Brandon Spano
January 7, 2009

Everybody knows that Weis was the man who created the Patriots offense. You know about the Super Bowls. You probably know that he tutored Tom Brady and you definitely know about his recent stint at Notre Dame. But do you know about the 1997 Jets?  If you don’t, than let me give you a little refresher course.

The Jets finished the 1996 season 1-15. Their offense was ranked 27th in points, after only scoring 279. The only positive that you could point out was a running game that featured Adrian Murrell, who ran for 1249 yards that year. Even that stat was inflated though. It took Murrell 301 carries to reach that, averaging 4.1 yards per carry. Coming off of their worst season in franchise history the Jets fired Rich Kotite that off season and hired Bill Parcells, to take over head coaching duties.

Continue reading this post……..

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Bill Parcells looked at the offense that he was inheriting and called in an old friend to help. That Friend, of coarse, was Charlie Weis.

Weis coached for Parcells the previous 4 season in New England and before that with the Giants. Charlie Weis’ resume had reached a level of greatness that no other assistant has ever had.

• In Charlie Weis’ first season with Bill Parcells and the Giants (1990), he was a special teams and defensive assistant. They won the Super Bowl that year.

• In 1994, he was the Patriots tight end coach. Ben Coates set an NFL record for most receptions by a tight end that year, with 96 catches.

• In 1995, Parcells made him the running backs coach. Weis took a third round draft pick named Curtis Martin and broke the franchise rushing record with him as Martin gained over 1400 yards, 14 touchdowns and received the Rookie of The Year award.

• In 1996, Parcells switched him to receivers coach. That’s the year that Terry Glenn broke the all time rookie record for receptions with 90 catches, including 1132 yards and 6 touchdowns.

EARLY 1997,

Charlie Weis is about to throw himself to the wolves. With a little help from Bill Parcells of coarse.

At this point, there was nothing left for Weis to do as an assistant. He had absolutely dominated in every aspect of coaching that he had been handed and now it was time to run an entire offense. Charlie Weiss was taking over one of the worst offenses in Jets franchise history and this would be his first true test.

The Jets team that finished 1-15 the year before, finished the 1997 season 9-7, barely missing the playoffs after a late game loss in week 17. That was and still is the biggest turn around in franchise history. As for the 27th ranked scoring offense that Weis took over. They finished 12th after his first year as coordinator and put 348 points on the board, almost a touchdown more per game. The following year, Weis would break the Jets franchise points record, taking a 27th ranked scoring team and transforming them into 4th highest scoring offense in the league in under two seasons.

By the way…… In 1997 and 1998, The Jets Offensive quality control coach, also known as Charlie Weis’ assistant, was a guy named Todd Haley.

EARLY 2010,

Charlie Weis is called upon once again to revive a struggling offense. the man on the other end of the phone is an old pal from his Patriot days. Instead of Bill Parcells, it’s Bill’s son in law, Scott Pioli and it’s his second era of Patriot days that we are referring to, not his first. Still must be earily familiar.

This time, it’s not the 27th ranked scoring offense that he’s taking over. It’s the 23rd. It’s not a 1-15 team either. They were 4-12. This team also has a QB that knows his system and a running back who was the first in NFL history to break 1100 yards on less than 200 carries.

The job looks much easier this time. I guess when your Charlie Weis, every NFL job looks easy.