The New York Jets' Coaching Staff: A Who's Who on the Sideline

The New York Jets' season-ending slide last year was excruciatingly frustrating for players, coaches, and fans alike. It was presumed though that Eric Mangini would be safe.  But alas, no one was in the mind of Jet owner Woody Johnson.

Because no one had a clue what Johnson was thinking, many were blindsided when he decided to make a change. Mangini was let go after the Jets finished the season after beating Tennessee to move to 8-3 on a 1-4 slide to end up at 9-7.

What really hurt though was the fact that the Jets probably should have finished 0-5 had it not been for the usual J.P. Losman blunder which cost the Bills a win at the Meadowlands. 

Finally, the Chad Pennington-led Dolphins came into the Meadowlands and knocked off the Brett Favre-led Jets to knock the Jets out of the playoffs and propel the Dolphins into the playoffs as AFC East Champions.

That brought us the change on the sideline. Johnson and GM Mike Tannenbaum ushered in former Baltimore Raven defensive coordinator Rex Ryan to New York to replace Mangini.

Last year's offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer returns for another season after getting a look for the head job. On defense, Mike Pettine joins the Jets to run the defense from Baltimore replacing Bob Sutton.

On offense, Brian Schottenheimer has plenty of new assistants. Matt Cavanaugh will handle the quarterbacks.  Anthony Lynn takes the running backs. Henry Ellard will handle the receivers.

They will join holdovers Mike Devlin with the offensive line and tight ends, John DeFilippo with the quarterbacks, and Mike Bloomgren who is the offensive quality control coach.

The offensive staff will have the tough task of implementing a run-first offense that will center around taking the pressure of likely starter, and rookie first round pick Mark Sanchez. 

Last season with Brett Favre, Mangini and Schottenheimer opened up the offense more than they had with Chad Pennington. Favre was able to throw the deep ball, and take more chances than Pennington.

However, Favre turned the ball over a significant amount of times down the stretch. That more than likely led the Jets to conclude that it was time to go out and get a true quarterback of the future to develop and bring in long-term.

They made that decision with Sanchez, and it will be Schottenheimer's task to implement an offense that likely will not take a lot of chances.

Sanchez will be asked to hand off at least 30 times a game, and protect the football.  Sanchez has all the tools and a great arm, however, as a rookie he will see defensive schemes he has yet to see.

Schottenheimer will be responsible for making him comfortable with these schemes and coming up with game plans that are effective running the football and not putting games on Sanchez's young shoulders against tough AFC East defenses.

Defensively, Mike Pettine comes in to help Rex Ryan run the defense. Pettine worked with the outside linebackers in Baltimore and takes the defensive coordinator reigns here in New York.

The Jets will have a new look on defense and that includes coaches. Kerry Locklin and Dennis Thurman will be new this season handling the defensive line and secondary respectively.

Doug Plank, Jeff Weeks, and Jim O'Neil are new defensive assistants with Plank working with the secondary and O'Neil working as the Defensive Quality Control coach.

Weeks' title will be as a defensive assistant.

As for defensive holdovers, former defensive coordinator Bob Sutton will be a Senior Defensive Assistant and will handle the linebackers, while Brian Smith will hold the Defensive Quality Control title as well.

Ryan and Pettine's defense will be much more aggressive that Mangini and Sutton's defense from the past year. Mangini and Sutton preached sitting back playing pass coverage and relying on your line for pressure.

Ryan and Pettine will bring the heat from all different angles relying on Shaun Ellis, Kris Jenkins, Bryan Thomas, Calvin Pace, and even Kerry Rhodes to bring heat from all different places on the field.

The defense will be expected to be tough, aggressive, and bring pressure. Hopefully the pressure will lead to sacks, turnovers, and great field position for the offense.

On special teams, the Jets have a veteran group with Kevin O'Dea, Mike Westhoff, and Ben Kotwicka handling the specialists.

Sal Alosi is the head strength and conditioning coach with the Jets program.

Overall, the Jets philosophy will almost be a reverse from last year under Rex Ryan. 

The offense will be conservative and will attempt to not lose games, much like Mangini and Sutton's defense last year.

The defense will be aggressive, physical, and they will take shots and attempt to create big plays. This being much like the Jets offense last year under Favre.

This season will be an interesting season to watch as the coaching staff changes philosophies in New York.  Who knows what that will bring, but don't rub your eyes and be surprised if you see a little of the Baltimore Ravens in the Jets this season.

As we all know, the style and systems that the Ravens ran that Ryan brings to New York hasn't exactly been a failure in this league.