A Conversation with Jets OC Mike LaFleur (2/8)

little bit, you know. I mean when we came down here, it was it was a really good experience. Obviously the first two years in San Francisco, um I was a receiver coach and pass game coordinator and did a lot of stuff still with the quarterbacks because Kyle was floating around as a head coach when we came down to the Senior Bowls, like it's your show, you know, so there was gonna be no interaction and and basically he

worked in two thousand eleven. Uh, when he was with the Redskins, they worked down here, and they put a lot of offense and I guess absolutely overloaded the players and so the only piece of vice the game. He's like, you're not gonna make the same mistake I did. So we came in with a very simple plan. Just allow these guys to play fast. Um. I thought we had

a really good week when we came down here. It was really good for myself and all the other young coaches just to kind of run the room while some of the other guys took a step back. And then, um, you know, and then I get down here and there's I don't know where to stand out there right now. I'm just trying to watch but also not getting the way. But you're trying to coach, you know, so um, but it's uh, it's cool. It's cool to watch Rob Calvaries and all the other guys get a crack at it.

Yeah you're young, dude, but you're talking about Rob Calabrie's who's I believe thirty one year thirty five? What's it like when you go in that quarterbacks meeting room and watch him orches straight, I'm thirty four. I got one more. The only reason Eric I'm gonna say that is because my wife just turned thirty five. So we always have that little six week buffer where I get to be the okay, so I jumping on right there? No, it's UM, it's cool. You know Rob, Rob's a very intelligent, smart guy. Um,

he knows how to communicate with the quarterbacks. Um, I had never worked with them before, obviously, And even though he was in this system before in Denver with Rich Gangarrello, there's still nuances and differences, you know, so that you're one, you're still trying to get UM on the same page with everything. And UM, he's ready to take off, you know, and it this is a great experience for him, but

he's he's ready for this experience. I'm more fired up for guys like Mac Brown, Billy Vanderberg, Jake Morland running an offensive line. UM, just guys that haven't ran in NFL room before and where they get to just coach that whole thing up for the week. How did you prepare for it when Kyle said you were going to be the guy down here? How did you get ready for it? And with that being said, what did you

say to Rob? Because I know you don't want to psyche these guys out put too much on their shoulders where it's like they're making more of it than maybe they should. Where you have over preparations. When when we came down here in eighteen, they did not have any of the documents from seven years ago in Washington when my brother was the quarterback coach. No one had any of those documents. So we did somewhat have to start from scratch. Um, and again I got the piece of

advice from Kyle, Hey, keep this thing simple. Uh. The the whole deal for everyone in this league is to, you know, just see these guys play as fast as humanly possible. Give a little bit of stuff in to them where you can see their brains working, adding a few things and switching up a few things every single day. Um, when we found out we were coming here, they are. He had they are. He had the test because I

had all the files. So I'm like, hey, we just basically got to switch this over to our terminology now, which was basically the same terminology. So they got a lot of a lot of the hard work out of the way. They just had to make the cut ups and get these guys prepared, rescripted on out, get it out to the guys. Now. These guys are so prepared, The players are so prepared with all the different trainers and stuff that they're working with. They get the information

even faster than they did three three years ago. I mean they're asking for the information two weeks in advance, and that's good and all. You'd almost get bored because there's not enough offense to like, you know, you'll learn it in two days if you're going to study it. You know what I'm saying. It's not our whole playbook by any means. It's five percent and it's dummy down. So so so five percent you said, probably, yeah, five teen percent, But I mean there's so many rules with this.

