Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic penned a glowing profile on first year Jets offensive coordinator Frank Reich.
I would imagine quite a few first year coaches are having similar profiles written about them as training camp comes to a close. This is a period of great optimism in the NFL.
Indeed, much of the article is generic praise for Reich. A few things stated by Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson did stand out to me, though.
Modern offenses, he says, have become overcomplicated, bright-eyed masterminds
trying to show everyone how smart they are. Wilson thinks they sometimes fail to see what’s right in front of them. “With receivers like Terrell Owens, his coaches knew they had a special talent,” Wilson says. “We’re not going to overcomplicate it. It’s man coverage, let’s throw a fade to Terrell Owens. The last 10 years you’ve seen that fall off and it’s all about everyone’s plays.”
To Wilson, early days with New York Jets offensive coordinator Frank Reich have felt like a blast from that past. Reich is coaching the kind of football Wilson always dreamed of playing. He felt it from their first conversation, when Reich had clearly already studied him, understood which routes and plays best suited his skill set, and shared his plan to deploy the star receiver.
It’s awfully early to say that Reich is going to get more from Wilson than other coaches. I don’t consider Mike LaFleur, Nathaniel Hackett, or Todd Downing to be particularly brilliant offensive minds, and Wilson still produced 1,000 yard seasons playing for them.
The Jets haven’t shown much so far in preseason. Their starters have only played two series on offense. I have started to detect one subtle trend in the play calling, though.
Wilson has been on the field for five passing plays on third down. On four of these plays, the Jets have come out in a 3×1 formation with three eligible receivers on one side and a single receiver on the other. On each of these plays, Garrett Wilson has been the single isolated receiver on his side.
Isolating Wilson gives him more room to operate. He’s more likely to get a one on one and less likely to get caught up in traffic, which allows him to feast on his route running.
On early downs with the first team offense, the team has varied its formations. We haven’t seen much of Wilson isolated. They have saved it for the critical third down plays, the ones that decide whether a drive continues or ends.
Of course this is a minuscule sample size. It is possible the Jets do things differently in the regular season.
But there is plenty of logic in making this a third down staple. It puts the best receiver on the team in position to make plays on the most important downs.
