jets marty mornhinweg.jpg

Jets offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg needs to see significant improvement this season from Geno Smith.

(Rich Barnes/USA TODAY Sports)

Last season was a difficult debut for Jets offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg.

After quarterback Mark Sanchez suffered a season-ending shoulder injury – when the Jets decided to play him in the fourth quarter of a preseason game behind an offensive line of backups – Mornhinweg had no choice to but live through rookie Geno Smith’s growing pains.

Between those problems and the injuries that plagued the Jets’ wide receivers – from Stephen Hill to Jeremy Kerley to Santonio Holmes – Mornhinweg had precious few weapons.

Now, the declining Holmes is gone, having been released. Hill is healthy, having moved past his knee problems. And the Jets, in free agency, added a couple potentially significant threats to Mornhinweg's offense: running back Chris Johnson and wide receiver Eric Decker. Plus, they drafted tight end Jace Amaro, a proven pass catcher, in the second round.

“Offensively, it feels like we’re just light years ahead of where we were last year,” Mornhinweg said Thursday during a conference call with season ticket holders. “But we just can’t let that trick us into thinking that we’re any better at all yet.”

The Jets the past two seasons have ranked No. 25 and 30 in the NFL in yards and No. 29 and 28 in points. While their defense was down last year, particularly in the secondary, it still ranked No. 11 in the league in yards allowed.

“I learned early last year (that) our defense is so good that I leaned on that part of the squad, offensively, more than I ever have,” Mornhinweg said. “I found myself relying on the defense at critical moments last year. Certainly, the defense came through that way.”

The Jets have ranked No. 31 and 30 in the NFL in passing offense the past two seasons, and while inconsistent play from Sanchez and Smith contributed largely to those struggles, Mornhinweg believes the Jets’ offense will be to do its part more often this season.

“With the people that we’ve added, certainly we can be a little bit more aggressive, especially in critical moments,” Mornhinweg said. “There were some good reasons why we played that (more passive) style a little bit last year.”

Obviously, Mornhinweg could not be overly aggressive with a turnover-prone rookie quarterback. Still, the Jets managed to win five of their first nine games entering their off week. Then they lost their next three games and basically sunk their playoff hopes.

“Just awful,” Mornhinweg said of that three-game skid.

The Jets gained 267, 220 and 177 yards in those games. Smith completed just 38 percent of his passes in those games for 259 total yards, zero touchdowns and six interceptions. With more weapons this year, and Smith a year older, Mornhinweg hopes to avoid a similarly brutal stretch.

Smith last season threw the ball 443 times, which ranked No. 19 in the league. While the Jets’ passing offense did not total a lot of yards (183.3 per game), it did rank sixth in the league in yards per completion (12.3) and No. 19 in yards per attempt (6.8).

Will Mornhinweg be able to use a more aggressive passing attack this year to boost the Jets’ overall numbers? The Jets’ playoff chance could hinge on how they answer that question.