Not that you’d expect him to say otherwise, but Saints quarterback Drew Brees offered high praise of John Morton, the Jets’ new offensive coordinator, during a WFAN interview.
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Before taking the Jets job, and replacing the retired Chan Gailey, Morton was the Saints’ wide receivers coach for two seasons. Morton initially spent one season, 2006, as the Saints’ offensive assistant/passing game coach — a lower-level assistant job.
But he got an opportunity to work closely with Brees, who has been the Saints’ quarterback since 2006. So Brees and Morton started together in New Orleans.
How does Brees think Morton will do as a first-time offensive coordinator? Pretty well, based on Brees’ comments during Super Bowl week to WFAN’s Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton:
“He’s been around some great coaches and some great play callers. He was with Jon Gruden for a long time. He was with Norv Turner out in Oakland. He’s been with [Jim] Harbaugh. He’s been with a lot of teams with head coaches that know how to win, know how to lead — and that are great play callers.
“He knows the origins of the West Coast offense, and he stays true to that, but he’ll also evolve. It’s his time. The one thing I appreciated about him each and every week is he always had a ton of knowledge and insight into the West Coast offense.”
It’s a safe bet that Morton will run some version of the West Coast offense with the Jets. That’s what they ran — with limited success — from 2013-14 under coordinator Marty Mornhinweg. Bottom line: It doesn’t matter what kind of offense you run if your quarterback stinks.
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Morton was with the Raiders from 1998-2004 as an assistant coach. So he worked under Gruden and Turner during that time period. Morton worked under Harbaugh in 2005 (University of San Diego) and from 2011-14 (49ers). With the Saints, Morton learned from Sean Payton.
Darryl Slater may be reached at dslater@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DarrylSlater. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.
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