce if one of them is hired by another team? Will they have the patience to wait for an in-person interview if Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy or Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll advance to the Super Bowl? That would mean waiting until February 8 to meet them. They could do another virtual interview with them during the week before the Super Bowl, but they surely wouldn’t hire someone they didn’t meet in person first.
The danger of waiting as long as any coach hired in February could find it difficult to muster their staff. Most coaching positions will then be filled and it can be difficult to attract assistant coaches.
The first hiring of coaches came on Thursday, as the Jaguars and Urban Meyer agreed on a deal. But Meyer never seemed to be a real candidate anywhere other than Jacksonville. The dominoes will really start to fall when one of the other six openings is filled.
Saleh and Smith are the two hottest names right now. Saleh has interviewed all the teams that have an opening except the Texans. He left the Jets on Wednesday and traveled to Florida to speak with the Eagles. The NFL Network reported that it also had a second interview with the Chargers.
Smith interviewed all of the teams except the Texans, who have expressed interest in speaking to him. He had a second interview with the Falcons before heading to New Jersey on Wednesday. After finishing with the Jets on Thursday, Smith was due to travel to Florida to meet the Eagles for the first time. He’s also going to have a second interview with the Lions on Friday.
If either of these two gets caught by another team, it will be interesting to see if the Jets move onto the other. This assumes that they both have the top of their list, which one can assume since they both interviewed them this week before everyone else.
Or the Jets can wait and see who loses this weekend to see who they could bring in next week for an interview. Daboll, Bieniemy, Rams defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, and Saints secondary coach Aaron Glenn (a former Jets player) all virtually interviewed the Jets and have playoff games this weekend.
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