The Jets will have a new offensive coordinator this spring and head coach Robert Saleh is sure the position is appealing for myriad reasons.

"Well, I can give a sales pitch, right?" he said. "We do have a top-5 defense, pretty sure 90 percent of them are coming back, and hopefully it's 100 percent. Obviously, free agency has to do with some of that.

"We've got a really, really, really good young group of skill guys when you think about Breece [Hall], and Michael Carter, Garrett [Wilson] and Elijah Moore and you talk about the vets that we have, Corey Davis, and [Denzel] Mims, and the two tight ends, [Tyler] Conklin and [C.J.] Uzomah. We've got a really, really good core group of guys, so we're going to attack the heck out of our O-line with regards to getting healthy and adding to it, and we are going to be aggressive as heck when it comes to quarterback play and making sure that we do everything we can to satisfy that position."

Whomever is hired to replace Mike LaFleur will be tasked with aiding the development of soon-to-be third-year quarterback Zach Wilson, help solidify an offensive line that dealt with injuries to key players like Alijah Vera-Tucker and energize the run game, which suffered because of changes on the O-line and the absence of rookie RB Hall because of a knee injury.

"Do I want to be as arrogant as to say I think this is plug-and-play where we're going to get better?" Saleh said. "When you can run the ball, got a good special teams and you have a top-5 defense, you're supposed to be in the playoffs and I think that we'll be able to continue on the trajectory that we had been going on. We won four our first year, got to seven this year, could've been more if we had just stayed a little bit healthier, but I'm very confident that we can get everything done."

Woody Johnson, the Jets' Chairman, said he would leave the decision on the OC up to Saleh.

"You can ask Robert what he prefers," Johnson told reporters last week. "He's going to make the decision. I think he's got a list. I don't know if you've talked to him about it. I leave that up to him and who he is looking at. I know that he's looking to improve and he's trying to do with the offense with what happened with the defense."

Schedule Tidbits: Looking Forward and Back
The Jets had the AFC's sixth-hardest schedule and a strength of schedule (.538; with each opponent averaging 9.5 wins ) in the 2022 season, and things won't get any easier next season.

With games against the four NFC East teams, it means the Green & White will have the benefit of playing 10 games at MetLife Stadium because one of those "away" games will be against the Giants. The Jets had 8 home games this past season (3-5) and will flip to 9 home games (plus-one) next season. But among those visitors are the Chiefs and the Eagles, both of whom are No. 1 seeds in the current season's playoffs; but with the Jets again playing a fourth-place schedule, it will bring Atlanta and Houston to East Rutherford.

In the 2023 season, the Jets again will have limited travel West, at Denver (for the third straight year), at the Raiders (for the first time in Las Vegas) and against the Cowboys (for the first time since 2019).

Some scheduling tidbits from the recently completed season:

• In the six-game losing streak to end the season, the Jets faced five playoff teams, six teams that finished with 9 wins or more, and four of the six games were decided by one score.

• The Jets played nine games (2-7) against playoff teams (52.9% of their games), tied for the most in the league.

• There had two games (2-0) against teams with fewer than 6 wins (11.8% of games, tied for the fourth-fewest in the NFL.

• The Jets played 14 games (4-10) against teams with at least 8 wins (82.4% of games), tied for most in the league.

• There were four games (1-3) against teams with at least 12 wins (23.5% of games), tied for eighth-most in the NFL.