Mike LaFleur deserves heat for Jets’ offensive struggles

The Jets entered the season with plenty of reason to believe that the offensive struggles that plagued them throughout the Adam Gase era were coming to an end.

New York’s offense looked rejuvenated in the preseason. Mike LaFleur’s scheme looked sharp — albeit against mostly reserve defenses — and Zach Wilson performed well enough to inspire hope that his rookie season would be a successful one. That has not been the case for the Jets through their first three games of 2021, though. Their offense has not been sharp, smooth, or anything along those lines. Instead, it has performed at a Gase-level of incompetence.

New York scored just 20 points in September. Fourteen of those points came in the second half against the Panthers in Week 1. The Jets have not found the end zone since, with two Matt Ammendola field goals accounting for their offensive output over the last two games. New York was shut out in Week 3.

That’s nowhere near enough to win a game or even be competitive, no matter how good a team’s defense is.

Some of New York’s offensive struggles can be traced back to its youth. Every rookie quarterback goes through his ups and downs and Wilson is in the middle of the downs right now. Some of it can be pinned on underwhelming offensive line play resulting in not much of a running game — just 13 carries against the Broncos — and little time for Wilson to work in the pocket.

The rest of it can be placed on LaFleur’s shoulders.

Gang Green’s rookie offensive coordinator came to New York with more hype than any assistant coach Robert Saleh hired. Much like his brother Matt once was, LaFleur is widely regarded as one of the brightest young offensive minds in the NFL. He learned plenty working under Kyle Shanahan with the Falcons and 49ers and looked ready to take on the task of orchestrating his own offense.

Early indications are that might have been a premature thought — regardless of the job Saleh thinks he is doing.

LaFleur’s decision-making since the games started counting in the standings has been nothing short of questionable. Instead of catering his west coast offense to his personnel as Shanahan has done in San Francisco, LaFleur has been dead set on doing things his way. That has left Denzel Mims, one of the Jets’ most dynamic playmakers last season, left to languish on the sideline.

Why? Because he doesn’t know all three wide receiver positions in LaFleur’s offense as a 6-foot-3 deep threat who shouldn’t be doing anything but playing on the outside anyway.

LaFleur’s struggles go beyond the puzzling Mims situation. Wilson’s protection has been brutal to begin the season, but he’s been efficient when getting the ball out quickly. He is 26-34 for 158 yards and a touchdown when getting a throw off in 2.5 seconds or less, according to Next Gen Stats.

Those numbers indicate Wilson would benefit from more three-step drops and throws to his hot reads, but LaFleur has remained insistent on five-step drops that leave Wilson flat on his back more often than not. That doesn’t make a ton of sense considering the west coast offense is partly predicated on working in the short and quick realm.

The silver lining for the Jets is that LaFleur is still learning just like their rookie quarterback is. He didn’t forget all of his offensive knowledge in less than a month’s time. Calling an NFL offense is not easy and LaFleur still has to get the hang of being the one to outsmart opposing defensive coordinators on a weekly basis after spending so many years working in the background.

“When guys aren’t executing, you got to figure out what is going wrong,” LaFleur said Thursday. “What are the players not hearing that is not allowing the execution. I challenged the coaches, I challenged myself, ‘How can we make it easier? How can you say it in a way that these guys can understand it better?’ You can’t win in this league until you execute.”

There’s no reason to call for LaFleur’s head after just three games. There’s also no doubt that he needs to be better moving forward. The Jets were never going to be a contender in 2021, but they need to show progress.

That hasn’t come close to happening with LaFleur’s offense yet.

“It starts with me and the rest of the coaches,” LaFleur said. “We’re not getting it done.”