I mean, you can't get in three by one formations. It's uh, you know, you're you're you're stuck in two by two, um, stuff like that, so that you can't motion. So I mean there's you're you're so limited in what you can do anyways, you know. So that's where I like to give out the playbook. But then you keep a couple of things on the side so that it

doesn't get old and stale. And then you also want to see how fast guys can learn, you know, because that's part of you know, the the unique advantage that we get is we get to be in the meetings with them. Everyone gets to watch them out there, but we get a little bit closer and we get the meetings and so you get to kind of see how they process information. What are the challenges with the terminology in such a short amount of time. Um, just that it's new, you know, UM a lot of these guys

and this isn't new this year or last year. I mean, this is college football. What seems like over the last ten fifteen years, they're not even in huddles anymore. So it's sometimes if they didn't do it in high school and they didn't do in college, they've never been in a huddle here, and not only a play call for the first time, but a play call that might have ten eleven words in it, you know, and it's telling everyone where to line up, what kind of split the take,

what's going on in the protection. If I'm a receiver, I don't need to worry about the protection until I have to, because there might be one word where I'm I'm a part of that protection. Uh So it's just being able to process that information. If you know, uh, kind of split those play calls up in your head. Everyone's gonna hear it a little bit different, but you try to give them a couple of uh coaching points to to how to hear it, and then um, you know.

It's one thing to be in the meeting get it UH coached you, but it's another thing in real time because you want to be able to break the huddle and not look back like what do I got? You know, because again we're we're all out there and if you're doing that too often, then there's something that's uh maybe a little bit off on how you're hearing it, and we'll get you coached up. But uh you know. So it's a challenge for him because it's a lot of

a lot of it's new for these guys. Can you talk about the advantages for the staff to not only get these guys on the field, but get them behind closed doors watch them absorb the concepts, look at the film, talk about um you know, but basically recite what you guys are telling. Now, yeah, no, it's you get it.

You get a um, you know, up close view of these guys and and how they're digesting the information that you give them, and not only digesting it and be able to recite it back to you, but then after practice come back and you know you're coaching them up see if you know, you can ask him a question, Hey,

what do you think you could do better here? And it might be something you've never even coach, but hey, there's a receiver I could have you know, attacked an edge a little bit more and got a little bit more of a re stammer. I was a little bit short to my router, whatever have you. So it's stuff that even at the combine you don't you don't get.

I mean, this is this is real football. And that's why, um, you know, just having the one experience with the Senior Bowl, it's in my opinion, way more beneficial than the Combine because you get the full interaction, you get the practice, and then you know culmination with the game. Win bet is now live in New Jersey and they're bringing the

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Can we go back to your planning days? Uh, talk about yourself as a quarterback and you played safety too, right, it's safety. Uh. My senior year I got moved to safety. Actually are snowline coach Jake Moreland, his best friends Tim Lester was now the head coach at Western Michigan. He U, he came in my senior ye and we're going to run more of a pro style offense at Elmer's College. So being a five eight dude that I wasn't gonna

be able to see very well. Uh, and we had a very good quarterback was one of my best friends, you know, in front of me. So um he started at quarterback and I moved over to safety my senior year and started at free safety all year. So it was it was I'd never played defense before. I was always a quarterback all through high school. That we didn't. We didn't go two ways. So I was always a quarterback. So what was your what's that? What were weighing in at I was in high school? In college, Well you

played you played safety only in college? Yeah, right. I got up to one eight seven my senior year at five eight. It was like carrying a ton of bricks on your feet. It was. It was one of the dumbest moves I made because I thought, you know, hey, my first year playing defense, I gotta be able to I gotta be able to have some sturdiness and hit some So I gained a bunch of weight, and now I couldn't run like I could as a quarterback, you know.

So I always looked back at that like that was so dumb, Like, but how much did your quarterback background help you when you go back to place I started because, like I said, I mean, it wasn't I'd never played defense. You know, being a quarterback, you're gonna know kind of everything that's going on. So that was the easy transition. It was, Hey, at the moment of truth, am I gonna go stick my face in there? And I felt

like I would. But the problem was I wasn't getting from point a to point defense enough because I was in probably twelve pounds overweight, because I thought I had to get nice and for playing defense. So anyway, I played played defense that senior year. But before that, I was a quarterback for three years. Started one year and it was a good experience and we went to it was a D three school in Chicago. I'm from small town Michigan, so that was a whole just the school

