The Jets’ search for an offensive identity starts with finding stability

Chan Gailey’s mission as Jets offensive coordinator is to mend a broken offense. New Jets head coach Todd Bowles chose Gailey to revamp a group that deteriorated from 30th to 31st to last in NFL passing yards in each of the last three seasons. A bunch that sank to 28th twice and 29th once in points scored during that span.

Gailey is expected to take whatever he is given and shape it, massage it, teach and direct it. Provide offensive order and stability. Produce a brand of balanced, innovative and complementary Jets offensive football. Become an intricate part of a staff and a team that is one heartbeat. This is an instance where the mission and the man are one.

Bowles has already named Geno Smith the starter, at least for training camp this summer. Ryan Fitzpatrick will compete for the regular season job. So will Matt Simms.

“Ideally, it is best to let a guy grow at the position and learn before he faces all of the scrutiny that comes with it,” Gailey said. “That is what Tom Brady and other great ones did. And then we have seen the other way, too, where guys were tossed in and played well. There is no one way. I like him (Smith). I’ve talked to him several times. He is personable and upbeat. That part is great.”

Gailey is learning about Simms, but knows about Fitzpatrick.

“He played well for us in Buffalo,” Gailey said about his time as Bills head coach from 2010-12. “He is highly intelligent. No one will ever say he has a rocket arm. But he sure brings a lot to the table.”

But in two weeks when NFL Draft selections begin, will the Jets, currently choosing at No. 6, find a way to move up or stay and still get Jameis Winston or Marcus Mariota, the stellar quarterbacks of this draft? Will they find a worthy quarterback later?

“There is always a possibility of anything when it comes to players,” Gailey said. “You never say never in this business.

“Even as a head coach,” said Gailey, “I never bought into looking at the draft and saying we have to have this player or we have to have that player. I always believed you get the best guy you see and get him into situations where he can be successful. I’m not a cocky person. I want to be a part of the solution and never a part of the problem.”

That is a switch when it comes to recent Jets head coach/offensive coordinator relationships.

Former Jets head coach Rex Ryan had his issues first with offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, and it was worse with Marty Mornhinweg. Ryan and Mornhinweg only worked together for two seasons with the Jets, and even the first one, in 2013, began poorly. They had a midseason flareup in a midnight coaches meeting after a blowout road loss that first year that nearly ended in blows where the two coaches had to be separated. Last season it all blew up into a 4-12 disaster. Their different mindsets -- run-it Rex juxtaposed to pass-it Marty -- continued to create occasional discord.

Thus, the first thing Bowles needed to do was pick an offensive coordinator who would move the offense, the players and the franchise past that. As a first-time head coach, Bowles needed trust in that job and experience, too.

Gailey, 63, has been an NFL head coach twice, an NFL offensive coordinator four times and a college football head coach three times.

He was then-Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher’s offensive coordinator when they reached Super Bowl 30 in 1996 in Phoenix and lost to the Dallas Cowboys. Before that, Cowher coached special teams with the Cleveland Browns and Gailey coached special teams with the Denver Broncos when the teams met in the historic 1987 AFC Championship known as “The Drive.” A year later, Cowher coached defensive backs with the Browns and Gailey receivers with the Broncos in another classic AFC title game known as “The Fumble.”

“We go way back,” Cowher said of Gailey. “Of all the guys I had, he passed on all of the things you are looking for. Very innovative, resourceful, a great communicator with players. A realist. For Todd, this is a great hire. He is a very humble individual. Not a guy you have to worry about. And he has done so much in offense in this league with sometimes very little. It reminds me of when I became head coach in Pittsburgh (in 1992) and I had Ron Erhardt as my first offensive coordinator. He had credibility, something proven, someone to rely on. When you are on the defensive side of the ball like I was, like Todd is, you need that strong and clear voice on the other side. Chan will bring that and a sense of direction. He knows it is not just about him, but about the players. Stability in that spot is a big part of any success. Chan will see the big picture. All of the people around him will grow.”

