NY Jets must resist hiring former star WR after rocky Titans tenure

Remember those Tennessee Titans teams that rewrote the offensive record books and spawned several championship teams over the last couple of seasons? Me neither. The NY Jets, however, seem to be of the mindset that the coaching staff that was so bad they got a great coach in Mike Vrabel fired is worth hiring for a do-or-die season.

The Jets went into this offseason with two former Titans assistants in passing game coordinator Todd Downing and offensive line coach Keith Carter, who both retained their jobs despite 32nd in the league performance in both areas and open criticism from their players. A third assistant was recently added, as Tony Dews replaced Taylor Embree as running backs coach.

Even though wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni is still under contract, the Jets might be looking at a possible replacement. Unsurprisingly, that coach was with the Titans last year as wide receivers coach, Syracuse legend, and former Jets great Rob Moore was interviewed for their wide receivers coach job.

Moore coming back to the Jets would be a very heartwarming story, and he has been a coach in the NFL for the last decade consecutively, but the Jets need to eventually get over their obsession with recreating one of the least effective staffs in the league.

NY Jets just avoid Titans WR coach Rob Moore

Moore, who has been the wide receivers coach in Tennessee since Vrabel's debut season in 2018, was picked in the first round of the supplemental draft by the Jets in 1990. While his best years came after a trade to the Arizona Cardinals, Moore did pile up over 4,200 yards and 22 touchdowns in New York.

Part of the reason Ryan Tannehill regressed so hard in the last two years and Will Levis was up-and-down as a rookie is the poor play of the receivers outside of DeAndre Hopkins. The depth remains poor, and Treylon Burks hasn't been the A.J. Brown replacement some thought he would be. Does that fall on Moore?

While Saleh appears to be going against the notion of hiring Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay assistants, given how most defenses nowadays are geared explicitly to stop that type of offense, these hires smell like cronyism. Purely based on his resume as a coach, Moore wouldn't be a significant upgrade.

Bringing Moore back to the Jets would be a nice story, but the time for nice stories is over. The Jets need to win and win now to keep their jobs, and Moore wouldn't move the needle.