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Former Stanford head coach Frank Reich interacting after a college football game.
The New York Jets continue to round out their coaching staff.
Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic revealed that the Jets have made a couple of additions. One of those is Thomas Merkle as an offensive assistant. Rosenblatt revealed that Merkle was with Frank Reich at Stanford.
Before becoming a coach, Merkle played quarterback at Kenyon College in Ohio. According to his bio on the Stanford website, “he set 14 conference and school records over the course of 40 starts under center. He was named the NCAC Rookie of the Year in 2016 and was selected to the All-Conference team in 2019.”
He just completed his sixth season with the Stanford program in 2025. According to the team bio, he has served in a “variety of roles on the football staff since the 2020 season.”
Merkle has experience working with the offensive line, wide receivers, special team gunners, and, most recently, the quarterbacks.
Another Coaching Hire, but This Time on the Defensive Side of the Ball
Rosenblatt also revealed on social media that the Jets have added defensive assistant Ronald Booker.
A couple other additions to the Jets staff, per source:
Thomas Merkle: offensive assistant
Ronald Booker: defensive assistant
Merkle was with Frank Reich at Stanford,
Booker was a defensive quality control assistant for the Cardinals for the last few years.
Booker just completed his fifth season with the Arizona Cardinals. The first two seasons were spent as a defensive assistant, and the last three years he served as a defensive quality control coach, per the team bio.
Before becoming a full-time employee in Arizona, Booker cut his teeth working through the Bill Walsh Coaching Fellow for two years. After that program was complete, he was hired as a full-time employee in August of 2021.
Last offseason, Booker got to serve as the safeties coach for the Shrine Bowl, working for the West team.
“The job is much different than his role as a quality control coach, which is focused on ‘serving the players, prepping the playbooks, helping coaches with presentations and playbook agendas,’ Cardinals digital reporter Zach Gershman wrote.
The Hiring News Continues to Pour in for the Jets
NFL analyst Will Parkinson revealed on Monday, February 9, that the Jets are hiring Matthew Sargent “to their offensive staff as an assistant. Sargent was with Frank Reich at Stanford, working with QBs and WRs.”
Jets are hiring Matthew Sargent to their offensive staff as an assistant, Sargent was with Frank Reich at Stanford working with QBs and WRs
Stanford has Sargent listed as an “offensive graduate assistant.”
A Brutal Reality for the Jets Heading Into 2026
With the Super Bowl officially over, we have now entered the offseason.
That means it’s time to immediately look ahead to 2026 way too early. In ESPN’s way-too-early power rankings, the Jets were placed No. 31 out of 32 teams.
That shouldn’t be too surprising, coming off a 3-14 campaign. The Jets don’t have a clear answer at quarterback in the short term, nor the long term, for that matter.
Gang Green clinched their 10th straight losing season in 2025. They haven’t made it to the playoffs since the 2010 season.
The national analysts and experts won’t give the Jets the benefit of the doubt until they prove it. Every time the national media gave hype to the Jets before they proved it, they were burned badly.
So don’t expect the Jets to appear high in any projected power ranking any time soon.
Paul Esden Jr. covers the New York Jets for Heavy.com. A New York native, he co-hosts a morning show, “The Manchild Show with Boy Green Digital.” Before joining Heavy in 2021, Esden Jr. covered both national and New York sports for FanSided, Elite Sports NY, and The Score 1260. More about Paul Esden Jr.
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