At the start of the offseason, Jets receiver Santonio Holmes was viewed by some as a destructive force in the locker room. But Jets coach Rex Ryan still thought of Holmes as not only the Jets’ best receiver, but a player who deserved to be consulted on the direction of the team.
So before Ryan hired Sanjay Lal as the Jets’ new receivers coach, he set up a meeting between Lal and Holmes and asked Holmes to weigh in.
“It was important to make the right hire,” Ryan said, via Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. “I wanted them to get a feel for each other.”
Holmes said he approved of Lal after meeting him at Ryan’s house.
“Sanjay was the right guy to bring in at the time,” Holmes said. “When we met at Coach Ryan’s house, we saw eye-to-eye with everything that we talked about. He’s a tough-nosed guy, very mechanical, loves to work on technique and doesn’t take any B.S. from the receivers.”
If Holmes is welcoming a coach who won’t take any B.S., that alone is progress in the Jets’ locker room.