Brian Schottenheimer: Underhanded or Not, Jets Were Smart to Dump Stagnant OC

The initial report was that former New York Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer resigned from his position. While that may technically be true, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk is reporting that the Jets essentially forced him out. In my mind, it was a smart maneuver.

According to Florio, the Jets acted as if they were interested in retaining Schottenheimer so that another team would pursue him and "steal" him away. This is because the Jets were scheduled to pay him $3 million over the next two seasons.

New York feigning interest in Schottenheimer may sound underhanded or distasteful, but the Jets did what they felt they had to do. While no team was willing to take on Schottenheimer, the Jets ultimately got what they wanted with a forced resignation.

There were a ton of issues that contributed to the Jets missing the playoffs this season, but the offense as a whole was one of the main factors. Despite all the talk of a "ground-and-pound" offense, the Jets ultimately leaned on inconsistent and unreliable quarterback Mark Sanchez.

Sanchez's numbers may look decent on the surface with 3,474 yards and 26 touchdowns, but 18 interceptions are far too many and a 56.7 completion percentage is nothing to write home about. You can blame Sanchez for his own shortcomings all you want, but Schottenheimer put him in a position to fail.

Running back Shonn Greene proved to be pretty effective this season in rushing for 1,054 yards with a 4.2 YPC average. Despite that there were far too many games where Schottenheimer decided to essentially abandon the run and lean on Sanchez's shaky right arm.

The Jets were unable to crack the top 20 in passing or rushing this season, so the offense can pretty much be chalked up as a failure all around. When the Jets were winning thanks largely to a strong defense the past two seasons, there wasn't a ton of talk regarding getting rid of Schottenheimer.

Defensively Gang Green simply wasn't as dominant this season, though, so the issues on offense were magnified that much more. With Schottenheimer at the helm things certainly weren't going to change or get any better, so the Jets did what they felt they had to do.

Leading Schottenheimer on like that may not give the organization a great reputation around the league, but the Jets were just trying to look out for their own best interests. At the end of the day Schottenheimer will be fine as he'll eventually land on his feet somewhere, and the Jets can finally move forward on offense without him.