NY Jets: Is Robert Saleh repeating the same mistakes Todd Bowles made?

The NY Jets fanbase has seen this movie before. A highly touted and well-respected defensive coordinator, struggling to find a balance in running an entire team and getting his defense to match what got him the head job and stellar reputation, to begin with.

If there was ever any doubt about how good of a defensive coordinator that Todd Bowles is, look no further than the recent struggles of Patrick Mahomes.

Mahomes has expectedly righted the ship somewhat, but he has struggled to crack the code against him all season long. The Raiders decided not to follow the method other teams have used and paid mightily. In contrast, teams like Green Bay and Dallas have kept Mahomes out of the end zone.

In last year's Super Bowl, Todd Bowles gave the entire league the blueprint of defending Mahomes and the Chiefs offense, by eliminating the big plays down the field and forcing everything underneath. And the teams that have followed it have seen excellent success.

Winning NFL assistant of the year in Arizona, Todd Bowles was highly touted as a phenomenal defensive mind before the Jets hired him as their head coach in 2015. In the last few years with Tampa, Bowles has proven how good of a coach he has always been on that side of the ball.

But the Jets under Bowles, from 2015-2018, struggled for the most part defensively. Sure, overall talent played a factor. It helps to have standout players on Tampa like Bowles currently has, but the Jets' shortcomings on defense have a lot to do with how Bowles handled the team's defense while he was at Florham Park.