Transcript of Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer's conference call with reporters Tuesday afternoon:
On his decision-making process after Rex Ryan was named Jets head coach…
Throughout the whole process, the easiest thing to do was to get out of town for a few days. My family and I spent some time in Florida. Once the decision was made, I got a chance to sit down with Rex, it was something that felt right and felt really good.
I've respected Rex for a long time. He and I have very similar backgrounds, both of us growing up in a coaching family. When we sat down and had the chance to visit, it felt right. He had been in my situation a year before in Baltimore. It's always good to have people that have gone through the same experiences that you have because they understand things.
On how disappointed he was to not get the job…
It was obviously very disappointing. The people here should be disappointed if I wasn't disappointed. When you look at the disappointment, it was something that I was not hoping would happen. But at that point, once the decision has been made, you say, "This is what the business is about. There are decisions that are made. This business is about change. What is in the best interests of my family? What is in the best interests of my career?"
As I sat back and took the disappointment out of it, my family and I feel very comfortable here in the New York area. I feel very good about the product that we put on the field. I like the fact that we have things in place here. Once Rex and I got a chance to visit, he shed some light on how he dealt with it. That was really helpful. I really respect and appreciate that Rex took the time to visit with me about his disappointment the year before in Baltimore.
On if he ever considered not returning to the Jets after not being named head coach…
I didn't spend a whole lot of time worrying about it. I know there was speculation about where I might go. The most important thing for me was figuring out if I wanted to be a part of the Jets. I was still under contract. At the end of the day, after the smoke cleared, I really felt like this was the best place for me.
On if he feels he will have complete autonomy to run the offense…
I wouldn't say complete autonomy. The thing Rex and I talked about was that he has the confidence in what he believes we can do, the fact that things are in place on the offensive side of the ball — not that we achieved what we wanted to achieve.
He's the head coach of this football team. He is going to have some great insight for us on the offensive side of the ball. He's clearly going to be involved. I want it that way. I appreciate it and respect the fact that he has the confidence in us to take the lead. I wouldn't say that we will have full authority to do whatever we want. That's not what I would want. He can give us a lot of great insight in what the defenses are thinking and how they're trying to defend us.
On if he has spoken with QB Brett Favre…
I have not spoken with Brett. He is probably in a tree stand right now as we speak, doing some hunting. What you do as a staff and as you add some new pieces as a staff and you do some different things, you learn to go back and you look at what do we want to be? What is our identity? We've had three years to go back and look at and get some different insight.
We have two new acquisitions with Henry Ellard coming in to coach the receivers and Anthony Lynn coming in to coach the running backs. We're going to go back and come up with our identity — what we think gives us the best chance to win. When any player comes back, being Brett or anyone else, you take that into consideration.
As of now, we are going to focus on what we do well, what can we improve and what do we truly want the product on the field to look like. As we move forward and more decisions are made, we can adjust the plan. You have to have a starting point and that is our starting point in where we want to get to, starting this week.
On if he wants Favre to return…
I would welcome the opportunity to coach Brett again.
On if the playcalling changed in the final five games of the season…
I haven't given a lot of thought to the last five games. The big thing for us was the turnovers. When you get late into the season, ball security, we preach it all the time, but late in the season it becomes more important. That hurt our ability to score points. It cost some momentum at times. We struggled on third downs. We weren't able to sustain drives and keep drives going. We were very judicious in going down the field. We were able to sustain drives in the early and mid-part of the season, but that got away from us, the execution in general.
There were games and plays that I would like to have back. I don't think it was just one thing. The ball security was a big issue. The third downs were a big issue and we didn't make the plays we needed to make. That is coaches and players alike.
On if he sensed there was a lack of chemistry between Favre and his teammates…
I never got that sense. The way the offensive guys worked, prepared and interacted in the meetings was very professional and also light and loose. I never got that sense. If asked about that, I would not have thought anything other than what I witnessed.
On what happened to Favre in the final five games…
One thing that does stick out in my mind, he did get hit some. We probably could have gotten the ball pushed out of his hands a little bit more. Anytime a quarterback gets hit, it can make him miss a throw here and there. We weren't clicking on all cylinders. Some of them were design flaws on my part. Some of them were bad reads and bad decisions. Some of them were poor protection.
It's unfair to put it all on Brett. The quarterback gets the blame when things go wrong and the praise when things go right. There were things that the coaches and the rest of the players could have done well to help us perform better and capitalize on the great start that we had.
On if the offense was altered late in the season to take into account Favre playing at less than 100 percent physically…
Not really. If you go back and look at what we did, there were a lot of quick throws and a couple of things in the running game that we did. We did not alter the plan at all. We had our core concepts that we liked that he believed in and that we felt played into the strengths of our players. We really didn't change those too much each week. We adjusted the way we ran them based on formations and personnel groupings. For the most part, it was those basic plays that we felt good about.
On how difficult it would be to not have continuity at the quarterback position if Favre retires…
That is what the NFL is about nowadays. It's not always the quarterback position. Does that make it more difficult? You could make the argument that it does. In this day and age, the hardest part for coaches, once you get your roster in place and you build it throughout the course of the spring, is trying to find out what your players do well.
If Brett does not come back, the good news is that we have a couple years of experience with Kellen [Clemens] and Brett [Ratliff], and Erik Ainge is new to the mix. We have a head start with those guys. That would be something that we would work to and would feel comfortable that we could overcome. Would it be some work? Sure, but that is what the off-season becomes for an NFL coach.
