The New York Jets missing the playoffs this past season, followed by the Buffalo Sabres qualifying for the NHL’s postseason tournament, ensured that the Jets will have sole possession of the longest active playoff drought among the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA and MLS at 15 years this summer.
While speaking with reporters on Wednesday, new Jets offensive coordinator Frank Reich suggested that the franchise’s ineptitude is one reason he accepted the job this past winter.
Frank Reich thinks he can help fix the Jets?
“Maybe I’m a little backwards,” Reich explained, per Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic. “But that’s actually what attracts me. How to figure it out, take what looks on the surface like a difficult situation and figure out how to get it done, knowing that it can get done. That’s what I love about this business. It’s the best of the best. You’re with the best coaches and the best players in the world.”
Reich made it known that he believes journeyman Geno Smith is the right quarterback to help head coach Aaron Glenn guide the club on a turnaround after Gang Green ended Glenn’s first season in charge with a record of 3-14. However, some think people within the Jets may already be scouting quarterbacks the club could acquire during the 2027 NFL Draft.
Others are convinced that Reich, who previously served as head coach of both the Indianapolis Colts and the Carolina Panthers, will end the 2026 season as the Jets’ interim coach. Reich seemingly isn’t thinking about such a scenario playing out this spring.
Will Frank Reich save Aaron Glenn’s job?
“I don’t want to overstate the amount of fun I’ve been having the last couple of months with AG — because he’s been very involved, asking a lot of questions, giving me what his vision for the whole team is,” Reich added during his comments. “We go back and forth on things in the most dynamic of ways, from personnel, picking his brain … and doing that with AG, and then getting with the coaches and using my experience. The offense, in some ways, is the same, but every time I go to a new place, I want to pick things up that are going to make it better.”
If the Jets offense doesn’t get better under Reich than it was this past January, both he and Glenn could be unemployed by the time the NFL’s next “Black Monday” wraps up.
