Jets OC had to break bizarre speech habit that affected his playcalling

Sam Darnold is expecting to learn a lot from New York Jets offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates this season, but there is one particular phrase the rookie may never hear come out of Bates’ mouth.

“Ya know?”

Conor Hughes of The Athletic spoke with Matt Hasselbeck about playing under Bates. Hasselbeck was a quarterback with the Seattle Seahawks in 2010 when Bates was offensive coordinator, and the retired QB says Bates had a very annoying speech habit that made interpreting playcalls difficult. It went something like this:

“We’re gonna go, ya know, double-wing right, ya know, two-jet flanker drive, ya know, smash alert, ya know, 200 jet dragon.”

When delivering a playcall, less is more. Bates probably didn’t even realize he was using the phrase “ya know” so much, but Hasselbeck eventually spoke with him about it after Bates dropped 212 “ya-know’s” in a two-hour meeting before practice. While some people may have gotten defensive, Hasselbeck says Bates managed to completely change the way he speaks in just a few days time.

“Four days later this guy eliminated every ‘ya know’ from his vocabulary,” Hasselbeck told Hughes. “He came in and it looked like he hadn’t slept. He apparently had this mirror, and he practiced for hours and hours every day until he didn’t say it anymore. Not just with play calls, but in his everyday life.

“The ability to break a bad habit the way he did, so quickly, was a little bit scary, maybe psychotic, but also unbelievably impressive. I can’t tell you how much it helped me as a quarterback to have the clarity in my helmet.”

You don’t coach in the NFL for 17 years with an unwillingness to adjust, but you have to respect the commitment from Bates. A lot of NFL coaches have massive egos and might have told Hasselbeck where he can stick it.