Jeremy Bates isn't afraid of challenges and rocky terrain. We know this because he once hiked the 3,100-mile Continental Divide Trail -- alone.

That mentality should serve him well in his new job as New York Jets offensive coordinator because he has no starting quarterback and he inherits the 28th-ranked offense. This could make the CDT seem like a walk in Central Park.

Bates, whose anticipated promotion became official on Wednesday, has one of the toughest jobs in the NFL. He's working for a franchise that changes offensive coordinators almost as frequently as people file tax returns (six in the past eight years), and his depth chart doesn't include a single Pro Bowl player.

This daunting gig will be more manageable if he can help lure quarterback Kirk Cousins to New York, which would be the recruiting coup of the offseason. They've met only once, a pre-draft encounter in 2012, but they have a mutual acquaintance -- Mike Shanahan -- and that seems to have piqued Cousins' curiosity about the Jets.

In an interview at the Super Bowl, the soon-to-be-former Washington Redskins quarterback said the prospect of playing for Bates is "exciting." Was he blowing smoke, as pending free agents tend to do? It sounded sincere. You see, Cousins played for Shanahan (2012-13), who happens to be Bates' former boss and mentor. You might say they're from the same football family, with one degree of separation.

From a playbook standpoint, it would be an easy transition for Cousins because Bates' offense will be similar to the Shanahan system, a version of the West Coast.

No matter where he signs, Cousins will be the league's highest-paid player. Ultimately, he will base his decision on several factors, but relationships are important to him. He got burned in Washington by an organization that never placed its faith in him, and he's looking for a new team where he feels the love. There is a thought among NFL types that Cousins and Bates, who will remain the Jets' quarterbacks coach, would be a good fit because they're detail-obsessed workaholics. In NFL parlance, they're known as grinders.

"Jeremy Bates is not a laid-back dude," said former NFL player Matt Hasselbeck, who was Bates' quarterback in 2010 with the Seattle Seahawks. "Jeremy Bates is fiery, aggressive and allergic to the media. He makes Todd Bowles look like Bob Costas; he's not comfortable in front of the cameras.

"He's most comfortable with a dip in his mouth, talking football. He's rough around the edges publicly. But in a football environment, wearing sweats and hanging out with coaches and players, he's very capable and very bright."

Hasselbeck had an uneven year under Bates, who was fired after only one season as Seattle's coordinator, but he praised Bates' football acumen and his poise as a playcaller. Hasselbeck said Bates gave him a piece of advice that he carried with him for the remainder of his career.

By chance, Bates happened to be driving behind Hasselbeck one day near the Seahawks' facility. He thought the quarterback was an unsafe driver, and he shared that opinion the next day. Bates turned it into a teaching moment, using a driving analogy to make a point about football. He wanted Hasselbeck to play quarterback the way he drove -- aggressively.

"He told me, 'You're playing like you're in driver's ed with a learner's permit,'" said Hasselbeck, now an ESPN studio analyst. "He said, 'I want you to cut it loose.'"

Bates knows how to handle quarterbacks -- that's how he cut his teeth in the business -- but now he's in charge of the entire offense. He's eight years removed from the last time he did that, so there's an element of the unknown. Nevertheless, this was a solid decision by Jets coach Todd Bowles, who wanted to maintain some continuity from the previous staff and system.

It has a chance to work because Bates' promotion, coupled with the addition of Rick Dennison as the offensive line coach/run-game coordinator, joins two coaches with like-minded philosophies.

Bates and Dennison worked closely together in 2008, running Shanahan's offense with the Denver Broncos. They collaborated on game plans, but Bates called the plays. It'll work the same way with the Jets. From a schematic standpoint, they can marry the running and passing attacks. The primary knock on former Jets offensive coordinator John Morton, whose background was rooted in passing, is that he failed to design an effective ground game.

Now all Bates needs is a few playmakers and, of course, a signal-caller.