Brian Schottenheimer: Embrace The Idea of Him Staying

Brian Schottenheimer dealt with criticism since the day former Jets head coach Eric Mangini hired him. Everyone savaged him for the way he ran his offense and how he outsmarts himself often.

Schottenheimer conducted his best work as an offensive coordinator in the playoff win against the Bengals. He put Mark Sanchez in a position to succeed by exploiting matchups that make the rookie quarterback comfortable to throw, and he utilized Thomas Jones and Shonn Greene well.

This results to him increasing his stock as a head coaching candidate, and it will only get better if the Jets stay alive in the playoffs. The Bills expressed interest in him, but he allegedly turned it down like most candidates have.

Critics may express disappointment in this news, but it's not a bad thing.

Continuity is an attribute of a great team with the same management and the same coaching staff for many years.

This is where keeping Schottenheimer helps this franchise move forward for the next several years.

He knows the strengths and weaknesses of his unit, and the quarterback may finally be comfortable with Schottenheimer after a tough time during the season.

The last thing Sanchez needs is a new guy teaching him again after figuring out Schottenheimer's schemes.

It does not help a quarterback's development when a new offensive coordinator comes in with his own ideas. It took awhile for Sanchez to understand the terminology of the offense.

Sanchez could take the next step of being an elite quarterback now that he knows what to do.

Schottenheimer has been known to be a great offensive mind during his first year as the team's offensive coordinator. He was able to get results out of Chad Pennington that year, and it was good enough for the team to make the playoffs.

Sometimes, he does outsmart himself. Last year, he insisted that Favre throw many passes never mind the guy played hurt down the stretch. That was inexcusable since Thomas Jones could have been useful in some games the Jets could have won.

It's shocking this happened since one would think he realized that.

During the season, the offensive coordinator continued on letting the quarterback throw many passes even though he was a rookie. Teams figured out how to attack Sanchez, and it did not end well.

Rex Ryan involved himself with the offense by telling Schottenheimer to use the running game more, and Schottenheimer relented.

It worked to the point the Jets made the playoffs.

Somehow, the Jets needed to pass if they were going to beat the Bengals in the pass, and Schottenheimer knew it.

So the mad scientist devised a good game plan where the running game would have many carries while the quarterback would threw several completions.

It worked out well. Maybe he figured out how to run a balanced attack after that.

If that is the case, this will not only serve the Jets well now, but in the next few years.

Great offensive coordinators are hard to find. The Jets would likely hire from within, but there would be no guarantee that it would be any better.

That's why the Jets are better off with Schottenheimer staying.

Schottenheimer wants to be a head coach, and it’s understandable. He lost out on the head coaching job to Ryan.

With that said, he can't just take a job for the sake of having a job. He is better off until a good situation come along.

By staying with the Jets for one more year, he can improved in his craft as an offensive mastermind, and he can get jobs of his own choice next year with the team expecting to contend.

Both parties benefit from each other.

It's no wonder why Ryan hoped his offensive coordinator stayed in light of what's going on.

He knows a good thing is going on here, and he does not want this to be disrupted after a good playoff run.