experience being you know, in the summers of Chicago was different. Um, it was cool. It was really cool. Where the coaching bug come from? Because your your older brother now Matt is what seven years older than you, a little over seven? Yeah, where did it come from? So it goes, I mean it goes pretty far back to my grandpa, my mom's dad. Uh. He was a high school head coach in Michigan for for twenty five plus years. Um. He played at Western Michigan. Um,

so he started it. My mom loved football because that's what she knew growing up. She was at chew it or she goes to Central Michigan, meets my dad who's a player there. He was a he was a linebacker there. Um and then d line is senior year he gets into coaching. He coaches at Central Michigan for twenty three years. And then you know, my brother gets into it. And I'm the one that I tried to get away from it when I was at Elmhurst because it was a

it was a Division three school. There's no scholarships, so you had, you know, I had had a pace some money to go to school there. My mom's like, if you're going to school in Chicago, and my brother tried talking me into it, We're gonna go school in Chicago, you might as well going to economics, go go going to finance something like that and work down in the city,

makes some money. Said, you know what, You're right, And I took about one week of classes and that and I'm like, I called my mom's waiting and I got out and went into into education and got my degree there and and yeah, I just got into coaching and I kind of work my way up. What about the gap between you and Matt seven years? Was it when you guys were growing up? With it? Every competitive between you two, because that's a pretty wide discrepancy. But with

that being said to you both are competitive guys. Probably competitive because I wanted time with him and I was the little brother that was always trying to linger around so as I was growing up, No, it was not competitive because he just was so much older. I was always the ball boy and stuff like that, and you know, the annoying little brother, always just trying to be around everything. Um, we're probably got competitive, was what I was just saying.

When I got into college and you know, you're in college, you're thinking, you're finally a man. He's still seven years you're you're you know, older than you. He's working out with Solid every day, and they got they ballooned up and got huge when they were gas like, oh my god, they got who. I got stories for days on that. Maybe we get into it and um and Solid can back it up later. But uh No, when I got into college, I felt, you know what, I'm I'm in

a college program. Now I'm lifting, I'm I'm gaining away, I'm getting stronger, Like let's go. You know. So when we're on our summer vacations on the beach, you know, all of a sudden, you get a little challenge, and that's where the competition would come. We get we get down there on the beach and go after it a little bit you mentioned Salah and your brother obviously started out together as g as. Um. He always talks that he was around your family quite a bit there in

those days. Can can you elaborate on that? Yeah, he's so. Um they were at Central Michigan and that's I mean Mount Pleasants a small town. I mean there's not much going on there. There's the university and then it's just a small town America right there. So um, again, not

much to do. And uh, then they were GA's not making any money, kind of going to class I guess if you want to call it that as gas and they and they lived only a mile and a half down the street because again, my moult Pleasant is not that big. They had no cable, they had hardly any furniture. So what are they gonna do in the piston? Detroit Pistons are in the playoffs, They're gonna come over and you know, so you're just gonna naturally hang with them. And um crazy enough, My my wife we were dating

at the time too. We started dating in high school. So Lauren got to know, uh to no solemn. You know, my brother obviously at an early age, and so it was kind of us for hanging out watching playoff games and stuff like that, and uh, yeah, they were always over.

Then they come over in the summer. We had a pool, so they would lather up and kind of you know, get a little sun tan there and then head off to to the more the adult closer to the university as the day went on, did you think early on, when you're looking up at those guys that hey, they're gonna do this for a long time? You know? I mean, I you know you did? You just never know? Um, we knew what we knew. You know, my dad again,

he coached at Central Michigan. We thought Mid American Conference football, Like wow, like if if I could ever be a coach in the Mid American Conference, Like how cool that being? Just growing up? How fun it was to go to those games, particularly I was a little bit younger. Um, Central was a a good football team and then kind of faded a little bit off later in the nineties and then my dad got let go, but but a twenty three year run. Um, they obviously did some pretty

