Connections, in business and so in the NFL, can be electric. And the relationship between the now retired 78-year-old guru Mike Westhoff and Jets second-year coach Chris Banjo, not even half Mike's age at 36, is, of course, special.
"Funny enough, I actually just got off the phone with Coach Mike maybe 20 minutes ago," Banjo told reporters last week at the end of the Jets' mandatory minicamp. "Mike's been awesome, Mike's been great."
Westhoff is among the NFL's best special teams coaches, including with the Jets from 2001-12, and as Jets fans know, he's not afraid to say so. While perhaps not as outwardly emotional as Banjo about the relationships he forged in his time in the game, he doesn't hold back in talking up the Jets' ST skipper..
"Chris, he gets it. He knows how to do it," Westhoff told nyjets.com in March when he talked about earning one of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's coveted Awards of Excellence, presented to him this month in Canton. "He's a smart guy, from a great family. He's the kind of guy you want on your staff. Just a good man, works hard, knows how to be a little innovative, takes a chance. I talked to him a little bit and just reminded him to take a chance."
The New Orleans Saints didn't put much to chance in signing Banjo as a street free agent a decade ago. He started out as an undrafted free agent rookie with Green Bay in 2013 before making his way to the Big Easy as a street free agent midway through 2016. And he didn't team up with Westhoff until almost exactly a year after that, when Saints HC Sean Payton hired Westhoff in November 2017 to take over his special teams.
Westhoff coached Banjo for just 27 games, including postseason, for the next year and a half. It was enough time for the two to tightly bond. As a player, Westhoff told Denver's 9news.com last year, "He was a good player, he had good playing experience. And he played with me when we led the league in New Orleans [in 2017]. We were the best."
Denver wasn't too shabby, either, when Payton brought Westhoff and Banjo to his first Broncos coaching staff in 2023. Again for about a season and a half, Westhoff and assistant ST coach Banjo teamed up to lead the Broncos to top-10 finishes in many specialist categories.
And they came together professionally one more time in the first few weeks of the Jets' '25 training camp, when Banjo was in his role as an NFL coordinator and Westhoff was invited back to One Jets Drive as an early-camp adviser.
"He's a tremendous influence, honestly, and not just on me, I think it's safe to say, but in this building in general," Banjo said at the time. "Anytime you have somebody with that type of expertise and that type of tenure in this game, who has seen a lot of ball, I think that's a great resource to have. And he's always willing to extend whatever help he could, both when I was playing and even now that I'm in my coaching days. So it was great having him for the time he was here."
Westhoff said as early as their 2023 reunion that he thought Banjo was ready then, when he was 33, to be an NFL special teams coordinator. He didn't have to convince Aaron Glenn, who had also coached Banjo as a DB with the Saints and was quick to hire him as his own STC.
Banjo showed, as Westhoff just knew he would, that the job was not too big for him. The Jets, with talented players meshing with precociously good coaching, ranked high in the NFL in multiple team categories — No. 1 in kickoff return average, No. 6 in punt return average, No. 3 in opponents' PR average, first in field goal accuracy, second in inside-the-20 punts, and sixth in net punting average.
"I thought he had a good group, from what I saw," Westhoff said in March of last year's special teams before he left camp. "Nick [Folk], I thought that would work out. I liked the punter [Austin McNamara]. I saw team speed in what they were doing. As I stood there and watched, they were the best part of this team, they were going to be OK. How good, I didn't know, but I knew they would be OK."
Just as he knew Banjo would be fine. And Banjo in return thanks Coach Mike for helping him make it possible.
"He was hard on me as a coach, which I think really helped me bring the best out of myself," Banjo said last week. "He's influenced me from a player standpoint, and same thing from a coaching standpoint. The relationship is always going to be valuable with me to him. So I'm just thankful I was able to cross paths with him.
