Adam Gase’s new Jets coaching staff includes one very interesting addition.
Gregg Williams and Joe Vitt will be reunited for the first time since their falling out during the Saints BountyGate scandal a decade ago. Vitt, who is Gase’s father-in-law, will be a senior defensive assistant/outside linebackers coach after spending last season as the Dolphins’ senior director of football and player development.
Williams and Vitt testified against each other during hearings and appeals. Williams was indefinitely suspended. Vitt was suspended for the first six regular-season game of the 2012 season before taking over as the New Orleans interim head coach during Sean Payton’s year-long suspension.
Williams testified during the final round of appeals that Vitt overruled his attempt to end the BountyGate program, according to an Associated Press report in 2012. Vitt called Williams a “narcissistic” person, who was looking for redemption after leaving the Saints.
They’ve evidently patched up their differences.
Gase also hired Gregg Williams’ son, Blake, to be a part of the defensive staff.
On the other side of the ball, the Jets added former Lions offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter as running backs coach. Cooter, who spent the past five years working with Matthew Stafford, should be a valuable asset given his previous play-calling experience.
Defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson, who has played for and coached with Williams, was retained and given additional responsibility as the pass game coordinator.