good stuff there. So um, everyone asked me, you know Michigan, Michigan State. I like Central Michigan. That's what I That's what I thought football was you know, I mean there was the Mid American Conference and um, so seeing them as Gas had at a Division one school was a

huge deal, you know, and uh obviously solid. Uh kind of moved on and got to the Texans and somehow, some way as a as a QC, got my brother in in the door as a QC with Kyle Shanahan, and then they they just kind of took off from there. Kyle Shanahan, he already was an he did. Yeah. Um, what did you think when you got your start under him? And why is he's such I guess a brilliant football mind. Uh we talked about his father, no doubt about that. But what he's able to accomplish him the way he

sees the game. What did you see from him? And uh, why was that a great start for you? Well? It was. It was an incredible start because I had had coached um college football for four years at had a couple of different small schools. Luckily all four of those years right out of college, I was a coordinator, So I got thrown right into it. Was not ready for it, but you're never really ready for anything until you actually get into it, you know. And so you kind of

learned through the fire and um. Because I didn't have any foundation other than playing. I I took what I could get from Kyle and my brother and I was at their O t as in Washington and would just listen to everything I could, you know, and then and then dummy it down to get into a Division two type offense. When I was in Davidson, I got a call just late right after the signing day on a Sunday night, and my brothers like, Hey, You're going to Cleveland.

I'm like, what do you mean? Why? Why? Why are you going to Cleveland? You just going to Northday. He's like, no, dude, you're going to Cleveland. He's like, Kyle just called. He's got a he's got a QC spot for you, you know. And I was like, all right, what am I going. He's like, duding, like twelve hours, you're out. You know. It was that quick. It was. It was ten o'clock at night on a Sunday. My wife was sleeping, we had no kids. She was sleeping on the couch. I

was watching some TV. I think we had that Monday off or something like that, because we just got done with the signing day and by eight am, I had my car packed and I was out the door. So you get to Cleveland, had to Cleveland, you know. And Uh, I didn't really know where, what room I was gonna be in, didn't know anything. I just had a got a chance to get in, and I just wanted to to to get in. Obviously with Kyle, he's really the

only one I knew. So UM got in there. They put me an offensive line room, which was, to to this day the most beneficial year I've had. I was in the offensive line room with guys like Joe Thomas, Alex mac Mitchell, Sward Shol Betonio, John Greco. I mean, just like dudes, like you know, veteran dudes. And then on top of it, a rookie that we just drafted

in Betonio, who got to learn from those guys. Um. So that was the most beneficial year to day as a coach because you saw it from advantage point that you've never seen it before. Uh. And then the answer your next question, just obviously getting in with Kyle, it's what you learned through him is the importance of detail and the important importance of urgency, Like how detailed he

was from the moment I met him too. How it never stops and how to it never stops in front of the coaches, and it never stops in front of the player. He never assumes that you just got it, and he's going to make sure that the players are altra detailed and it it's he'll even say it's going to get annoying at times, but I'm not gonna stop until we get it done, you know. And so that's where you just see that detail and that that commitment to the detail, and you see it when you pop

on their tape. They're extremely detailed team. They play really tough, but their details are are are through the roof. And then on top of it, um is just the urgency of this league that he teaches you like you don't you don't have time. You gotta get better now. It doesn't mean you gotta win a super Bowl in year one, doesn't mean you gotta win a super Bowl. And it means you've got to get better every single day. And it's got a show and if you don't, then the

next cruise coming on it. And you know, so the detail and urgency are the two things when you don't when you're not talking anything excess and knows. Um are the two things that stick out so well with him. Would you consider that he was demanding of his staff because you're talking about detail and expectations totally, you know. And it's you know, you if you're gonna hold players accountable, you gotta hold obviously the coach is accountable too. You

gotta hold yourself accountable first and foremost, you know. And um, that's something I you know, I try to do all the time with the players. You know. One of the first things I like to do is show them where I made mistakes in a game or in a practice or within the plan, you know, because you want to show that accountability. And the same thing though, we're gonna

