Jets hope initiatives will increase winning edge

Aside from adding as many good players as possible to help the Jets improve, coach Robert Saleh and GM Joe Douglas are trying to turn over every stone to find extra ways to give their team a winning edge, and two examples of this were announced over the course of the offseason, with the additions of a game management coach (Matt Burke) and the installation of an Athletic Care and Performance Department. Let’s take a closer look at these two moves and how they might help the Jets:

Matt the manager

It’s one of the biggest challenges for NFL coaches, and as most fans know, many of them often fall short of this challenge.

We’re talking about game management.

Saleh recently made a staff addition to help him conquer this Herculean head coaching task with the addition of Dartmouth graduate Matt Burke. The announcement of Burke’s addition was made by Mike Garafolo, who works for the NFL’s in-house network.

“The Jets have hired former Dolphins DC Matt Burke for a game-management role, source says. Burke, who most recently served as Eagles run game coordinator and DL coach, brings 15 NFL seasons’ experience as a defensive coach but will help on both sides of the ball,” Garafolo reported, May 16.

The scholarly Burke is a Renaissance man with an Ernest Hemingway beard and an impressive list of exotic offseason adventures, including going on safari in Botswana, humanitarian work in Uganda and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

“This is a high-performance, high-stress business,” Burke said. “(The excursions) are my way to get away from things.”

And now he will climb the Mount Kilimanjaro of NFL assignments, assisting the head coach with the thousands of challenging clock management and game-management decisions that arise during the course of a game — when to call a timeout, when to go for it on fourth down and so forth.

One former NFL head coach, Dirk Koetter, explained to Bleacher Report why having somebody like this is so important: “There are just so many situations that come up in an NFL game, whether it’s clock management or just game-ending situations, to have someone that they’re fully dedicated to that preparation in leading up to the game and on game day (makes) sense.”