Jets head coach Adam Gase has competed his 2019 coaching staff. Gase's 21-man staff includes the coordinators that have already been announced — Dowell Loggains (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks), Gregg Williams (defensive coordinator) and Brant Boyer (special teams coordinator). Thirteen of the 21 coaches are new to the Jets and eight are returning from last year's staff.
Here is an introduction to the new assistant coaches who have come on board:
OFFENSE
Shawn Jefferson — Assistant Head Coach Offense/Wide Receivers
The Jets are Jefferson's fourth stop as a pro coach. He was with Detroit (2006-12), where he coached WR Calvin Johnson; Tennessee (2013-15), and Miami, where he coached Gase's wideouts all three years and Jarvis Landry for two of them, including his 112-catch 2017 season.
Jefferson's coaching career followed his distinguished 13-season playing career with stops at San Diego, New England, Atlanta and Detroit. He played 195 regular-season games (130 starts) and totaled 470 receptions for 7,023 yards (14.9 yards/catch) and 29 touchdowns, plus 14 postseason games, including Super Bowls XXIX (with the Chargers) and XXXI (with the Patriots).
Jim Bob Cooter — Running Backs
Cooter is coming off a five-year stay with Detroit, starting out as the quarterbacks coach for Matt Stafford and the Lions' signalcallers in 2014, then stepping up to offensive coordinator during the '15 season. In 2017 the Lions had the No. 13 offense in the NFL, the sixth-ranked passing offense and the No. 7 scoring offense.
His first NFL coaching experience was as an offensive assistant for Indianapolis (2009-11). He was Kansas City's quality control coordinator for a season, then an offensive assistant for Denver in '13, where he worked with Gase. He began coaching as a graduate assistant in 2007-08 at the University of Tennessee after serving as a backup QB on the Vols and being named to the SEC's All-Academic team.
John Dunn — Tight Ends
Dunn moves back to the pros after serving last season as assistant head coach/offensive coordinator at the University of Connecticut. Prior to UConn, he worked for two seasons with Loggains on John Fox's Chicago Bears staff, as quality control assistant in 2016 and offensive assistant in '17.
Before the Bears, Dunn spent five seasons as tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator at Maryland, and before that three seasons as graduate offensive assistant at LSU. As a college player he was a walk-on quarterback at North Carolina and played there until 2003, when his playing career was cut short by a neck injury.
Frank Pollack — Offensive Line
Pollack has been an NFL offensive line coach since 2007. He started with Houston (2007-11), went to Oakland in 2012, then to Dallas for four years, the first two as assistant OL coach, the last two as OL coach. Last season he coached Cincinnati's O-line. Before the Texans, he coached at his alma mater, Northern Arizona, in 2005 and '06 along with Derek Frazier. Pollack played 90 games (six starts) over six seasons as a tackle/guard with the 49ers from 1990-97.
Derek Frazier — Assistant Offensive Line
Frazier comes to the Jets after a coaching career spent in the college ranks. He started at Nichols College (2000), then went to Adams State (2001), Fresno State (2003-04, '06-11), Northern Arizona (2005-06) and Colorado State (2012-14). His last four seasons he coached the offensive line at Central Michigan, adding the title of run game coordinator to his OL duties the past two seasons.
Bo Hardegree — Offensive Assistant
Hardegree, 34, was Miami's quarterbacks coach under Gase from 2016-18. He began his NFL coaching career as offensive quality control coach with Denver in 2014 and moved to Chicago the next year as offensive assistant. Before the Broncos, he worked on the college level, as a graduate assistant at Duke (2008-10), where he earned his master's degree, and as an intern with LSU (2011-13).
DEFENSE
Frank Bush — Assistant Head Coach Defense/Inside Linebackers
Bush was Miami's assistant head coach and linebackers coach under Gase the past two seasons. After a short playing career as a Houston 'backer (1985-86), he has had a long career coaching NFL LBs among other positions.
He was a scout and then a coach for the Oilers (1987-94), then coached with the Broncos (1995-2003), Cardinals (2004-06), Texans (2007-10), Titans (2011-12) and Rams (2013-16). He was a part of Denver's two Super Bowl championships after the 1997 and '98 seasons and served as the Texans' defensive coordinator in 2009 and '10.
Andre Carter — Defensive Line
Carter's first NFL coaching assignment was as Gase's assistant DL coach with Miami in 2017-18 after he was a graduate student assistant at his alma mater, California, in 2015 and a Bill Walsh NFL Diversity Coaching Fellowship participant with the 49ers in '16.
He is well-known for his playing career, 13 NFL seasons split among San Francisco (2001-05), for whom he was the seventh overall pick of the '01 draft, Washington (2006-10), New England (2011, '13) and Oakland ('12). He played in 184 games with 147 starts and racked up 80.5 sacks and 18 forced fumbles. Jets fans will remember him for his career-high four-sack game for the Patriots in a Sunday night MetLife Stadium game in 2011.
Joe Vitt — Senior Defensive Assistant/Outside Linebackers
Vitt enters his 41st season in the NFL. Season No. 40 was spent on Gase's Miami staff last year as senior director of football and player development. Prior to that he spent 38 seasons as an NFL assistant coach with eight different teams, predominantly working with LBs. From 2006-16 he was assistant head coach/linebackers for New Orleans and helped the Saints win Super Bowl XLIV.
He also coached with St. Louis (2004-05), Kansas City (2000-03), Green Bay (1999), Philadelphia (1995-98), the Los Angeles Rams (1992-94), Seattle (1982-91) and the Baltimore Colts (1979-81). He served as an interim head coach twice, for the Saints in '12 and for the Rams in '05.
Blake Williams — Defensive Assistant
Williams has nine years of NFL coaching experience, eight of them on staffs with his father, Gregg. Blake started out as a coaching intern with Washington in 2006-07, moved to Jacksonville in '08, was an offensive line assistant in '09 for the Super Bowl XLIV champion Saints and coached linebackers for two more years in New Orleans, was the coordinator and LBs coach for the Rams in 2012, and coached the Browns' LBs for the past two years. He also spent single seasons at Southeastern Louisiana University and William Jewell College and with the NFL league office.
Eric Sanders — Defensive Assistant
Sanders completed his third season last year as Cleveland's defensive quality control coach on Gregg Williams' side of the ball. He also was a quality control coach with Oakland from 2010-14. In between his Raiders and Browns stints, he spent 2015 as a defensive assistant at Stanford. Sanders began coaching as video coordinator at UC Davis (Ken O'Brien's old school), before moving to tight ends and assistant offensive line coach. Then it was on to Utah for a year in '07 before returning to Davis as LBs coach in 2008-09.
RETURNING ASSISTANT COACHES
Dennard Wilson returns for his third season adding passing game coordinator to his responsibilities, along with coaching the defensive backs. Steve Jackson is back for year two on the Green & White as assistant DBs coach. Jeff Hammerschmidt teams with Boyer for the fourth year as assistant special teams coach. Robby Brown starts his fifth year with the Jets and his third as a defensive assistant. Strength & conditioning coach Justus Galac enters his eighth season with the team and seventh as head of the S&C department and is joined by returning assistant strength & conditioning coaches Aaron McLaurin and Joseph Giacobbe.