On Clemens and Ratliff…
I will say this. I have been back for a couple of days now and one thing that I will speak to about them as people is that they are both in the building already. They are around. They didn't leave to go someplace else. They are working out. They are trying to keep themselves in good shape.
I think we have a good stable of young players and I am including the quarterbacks in that. When Kellen got the chance to play two years ago, he did a lot of good things and I think it takes a quarterback a little while to truly come in to his own. I think that the fact that he has some experience helps him. I know Brett played really well in the preseason. I don't think that should be looked at in a negative way because he was playing against some good players, but he was also playing with people of the same skill set. I think both of those guys have some upside. I love the fact that they have been in the system and that does help because they can kind of read your mind.
You can spend more time coaching them on fundamentals and things that might help them reach a new level in terms of footwork and accuracy because you don't have to spend quite as much time teaching a system to those guys.
On his view on Favre coming back…
Please, don't take it as I was lukewarm with that answer [about welcoming the opportunity to coach Favre again]. That answer is more of that there is a lot of conversation that needs to take place with Brett, Mike Tannenbaum, and Rex Ryan.
I really enjoyed coaching Brett. I really did. If he chooses to come back, he is still performing at a winning level. When I said I welcome the chance to coach him again, I really enjoyed being around him. I enjoyed working with him. We had a heck of a relationship and I don't think anything would change if he does decide to come back this season.
On if Leon Washington had enough touches on offense in 2008…
When we look at the game plan we have a number of good players and unfortunately until the league changes the rules we only get one ball. Each week we had plays for Leon. One of the things we tried to do in the last game of the year, against Miami, was to get Leon the ball.
Leon plays a unique position. It's not like Thomas [Jones] because Leon plays tailback, he plays in the slot, he plays fullback. He plays all over the place and that is a benefit in terms of moving him around and finding mismatches, but sometimes when you put him out in space you can't guarantee that you are going to get him the ball. There are a lot of things where we design where he's the first look, but teams can take him away by putting a certain player over the top of him.
Believe me, when Leon touches the ball good things usually happen. Myself, Bill Callahan and the offensive staff are committed to giving the ball to Leon. What you hopefully have is balance. Unfortunately, if we are not able to get the ball to Leon or Dustin Keller, hopefully what that means is that the offensive line and Thomas are doing a great job with the running game and that maybe we can get a couple big plays with Jerricho [Cotchery] and Laveranues [Coles] off of run fakes.
Not for one second do we want to limit his touches at all. It's just he plays a unique position because he's so multidimensional that you can't always guarantee the ball gets in his hands.
On how adding Favre in August changed his preparation…
Anytime you add a great player it's good stress. Was it a lot of work? Absolutely. Quite honestly, when Brett got here it was very simple. We started and went back to the early installation and said, "What are you comfortable with? What do you like? What have you run?" There was a lot of sharing of ideas. Brett at no point was ever "Hey, I only want to run this" or "I only want to do this" or "I only want to call that." It really was give and take. We adjusted as a staff some. Brett adjusted some. The others players adjusted.
We had to change the way we called a few things because that is what Brett had called it for many years and to give the other players credit they never blinked. I owe them great respect for that because they could have said, "Well, why are we changing this?" They realized Brett had a lot to learn. He was coming in on a short, tight window to get things done. There was a lot of really good give and take on that part.
I think that midway through the season at 8-3 we did find our groove. Unfortunately, our groove dried up a little bit. Maybe that's because we didn't have as big of a package as we would have liked to and teams caught on. I really don't think that is what it was. It comes more down to us not executing, us not always calling the right play in the right situation and then having limited opportunities because of the turnovers and the inability to convert on third down.
I don't think anybody at 8-3 would have looked at us and said, "You guys haven't found your groove." We were very comfortable at what we were running at that point.
On if he has given any thought to players he wants back next year…
To be honest, I haven't given it a lot of thought. Right now, I am trying to walk around the building and say hello to people I don't recognize with some of the new [coaches] we have brought in. We are going to have our personnel meetings. We are going to get on top of it. A number of those guys are very good football players and after we go through the process, there will be guys we would like to have back that are still good players.
On if David Clowney could be used as a deep outside receiver…
Yes, I think so. I think if you go back, the one play that sticks out in my mind is one that we had him on an inside fade route against Seattle up the boundary on Marcus Trufant. He got on top of him and Brett under threw it a little bit. David is a guy that when you are at practice and, even if you are not watching him, you feel his speed. You know when he is around because he is so fast and I think that is a great attribute for any player being at running back, receiver or cornerback.
On if he would recommend to Mike Tannenbaum that they get a veteran QB if Brett Favre does not return…
At this point, I think we are going to do our homework on all the possibilities. We have a good sense of what we have with the guys here. Hopefully, a decision will be made once Brett, Mike and Rex have a conversation. We will look at what else is out there. Believe me, it's not just the quarterback position. We look at all options at every position on the offensive side whether it's to retain guys, to keep guys or to upgrade either through free agency, the draft or even guys that are in-house. That process will be on-going.
On if there is a timetable on Favre…
I do not know.
On if he knows if there is a timetable for a conversation between Ryan, Tannenbaum and Favre to take place…
I do not.