Gailey was a college quarterback at Florida before he began his coaching career there as an assistant in 1974. His stint as head coach for the Birmingham Fire in 1991 and 1992 in the old World Football League also included a six-month dual role as general manager. He said he learned about stadiums, leasing, parking, concessions and many other football operations duties.

It was one more critical step in his football life, just like the one in 1985, when Dan Reeves gave him his first NFL job as Broncos special teams coach.

“If you want to be a head coach someday, coaching special teams is really good for you,” Gailey said. “A lot of times we get caught up in our offense and defense as coaches and forget the amount of time you have to spend to be good at special teams. You don’t have the chance to fully realize it if you don’t coach it. I learned so much. The year before, we had won the national championship in our division when I was head coach at Troy State. When you are young and successful, you have all the answers. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Denver taught me that. Mike Shanahan was the offensive coordinator for the first few years and I learned a lot from him. I learned a great deal about organization from Dan. I was around a lot of people who were very good at what they did.”

Both Gailey and Reeves are from Americus, Ga.

If you are from Americus ...

“It means you were extremely well-coached,” Reeves said. “The program was all about fundamentals. Some great coaches, the best coaches were there. When you were in high school, you got the chance in the summers to help coach the younger players. Chan was a great athlete. He may have a role on a staff, but there is nothing he can’t coach. He gets along with everybody, and that is so important as a staff. His reputation is strong. You hear about good people. You hire people you know in the NFL, but you also hire people with great reputations. With the Jets, he will stay within the philosophy of the head coach.”

Bowles said he hired Gailey because Gailey has worked in various offensive schemes, that he can get results from players and that he will be balanced offensively.

Gailey said the two hardly knew each other.

He said Bowles contacted him last year when he thought he might get an NFL job -- but didn’t. And then when Bowles was named Jets coach this year, Gailey’s phone rang again.

Gailey said he interviewed with the Browns for their offensive coordinator position and that “two other NFL teams called” but ...

“I believe in Todd a great deal and in what he brings and in the leader he will be for this team,” Gailey said. “There is a certain comfort level there. This team is hungry and expecting to win as opposed to hoping to win. Guys are here who have won before. We have a nice mix of young and old. But all I can say is it really doesn’t matter what you say. It’s what you do on Sundays this fall.”

Two years out of NFL football for Gailey does not concern him as much as it does others. He said, sure, there are adjustments he must make. He sees defenses that are more aggressive and blitz-minded. The defensive formations are sleeker.

But the game, he said, is all about blocking and tackling and kicking “and that part is not going to change.” He said it is not about the number of plays in your playbook. Rather, he focuses on how his offense will play, how he calls those plays, being in the right packages, teaching the game and seeing how much his players can do.

Gailey reached three Super Bowls with Denver and one with Pittsburgh.

All losses. He yearns to get back and win it. Get it right. That is the ultimate chase for every NFL coach, young or seasoned.

“I’m young enough to give something back,” Gailey said. “I still have the energy and the enthusiasm. I was in North Georgia, thought I was retired and then Todd called. And here we are. Here I am.”

Gailey said Bowles will have the Jets’ defense in position to do what it needs to do to continually pursue a Super Bowl championship. Gailey knows that his job is to boost the Jets’ offense into similar standing. Day by day.

“We don’t have a name for our offense,” Gailey said. “It is not the East Coast or the West Coast. It will have two objectives: Move the football and score points is one. And the other is to score more points than the other team. Sure, we’ll talk about third-down plays and all of that. But we will not worry about offensive names and being a guru of anything.

“I told our players the other day that I don’t know what we are going to be right now. I know we will have linemen and a quarterback and a running back and wideouts and other positions. I know we will run it. I know we will throw it. I know we will be tough and strong. But how could you possibly know much more than that here in early April? That’s just being real.”

That’s also just being Chan.