hold I'm gonna hold myself accountable. So you do that from time to time, like you get in there and you didn't get the film up there, and that's not I mean, that's I've seen my brother do it multiple times, seeing Kyle do it multiple I mean, that's just I think that's that should be a standard amongst us, where it's it doesn't matter who's right, it matters what's right, you know, And and like this league is, it's it's

just us. We gotta get this right, fellows. There's no agenda, is It's not like college football, It's not like I recruit you like, there's no agendas. Like we got to just figure out to find a way to put our best foot forward and win football games, you know. And uh and so, um yeah, that's just that's just like I said with Kyle, I mean, just the the urgency that he that he makes you feel to get better. Again, it's not talking about wins and losses. It's just about

continuing to get better and being honor stuff. And what do you take from your brother from a coaching perspective, Um, well, I'll answer it before you even asked the coach, And this is from a coaching perspective, is I've never been around a guy that works as hard as he does. And I mean that, I know it sounds kind of cliche, but the two years I was with him at Land, I mean that was you know, again going back what

we were talking about a little bit earlier. I mean, I'm seven years younger, so when he went off to college, I was in sixth grade, So you know, I have seven years I guess at home without him, and then we have some overlap when I'm a senior and he's a g at Central, so we can hang out all the time. And that's when we got really close, is when I got a little bit older in high school and in college and now all of a sudden, now I'm not the little brother as much. Now we're getting

Now we're getting closer. But I had never really been with him on a day to day basis, particularly in a work environment. So when I got to UM Atlanta, when we're unfortunate enough that Kyle took me in Atlanta, dan Quinn hired both myself and and my brother. UM, I got to see first you know, firsthand, what kind of worker he was, what kind of coach he was, And it's if there's twenty five hours in a day, he's gonna find it, you know, and uh, he doesn't stop.

It's it's incredible. Uh he doesn't blink and he just goes. And you know, So I try to say all the time, like if I could work as hard as him, that'd be unbelievable. I don't know if I can. I don't know if I've seen anyone put in the time in and just the constant churn in of hours like he does. And it's efficient hour. How much did you enjoy it? And at the same time, is it difficult working with your brother? Yeah, sure, if you asked him right now.

I mean it particularly that first year. Again, we had never we had never been with each other first, you know, such a long period of time, particularly in a stressful environment, particularly in you're one of of a deal. You know. Atlanta was a different situation because we got there and we had Matt Ryan as our quarterback who had played tenure. We had Julio Jones, we had Roddy White. You know, there was I mean that that team had won a lot of games before we had got there. Um, so

we we started out pretty well. I think we started out five and oh and then ended up I want to say seven and nine. Uh So there was a stretch there where let's just say we went too and nine. Maybe it was three and three and eight finish eight and I can't totally remember that, but uh, I mean it got it got tough in the rigors of the season. And again so now it's not only um you know

from a coaching staff. Now, now you got your brother on there, and you got to separate that and realized I was a q C. He was a court he was my boss, you know, to an extent, Kyle. I mean, anyone that's above you, that that's that's your boss. They actual he's probably gonna go out of his way not to show favoritism to to you. To right, it was not gonna show favoritism. It was gonna be a beat down before anything else, you know. And uh, so we we learned a lot about each other, um, on how

to work with each other after that first year. And uh and then two thousand and sixteen, um talked about some things in the off season. Again it was all love.

It's just it was just new to us. And then uh sixteen, Um, what what an incredible ride we had, you know with going to the super Bowl and obviously coming up a hair short there at the end that we all know, but I mean, be able to share that experience with Matt and and get to a super Bowl amongst other friends obviously Kyle and Mike McDaniel, Bobby Turner and stuff like that was was incredible. Do you

see do you see similarities here? Not personnel perspective, but as far as the system on what Robinson incorporating now two back in two thousand seventeen is as far as what you're doing at the start, yeah, totally. I mean it's UM. When we got to San Francisco, we we played UH, we played the Niners in sixteen when we were in Atlanta in December, and that's when we were

really getting hot in Atlanta. We want our last five to get into the playoffs, get the get the UH two seed and I get to buy and then ended up UM, you know, one seed loss and we got to host the NFC Championship. But we played the Niners in December and they were they were struggling, and I

want to say we beat him fourteen. And so when Kyle came to he's like, hey, we're going to the Niners, was like, what, I just you know, that's that's gonna take some time, and he goes, this is It's it's a good situation because a UM ownership in that organization wants to win and be UH, we can build this thing the right way, and we're gonna build it with urgency boat. We're gonna build it the right way. And so when and you know, it was what it was.

I was going with Kyle regardless. But when UH Sala got the job here. There was no blinking like it was like, okay, you've you've been through this, you know exactly. There's there's nothing to think about. Does the organization want to win? Yes? Does the organization want to do it the right way? Yes? Are the right people in place? Yes? And that's the way I feel and I still continue

to feel that way. So that's where the similarities were. Um, you know, own, We're going to continue to work urgently to get better. That's exactly what we're gonna do and the results will show, uh if if we have that mindset. Win bet is now live in New Jersey and they're bringing the excitement of win Las Vegas to online sports betting, getting on all your favorite teams, players, and sports from boosteap partlays to live in game odds on every major sport.

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seven zero seven one one seven John Button? How important was his his travel here? In addition, and then also, uh, you know, I wanted to ask you about great Nap. I know how much personally he meant to everybody, and uh, and just you can talk about him as a football coach, but also what he brought to the table because I know he was gonna be such a valuable piece of everything you guys did here. Um, I'll answer your first question first, uh, before I get the emotional with Napper.

But uh, now, um, John Benton was big having the four years working with him, Um we we we had a good friendship too. We had a good bond with that. Um. So it wasn't just a respect from a work standpoint. We developed a good freshman friendship off the field too, which is not then a'll be all by any means. You gotta hire the best staff you know, uh that that you possibly can. But he's done it for so long in the in this league. Um, he's done it

successfully at so many different stops. Um, so for for us to be able to get him was just an absolute just huge higher not only for myself as a first time play caller and first time coordinator, uh, but uh you know for the players, you know, to be able to have a guy with that much knowledge and uh and and for a guy that's been able to develop players to the level that uh, you know he's gotten guys. Um. And the second one was Greg Nap.

You know, I didn't know Greg Nap personally. My brother kind of did because Greg always would run the quarterback drills at the combine and my brother, Um always would would work those drills to get up close and personal. And anyone that coaches in this league knows who Greg Nap is. You just don't know if you knew him personally. UM. So I got a call from Raheem Morris when we hadn't had a quarterback coach yet, and he's like, and

Raheem's one of my best buddies in this profession. And he was with him Atlanta and he's like, you gotta hire a great Nap And it was like, all right, you think it's a good He's like Mike, it's an incredible fit for you. And plus he he doesn't want your job. He doesn't want anyone. He wants to be the quarterback coach and he wants to develop quarterbacks. And uh so, you know, hearing that from a guy like Raheem,

you're gonna trust that. But then I got a call from Matt Ryan, and Matt's like, I'm just telling you, if I was a twenty three year old rookie or a twenty five year old third year player, I can't imagine a better quarterback coach than Greg Nap. How he is consistent day in and day out. He's gonna bring the same positive attitude but yet be able to coach you in the way that you need to be coached

day in and day out. Whether you're winning, whether you're losing, You're gonna get the same grade Nap every single day. And so when you get just back to back calls from Raheem, uh, from from Matt Ryan, Um, and then obviously again knowing that my brother knew him as a person and stuff, it just was it was a no brainer. You know, that took me about five seconds, feel like slide. I really would like this one to go down and

