Jets Fire DL Coach Kerry Locklin
Rex Ryan and the Jets have fired Defensive Line Coach Kerry Locklin, one of Rex Ryan’s own hires this past spring, his duties will be picked up by defensive assistant Jeff Weeks. Ryan knew Locklin from their time together at Morehead State in the early 90s.
“It is a mutual decision that Kerry no longer will be with us,” said Head Coach Rex Ryan. “I will be overseeing the entire defense as I always have with Mike Pettine. We felt it was the best thing for both of us moving forward. This is a sensitive issue. The timing is unfortunate but I felt this was in the best interests for both of us.”
I did see Rex Ryan often talking with Locklin on the sideline, and I’m not sure I knew if that was a good or bad thing. I guess we know now. This is an interesting move and hearkens me back to the Herm Edwards days. Have a bad season? Fire a coach. This seems like a pretty scapegoat-ey move to me. Rich Cimini of the Daily News seems to think so too.
It was a mutual decision between Locklin and Rex Ryan, the person said, but this sounds a bit fishy. Ryan made no mention of Locklin’s departure during his late-afternoon news conference.
It’s believed that Ryan had a disagreement with Locklin, but the specifics aren’t clear.
Dave Hutchinson thinks he knows.
One of the two second-half timeouts that the Jets burned against the Jaguars was because they had 12 men on the field on defense, and that extra man was rookie linebacker/defensive end Jamaal Westerman. Locklin oversaw substitutions along the defensive line.
Game management, Rex … game management.
24 Responses to Jets Fire DL Coach Kerry Locklin
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vinnywasthebest says:
here we go, season unraveling…
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Brendan says:
I’ll take Chuck Smith. Falcons all time leader in sacks. God only know he can’t hurt.
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If the guy was handling D substitutions – he clearly was failing. A head coach can’t do everything. My question is, you have like 25 coaches, you can’t get someone else to do the manage the subs?
In terms of D line, I think Pouha, Devito and Green have done a pretty good job in Big Jenks absence – I mean you just can’t replace that. But Ellis and Douglas are just not good enough in terms of pressuring the QB – we need to sign Seymour next year in a big way.
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Wise Old Jet Fan says:
Could this have anything to do with Pouha and Douglass? not getting the message to let Jax score on the previous play?
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http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/jets/loss_makes_ryan_AQy6JBg0NT7egEC3YGCPPL
Anyone who doubts Rex read this article. You will not find a head coach that cares more than this guy.
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The blame game begins, Lil’ Schott next?
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MEL31602 says:
Brendan- that article got me fired up and I wasn’t even there haha. And as for Locklin, Cimini says in the paper today that while it looks like a scapegoating move on the surface, Locklin was bad mouthing Rex behind his back and the two had a falling out weeks ago. Weeks and Smith had been the defacto line coaches for a while anyway
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Where’s Hank?
NFLPA is setting up a meeting this week with the Browns team so they can openly voice their complaints against Mangini in a closed forum.
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I love how this will get spinned by fans and the media as Rex and the Jets panicking or blaming.
We have seen way too many times having to call a timeout or get a penalty for 12 men on the field on defense. If this guys job was to have the right guys subbing in and out and its still a problem?? Get rid of the guy who is not doing his job correctly. Plain and simple.
Some of you guys are amazing. You hated Mangini cause he didnt talk or make changes and now lets start hating on Ryan becasue he talks and makes changes
Just another reason why I despise most of my NY Jets fanbase
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Andy says:
I don’t see it as panicking, but rathering trying to find a way to fix what is going wrong. We’ll have to see if this makes a difference, and I hope it does. Hey look at it this way. If this was Ryan’s guy he hired earlier this year and he got rid of the problem with in the same year, I think it shows that Ryan is trying to fix the problems right now. Would we much rather have him say…”well he is my guy…I will stick by him…” and have it drag out even longer?
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To lead the group od idiots is R Cimini
I know Sanchez didnt play his best game but to give him a “D” grade on Sunday just shows how fake and dumb he and his grading crap is.
The kid led his team in the 4th quarter and handed his team the lead with 5 minutes to go to our defense. I dotn care what he did before that he played much better than a “D” grade
I guess his post game speech to reporters muct have brought his C+ game to a D. Effing idiots!!
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JG in Mass says:
I agree with Drew. We are a young team with rookie QB and coach. Did all of you really thing we were superbowl bound this year? One game at a time!
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Agreed one game at a time! First order of business beat NE.!
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GP says:
^^ New England’s gonna be foaming at the mouth after that Indy loss. I’m having flashbacks of that Brady-to-Moss TD bomb from a couple of seasons ago.
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I think it might be closer than anyone thinks. New England is playing good, but not great. If we punch them in the mouth early, it might be a game. Otherwise, look out.
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GP,
Revis, my man…Revis.
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NamVetJet says:
This firing and the letting go of Caroll are positive. Glad Rex is not standing pat. If a HC does not have confidence or determines that a player is a distraction you make these kind of moves. Although I have been very dissapointed and frustrated with some of our loses, for the most part they have been close games (that could have been won). I don’t think that the problems are major and this kind of tweeking may help. This is part and parcel of the learning process for a rookie HC that we have to get through. I do think it is important that we win some games as the season progresses—would like to see that Rex is learing from the mistakes and not repeating them. At this point I think that an 8-8 season should be the goal.
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And giving a lettter grade to football performances is absurd. It is real simple:
W=A
L=F -
seanmac31 says:
What a helpful way of analyzing the game…
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And it has only taken me 40 years to come up with this method.
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coachmach says:
I know this is a buisness and contracts in the NFL are golden. But I am unsure eythically firing a coach when you have guys like Gholston and Rhodes playing like they dont give a crap.
I thought that Rhodes was supposed to be the next Ed Reed. Well he is the next Where’s Waldo. The guys is non existant out there and when there is a big play you see him pointing the finger.
All of these posts I read and nothing about the horrendous play of Rhodes!
Take your paycheck go Twitter and do your modeling Rhodes, you are not a Professional Football Player.
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Coach,
Then you haven’t been on here long. The anti-Rhodes banter has been going on basically since the losing started.
As for the coach, well I think the firing was justified. Yes, dumping him and Ahmad Carrol can be seen as ‘suspicious’, but I believe both were warranted. Carrol apparently had a negative attitude and would talk back to the coaching staff. Can’t have that. He also (multiple times) neglected to turn in a weekly written test. It’s an X’s and O’s type of thing and he felt he didn’t have to do it (when guys like Alan Faneca and Damien Woody are taking a test, you better bet your @ss that you take it too). As for the line coach, word was he was phased out of his job by now anyway. Coach Weeks and Chuck Smith (who was brought in for training camp for pass rushing coaching and has caught on) were basically running the line anyway. Word was Locklin was treating this as a college job, and it was getting under the skin of the players (now, I do not know what that means, exactly, but I would guess it means talking down to players instead of treating them like professionals) and Locklin also was supposedly bad mouthing Rex behind his back, which you can’t have on the team. He also was in charge of D-line substitutions and was the person who put an extra guy on the field, which led to the timeout we took on defense in the second half.
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Yeah, that pass rushing specialist has really earned that promotion.
The success of consultant Chuck Smith, has to be part of this. I think the original stint for Chuck was two weeks to assist DL’s with Pass rush, then Chuck stayed for the whole summer, and now he is still with the team at the halfway mark. Rex and Pettine must see Smith as a value add. If Lockin felt that he was undermined, I understand. I don’t know anything about Weeks but Chuck Smith seems to be a positive for Rex.