Former Jets OC becoming a HC candidate is a brutal reminder of past mistakes

Every year, NFL Network releases its list of rising head-coach candidates around the league. The list is meant to highlight young assistants in the coaching world who are generating head coach buzz ahead of the coming offseason.

This year's list, compiled by Tom Pelissero, featured a very interesting name that New York Jets fans should know very well. Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur was among the 24 "young candidates" to know ahead of the 2026 hiring cycle.

The former Jets offensive coordinator, fired after the 2022 season amid internal turmoil and pressure from owner Woody Johnson, is now firmly on the radar for teams searching for their next head coach

LaFleur has rebuilt his reputation as Sean McVay’s offensive coordinator with the Rams, helping lead one of the league’s most efficient and creative offenses. Now, he finds himself on the verge of head coach interviews.

Ex-Jets OC Mike LaFleur receiving head coach buzz ahead of 2026 hiring cycle

While the Jets have moved forward with first-year offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand, who has earned praise of his own, watching LaFleur ascend into the head-coach conversation still must sting. It’s hard not to revisit the decision that pushed him out the door.

The truth is, LaFleur’s departure was less about coaching and more about internal dysfunction. Robert Saleh didn’t want to fire him. Players respected him. But owner Woody Johnson insisted on changes after Zach Wilson’s regression torpedoed the season, and LaFleur became the scapegoat.

It’s also impossible to ignore how different the Jets offense looked whenever Wilson wasn't the quarterback. Under LaFleur, backups like Mike White and Joe Flacco routinely stepped in and ran the system with competence. White authored multiple 300-yard games in LaFleur’s scheme.

Flacco opened the 2022 season by throwing five touchdowns in two weeks and leading a fourth-quarter comeback win. The offense was functional, and the operation looked coherent. The common denominator in the struggles was always Wilson.

But instead of facing that reality, ownership backed the quarterback and scapegoated the coordinator. That decision, which already seemed shortsighted at the time, looks even worse with the benefit of hindsight.

The Jets replaced him with Nathaniel Hackett in a move that aged about as poorly as any coaching decision in recent franchise history. Meanwhile, LaFleur landed in the NFL’s most stable offensive ecosystem, thrived immediately, and positioned himself for the opportunity the Jets never let him grow into.

In many ways, LaFleur's firing at the behest of both Johnson and Wilson marked the early turning point in a downward slide that eventually doomed the Robert Saleh/Joe Douglas era. Once Johnson overrode his own head coach on that decision, the end of the regime felt inevitable.

The Jets have legitimately upgraded their offensive vision under Engstrand, and there’s no suggestion they’re longing for a reunion. Still, LaFleur’s emergence as a head-coaching candidate serves as an unfortunate reminder of what instability cost them, not just in 2022, but in the years that followed.

LaFleur may be headed for a top job elsewhere, but his rise shows how differently things might’ve unfolded if the Jets had simply stayed the course. Instead, Woody Johnson had to intervene — as he so often does.