sale and the organization got that done pretty quickly. And then Um and then it was just about getting to know him and teaching him kind of how our offenses evolved in San Francisco and and uh, you know how we're teaching the quarterback play. Not that it's too different from what he was doing with Matt Ryan and the West Coast system, but but there were some difference in nuances. Um. So that was a fun process. But the more fun, the better part of it was getting to know him

as a person. I mean, it's such a positive guy, right. Everybody who who was around him, for even a man in it says he would remember your name. He you meet him once to remember your name, He'd always have a smile on his face. He'd ask you how you're doing, and um, you know, you know, you lose somebody. But his presence was just a monstrous presence. It was you couldn't have a bad day if you're going to spend some time a great nap. It was everything you just said.

Not only did he know your name, probably knew your kid's names too. And it's the truth. And getting to know um Greig and that time and in that year one is always a special time too, because what stinks is you're away from your families as they're moving from wherever they have to move, and you know, you're buying a house and it's going through all those processes and all that. So, yes, that stinks, not being to be with your family for the two three months that they're

not there. But because of that, you get to spend a little bit more time outside of the building, getting some dinners with some of your staff, getting to know them on a personal level. And I spent probably more time with Greg Nap than anyone else on our staff. And we just if it wasn't football, we enjoyed going out, getting some good food, having a glass of wine or two,

and then waking up and having some good coffee. Like that was the best life that he could have right there is just a good dinner, good coffee, and then right back to work, you know. And uh, we we spent a lot of time together here uh in chat him and then we actually spent some time out in Napa. We had a long weekend and I wanted to go

back and see my family. He was going back to see his lovely wife, Charlotte, and so we were up in Napa and him and Charlotte came up and we spent a day up in Napa after only knowing him for too much, you know, and had an absolute unbelievable time there. And um, there was a there was such a calmness and at peace when you were with him, and you could see it in his eyes at how how much he enjoyed just life, you know, and uh, he taught us a lot about football, He taught us

a lot about life. I could go on for hours talking about you know, it's uh and and anyone that knew him, anyone that saw his celebration of life, Um, that could have gone on for twenty four hours. People didn't want to get off that stage because they wanted to share stories of their time with Greg Nat. Yeah,

it's difficult to transition off of that. But I know what Robert said at the beginning to training camp was what he said was, you know, he would want us to go on and and carry through with positivity, continue to teach and the develop because that's what he was all about. With that being said, how much did you enjoy the year as a whole? The first time being an offensive coordinator in the National Football It was, Um,

it was believe it or not. Everything I wanted, you know, it's selfishly, I say either, but UM, I I needed to get out and challenge myself. You know, I've been with Kyle for seven years. UM. When he asked me if I was going, it was you know, I just felt like it was the right situation, in the right timing, UM, being with a guy that I was respect not only as a friend and and Robert, but as a worker, seeing how he worked with that defense for four years, seeing how he was in front of the room. UM,

it was just a no brainer, you know. And it was just it was time for me to to to go learn about myself and uh, and and challenge myself and put together a staff and then and then get to work with these guys, you know. And again that the challenge of um coming to a team that that you know, hasn't been in the playoffs for for a little bit, that that what didn't even go into my

thought process. I just wanted to go again to an organization that was gonna UM, that was committed to winning, that wanted to win, and with the right people in place. So UM, it was there was definitely there was definitely ups. There was definitely downs. UM. I like where our our progress went, particularly later in the year. We got a long way to go. The first year is always difficult because you're setting a standard, you're putting in new stuff.

