Gang Green Nation
Jets offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand will be a first time playcaller in the NFL in 2025. This naturally leads to questions about what the Jets offense will look like.
Normally with a first time playcaller, we might look to the last team he was employed by. It figures somebody new to the job would be influenced by the most recent system he helped to run. For Engstrand that was the Detroit Lions. He served as passing game coordinator the last three years.
It’s tough to believe that Engstrand is going to implement a carbon copy of the Detroit offense this season with the Jets, however. There is a simple reason for that. It would be difficult to find two different quarterbacks stylistically than Jared Goff and Justin Fields. Fields wasn’t just the Jets’ top priority at quarterback this offseason. He was the team’s most coveted player in free agency. It really wouldn’t make much sense to go after Fields if the idea was to be exactly like the Lions. The Jets probably had something different in mind for this offense. So let’s figure out what it is.
We likely will see the Jets make designed quarterback runs a cornerstone of their offense. Goff is simply put, not the type of quarterback for whom an offensive coordinator would design runs. He has only 551 rushing yards in 134 starts across nine seasons.
Meanwhile, since he entered the league in 2021, Fields’ 2,509 rushing yards ranks fourth among quarterbacks. Only Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, and Josh Allen have more. It stands out even more because Fields has only started 45 games in that span. He spent large parts of his first and fourth seasons as his team’s backup quarterback and missed time from injuries in other seasons. His 50.2 rushing yards per game over the course of his career prorates to 850 yards over 17 games.
A fair amount of Fields’ production will obviously come on improvised plays. Just about 60 percent of his career rushing yards have come scrambling on plays that were originally called passes. But the threat of Fields on designed runs.
In Fields’ best season to date, 2022, Chicago dialed up six designed rushes for Fields a game, which netted 43 yards per. This is in addition to scrambles.
We know that the Jets are not going to succeed if Fields has to sit back in the pocket all day scanning defenses. Even in a best case scenario, this Jets offense will be somewhat limited in what it can do passing the ball. Successful passing plays will need to be replaced with successful rushing plays. That will entail keeping the ball in Fields’ hands.
Fields’ ability as a runner could also open up space for Breece Hall and Braelon Allen. If defenders have it in their minds that on each handoff, the quarterback can pull the ball and break a big gain, they will likely be reluctant to be too aggressive barreling towards the...
