Here are three newsy sidebars on the offensive coaches hired by head coach Aaron Glenn and the Jets in recent days.
Brian Duker: Views on Football Violence, Greatness
Jets defensive coordinator Brian Duker explained last season to Miami reporters about his views on violence as a trait for his Dolphins defensive backs. Short answer: It's a good thing.
"Violence solves a lot of problems in football," said the then-Dolphins secondary coach and pass game coordinator. "When I think of violence in the secondary, first off, when you get the opportunity to set edges in the run game, our violence needs to show up. The toughness of the defense is often defined by the DBs because those guys are going to show up and set edges on the outside. That's a tough defense right there.
"Then we also get opportunities down the field to finish on the ball in the air with violent intentions, whether it be attacking the football or physical tackles and physical disruption of receivers. And if you do that, you have an intimidating defense."
Not to speak for the Jets' new DC but one would expect his views on pigskin pugnacity to extend to all levels of the Jets' defensive operation, which could produce good results for the team and their fans. As Duker said early last season about his Miami DBs: "We've been happy, but we have a higher standard, too. ... We'll continue to chase greatness."
Ryan Slowik: A Family Affair
A most interesting aspect of Jets safeties coach Ryan Slowik's bio is his and his family's connections to the NFL and even north of the border. His father, Bob Slowik, is defensive coordinator of the CFL's Calgary Stampeders and has served as DC of the Bears, Browns, Packers and Broncos in the NFL and the Montreal Alouettes in the CFL.
Ryan's one younger brother, Bobby, was Miami's senior pass game coordinator last season and, with the arrival of new HC Jeff Hafley, has been promoted to Dolphins offensive coordinator. And his other kid bro, Steve, has worked as a 49ers pro scout.
But enough about the Slowik family tree. Ryan has been around and knows what's up as well. The Jets will be his 10th coaching stop at all levels of the game and he has been an assistant coach at all levels of the defense plus special teams. He also held several coaching titles with the Dolphins from '22-25, including last year as DBs coach/pass game specialist on the opposite side of the ball from Bobby on the offensive side.
Do Jets fans remember the name? That's probably because Slowik was assistant DL coach on Todd Bowles' first Jets team in 2015. And Ryan has one other interesting Green & White connection. Four years after his one Jets season and before he joined the 'Fins, Bobby took a job for a year as assistant coach at Webb School of Knoxville. That's the scholastic program that produced future Jets QB Chad Pennington some 30 years earlier.
Ronald Booker: Green & White Adds a New Tint
If the careers of two new assistant coaches take off at 1 Jets Drive, the team may have to include a dash of a new, bold southwestern color in their uniform trinity of Gotham Green, Spotlight White and Stealth Black.
We mentioned Thomas Merkle, the Jets' assistant quarterbacks coach, in our offense story. He spent six seasons in a variety of roles on the coaching staff of the Stanford Cardinal.
Then we have Ronald Booker, the Jets' defensive assistant/nickels, who was with the Cardinals, plural, of Arizona for the past five seasons. He was the Cards' defensive quality control coach the past three seasons and even got the nod to coach the linebackers in the 2025 East-West Shrine Bowl.
Booker has always been a more-you-can-do kind of guy. He was a standout DB and special-teamer for Rhodes College of Memphis. And after his college playing days ended, he spent the next five seasons as a Rhodes assistant, serving variously as a coach of the Lynx safeties, their DBs and their WRs, and also as their ST coordinator and strength & conditioning director. Did we mention that Booker also led the football program's social media and video initiatives?
And did we also mention Rhodes' team colors? Black and, of course, Cardinal.