We played obviously the most rookies out of any team in the league, so you got that challenge on top of having a rookie quarterback. Uh. But now, like I told the players, the next steps even harder. We gotta go get we gotta get better, and we gotta get better with urgency. You know, it's not pressing, it's just urgency. So um it was. It was awesome. Uh, We've loved living in this area. Um it is an awesome place to raise a family. And I'm not just saying this,

but this fan base is they're cool, man. It is a cool fan base. Just they're thirsty and you can feel it, you know, and uh, you want to do it for him, and there's a there's nothing like going out that locker room on a Sunday. And you know, obviously I was up in the booth for the back half the year, but just feeling that energy and going into the NFL stadiums and some feel different than others, you know. Uh, San Francisco's felt different than New York's. Uh,

not good or bad, just it's just different. And uh, it's a it's it's a cool, cool deal. The Jets nation is is awesome, and uh, you know, we want to get this thing done. What did you tell Zach Wilson at the end of the season, Uh, take a deep breath, you know, kind of the same thing I did to him, and uh, um, you know, he got he got hurt there for the four weeks. Just take a deep breath. Sit back. Um, All rookies, whether it be the second pick quarterback or the fourth round running back,

that's a long year. Uh. Not only sixteen games now seventeen games, h plus the three preseason games which people don't look into the preseason. That's a big deal for for rookies. I mean, they're they're they're they're nervous there, you know. I mean it's and if you're not, you're cold blooded, I guess you know. But uh, it's it's

a long year. When you think about you got that season, not only that they had a COVID season, uh in in twenty and then you got the combine, You've got your pro days and then you go straight to rookie Mini camp and then you go straight to O T A S. And then you have about five weeks and then boom you're in from training camp from late July, hopefully playing all the way to to mid February, but at least till till early January. And it's long and um so for him, um, it was just to take

a deep breath. And does he have the ability to do that? Think? I don't think he does. But he knows what I'm talking about when I say that everyone's gonna some guy's breasts are gonna be longer than others. You know. I just didn't want him to to be

back in Utah by Wednesday already thrown. He just needed to just just chill for a little bit, go on a trip, like I kept telling, go having experience whatever that means for you, you know, just get out and then once you're ready to roll, go roll, and uh,

we know the stuff we need to work on. I don't like to talk to the players, uh too much about this and that and the other of what you need to work on immediately filling the season where everyone coaches players, the organization, they're drained by that time, so you just, uh, you know, you give them a few things you let them know how much you appreciate him and love him, and then and then you step back as again as coaches. I needed that to and f

weeks to just clear my mind. And sometimes sitting at the beach with your family and just watching them have fun. Some of those that's the best ideas that you can come up with about how we're gonna help this player become a better player, and how we're gonna help this offense become a better offense. And so I'm excited to get contacted with these guys again. I'll be in constantin tech. Was zact. He knows when he needs to work on. Obviously,

having John back here was huge. Um, you know working with them so, um you know it'll it'll be good. Well let's end it right here. How cool was it for you when you guys got into a flow because you're watching this from afar like I was, like a floor is really in a rhythm right now, and you'll say, you know what, you need more plays and back Yeah, I mean that played out when you when you had more plays, you can open it up, you can do

more things. But for you as a coach, how much do you enjoy it when everybody's live when the ball is just being distributed all over the place and you guys are winning at the line of scrimmage. We saw a glimpses of that down the stretch. It's, um, it's football, you know. You get to just see it the right way. You know. It's just um, it's it's cool, it's and

it's it's just a testament to to the guys. Like it's just you know, everyone has their different why why they do it, you know, but one of mine is being on the share and experience. It's after a game, particularly after a win, but even after a loss with the with the guys that put so much work into it,

you know, and so um. You know, as you put in a system and you're you're you're teaching coaches, you're developing coaches, you're teaching players, you're developing players, and seeing it all come together, Um, sometimes not the way you want it, but but when it does, uh, and we're you know and showing them the picture of what this is gonna be when we flip this thing. Um, it's pretty cool. And and you know the cool part about these guys is they're in the boat. Um. And again,

now we just we need to go get better. We need to continue to get better. We're gonna continue to add here, got so much trust and Joe and the group upstairs um to to you know, well we're all on the same page with this thing. Uh so you know, like I said, it's it's urgently working to get better. Well, you are unbelievably gracious with your time. Really enjoyed catching up and hopefully we can do this again in the future, no doubt. Thanks Eric for sure. But my own thing a fen