Every terrible part of the NY Jets' laughable Rich Kotite era

There is a generational divide forming among NY Jets fans when asked about the worst coach in franchise history. Those who are on the younger side will lean toward Jeff Ulbrich or Adam Gase as their representative, while those of a certain age will almost always pick Rich Kotite.

Kotite's comedic factor may help him win out over Gase, as the Jets were so pathetic in a two-year span that produced just four wins that he has become an impossibly bad leader that no one can ever hope to match.

Kotite is the worst coach the Jets ever had, and his time with the team was even worse than most fans remember it being. Hopefully, Aaron Glenn, who played under Kotite, isn't this inept.

Rich Kotite is the worst coach in NY Jets history

Kotite came to the Jets after four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. Much like Gase in Miami, Kotite's time in Philadelphia was pretty solid record-wise (36-28, including a playoff win), but the underlying problems with his coaching style rubbed everyone the wrong way.

With former Steel Curtain defensive coordinator Bud Carson looking over a defense that had prime Reggie White, the 1992 Eagles had the rare trifecta of being first in points allowed, rushing yards against, and passing yards against. It took Kotite's bungling to ruin this team.

The offense, which was Kotite's specialty, never got out of first gear. Between all-world quarterback Randall Cunningham getting injured early in Kotite's tenure and the New York native's insistence on Cunningham trading in his game-breaking runs for traditional drop-back throws, the Eagles wasted some great defenses.

The Jets saw the win-loss record and decided to throw caution to the wind by hiring Kotite, which was famously the result of former owner Leon Hess declaring he wanted results in his old age after firing Pete Carroll. Kotite was unable to present Hess with a winning product in his twilight years.

Kotite, as Jets fans would soon discover, had a penchant for sticking his foot in his mouth. With such legendary quotes like "8-8 is great" and claiming he went for a two-point conversion instead of kicking an extra point because rain ruined the ink on his chart, Kotite set about creating a laughable Jets team.

New York went into 1994 with an aging, declining Boomer Esiason and a younger Bubby Brister at quarterback. Despite Kotite's offensive background, he constructed an attack that was near the bottom of the league in rushing, led only one skill position player to more than 500 yards receiving (Wayne Chrebet), and was dead last in the league in scoring. A 3-13 season was the result.

1995 is when things got even worse. The Jets were expected to compete, as they signed quarterback Neil O'Donnell to a big contract after he helped take the Steelers to the Super Bowl. O'Donnell's two-season stint with the Jets is regarded as one of the worst free agent moves in NFL history, as it included a six-start 1995 season with four total touchdown passes and no wins.

O'Donnell, Frank Reich, and Glenn Foley helped lead this team to a 1-15 record, all while Kotite's squad was 27th out of 30 teams in points scored and 29th in points allowed. Turns out the combination of drafting poorly, failing to construct an elite offense, and looking generally clueless on the sidelines is not a good combination.

“At some point, you have to be real and not pretend like everything is OK, because it’s not,’’ former Jets linebacker Marvin Jones said. “I can remember when Kotite would say, ‘OK, in a few weeks we’ll get everybody back from injuries and we can make a run.’ We’re like, ‘What?"

“There is nothing worse than playing well on a really [bad] team,’’ ex-Jets linebacker Chad Cascadden said. “I would have willingly given up paychecks just to get a win, just so we could feel better about ourselves and take that burden off our shoulders for just a week.’’

Between his last year with the Eagles, which started out 7-2 before losing seven straight games, Kotite lost 35 of his final 39 games as an NFL head coach. Kotite would eventually retire from coaching after his Jets stint, and he never returned to coaching after that.

More NY Jets news and analysis: