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Whitecotton turns 1st-round picks into stars and unwanted players into starters
Let’s talk about the New York Jets’ Aaron. No. Not that one.
Yesterday, news broke that the Green Bay Packers are interested in hiring Jets defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton to fill the void that they have on their coaching staff now that Jason Rebrovich has been let go after three years. Generally, I think that speculating about positional coaches is a fool’s game, because of how little we know on the outside, but there are some interesting things on Whitecotton’s resume. Allow me to play the role of the fool.
First of all, there’s a good chance that Packers head coach Matt LaFleur got some good info on Whitecotton via Robert Saleh. Saleh, the former head coach of the Jets, and LaFleur’s friendship goes back to their days as assistants at Central Michigan. After their stint in college football, they coached together at the professional level with the Houston Texans. When Saleh was fired from the Jets mid-season this year, he joined LaFleur, who was Saleh’s best man at his wedding, as an analyst in Green Bay.
Whitecotton not only coached under Saleh in New York, but he was also with him in stints in San Francisco, when Saleh was the team’s defensive coordinator, and Jacksonville, when Saleh was a positional coach. Together, the two have collectively spent eight seasons together at the NFL level.
But simply being tied to Saleh, who is already receiving interview requests to be a head coach again, isn’t enough to say that Whitecotton is a good coach. What might persuade you on this topic, though, is some of the things the Jets accomplished under Whitecotton.
Obviously, the Packers East plan over the last two years didn’t pan out with the Jets, but their defense was generally good from 2021 through 2024, when Whitecotton coached the team’s defensive line.
On the high end, Whitecotton saw former first-round pick Quinnen Williams turn into an All-Pro and Pro Bowler for the first time in his career. Another former first-round pick in Jermaine Johnson III made the Pro Bowl in his second season in the league in 2023 before missing most of last year with an injury. Will McDonald IV, who was selected a few picks after Lukas Van Ness in the 2023 draft, posted 10.5 sacks this year. Let’s go ahead and call that three-for-three on first-round pick development.
Beyond just turning projected stars into stars, Whitecotton also has a good track record at getting defensive linemen to beat the odds, too. John Franklin-Myers was a player who was waived by the Los Angeles Rams when the Jets picked him up. After a year and a half under Whitecotton, the Jets handed the defensive end a four-year, $55 million contract.
That’s not the only story like that out of New York, either. Bryce Huff, who was signed as an undrafted player, recorded 10 sacks as a pass-rush specialist for the 2023 Jets — without ever...
