Even though the New York Jets' playoff hopes were undermined, in large part, by a struggling offense, coach Robert Saleh insists he won't let outside noise affect his decision on the future of Mike LaFleur.
Even though the Jets have only scored four touchdown during their five-game losing streak, Saleh still has full faith in LaFleur. The Jets were eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday with a 23-6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, their eighth straight quarter without a touchdown.
The Jets are in the second year of a commitment to go young all the time, according to Saleh. We need to take a deep breath and make sure we're telling ourselves the truth.
The Jets had a rookies coach in Saleh and a rookies quarterback in Wilson last season. The plan was to have them grow together.
The Jets were 28th in scoring last season and 27th this year, as they've dealt with Wilson's acute growing pains and injuries to rookies.
Matt LaFleur is the older brother of Mike LaFleur and has known him since he was a teenager. The Jets' first significant hire was Mike, a former 49ers assistant.
"I know what it's like to be on the hot seat as a defensive coach," said Saleh, recalling how he was on the hot seat when he was with the 49ers. It would have been easy for Kyle to fire me.
We sat down and he committed to me.
The 49ers won the title in 2019. He said it takes discipline to make objective evaluations and not come away with knee-jerk reactions that would derail a good football coach. That's where the player comes in.
"I've been in (Mike) LaFleur's shoes. It would've been very easy for Kyle (Shanahan) to fire me, very easy to say, 'You know what? We went 4-12, you're the scapegoat, get the heck out of the building.' But to his credit, we sat down ... he committed to me, and the rest is history."Jets coach Robert Saleh
The team's late- season collapse has been caused by LaFleur and Wilson being replaced in the lineup by Mike White.
The results haven't been good enough, but he believes there has been some growth on the offensive side of the ball. Since 2015, only one Jets player has reached 1,000 receiving yards in a season.
"We had one of the more prolific offenses in the league for a few games in a row, here and there," McGovern said. Consistency is what it is. It's not just on the players. The Jets are not being consistent.
After two benchings, there's no desire to move on from Wilson. He wouldn't commit to Wilson as the starter in 2023, but he said it's premature to cut bait. He doesn't want to see the same mistakes made by the organization.
Geno Smith defeated them on Sunday.
"If there's a franchise that recognizes, 'Maybe we should give these young men a little bit of time,' it's this organization," he said.
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