Rex Ryan is not going to tackle the Vernon Gholston project alone. The Jets’ first-round draft pick also will have to deal with new defensive coordinator Mike Pettine.
Pettine scouted Gholston before last year’s draft, when the Jets took him with the sixth pick, and he saw trouble signs then.
“I thought he was a tremendous athlete, but being in shorts is one thing and how it carries over to the field is another,” Pettine said in a conference call yesterday. “We liked him for sure, but there was a lack of consistency in some of his play. He would have a flash of brilliance for two or three plays, then disappear.”
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With the Jets, he disappeared for nearly his entire rookie season. Gholston finished with one solo tackle on defense and was inactive against Buffalo in December. Coming out of Ohio State, the Jets gave Gholston a contract with $21 million guaranteed.
Ryan and Pettine need to make him earn that money now.
“From a physical standpoint, he’s got all the tools,” Pettine said. “I’m looking forward to meeting Vernon and seeing what makes him tick. . . . If the guy’s got it in him, we’re gonna get it out of him.”
Pettine followed Ryan from Baltimore, where he was the outside linebackers coach.
He took an interesting path to the NFL. His father, also named Mike, is a legendary high school football coach in Pennsylvania. He retired from Central Bucks West in 1999 with 326 victories, four state titles and with the highest winning percentage in state history.
Pettine followed his father into coaching, first as a graduate assistant at Pittsburgh and then as a high school coach. The Ravens hired him in 2002 to work in the video department, but he joined the coaching staff a year later.
“Whether it was real or perceived, I always felt I had something to prove, being someone who didn’t take the traditional path,” Pettine said. “There aren’t too many high school coaches who make it in the NFL. I’ve used that to motivate me.”
Ryan will call the defensive plays, but Pettine will be heavily involved. He promised a flexible system that will employ 3-4 personnel but feature varied looks.
“We’ve always been of the mindset of, you fit your system to the players, not the players to the system,” Pettine said. “Over time, you can bring in guys that fit you best, but in the short term, we’re not going to come in with the playbook and say we’re squeezing New York Jets personnel into the Baltimore Ravens’ playbook. The cornerstone of our system is our flexibility.”