When the NFL regular season wraps up in a couple of weeks, the Jets are expected to cut ties with head coach Todd Bowles. An overall record of 24-38 with the Jets, including 14-32 over his past three seasons, just isn’t going to be enough to hang around. Add to that the many blown leads, embarrassing blowouts and poor management of injured players and it’s a clear sign of the end of the road.
If GM Mike Maccagnan is going to be as heavily involved in the search for Bowles’ successor as we’re led to believe, could it ultimately lead him to Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Matt LeFleur?
As mentioned in the tweet below on December 12th, Maccagnan and Lefleur should have some level of familiarity with one another as they both worked for the Houston Texans back in 2008 and 2009 when Maccagnan was a front office executive while LeFleur was breaking in to the NFL coaching ranks.
Since that time, Maccagnan has worked his way up to the Jets GM spot while LeFleur is an offensive coordinator whose name is starting to pop up as a potential head coaching candidate.
While working with the Titans this season, some have pointed to their inconsistent offense as a reason why LeFleur shouldn’t garner consideration, but it’s not out of the question to suggest that perhaps Marcus Mariota isn’t the player the Titans thought he was when they drafted him just a few seasons ago and that has factored in to the performance.
When you watch Tennessee on film, they look to be more of a “modern-day” offense than what we’ve seen from Jeremy Bates, John Morton and Chan Gailey in recent years.
The current trend in the NFL is to hire innovative offensive minds to help develop young quarterbacks and it’s not uncommon to see executives hire personnel with whom they have some level of familiarity. With that being the case, don’t be surprised if the Jets take a close look at LeFleur when the hiring process begins in the coming weeks.