The Jets shocked the world on Tuesday morning when they fired head coach Robert Saleh, fresh off their trip to London, where they fell to 2-3 on the season following a 23-17 loss against the unbeaten Vikings.
On the surface, you can make the case for this pretty easily, as Saleh’s 20-36 record since the start of 2021 isn’t the stuff dynasties are made of. Adding insult to injury is the latest loss coming against former Jets top-five pick Sam Darnold, who lit up Saleh’s defense for 275 yards and three touchdowns during the trip overseas.
Saleh never coached Darnold — the Jets dealt the young quarterback to Carolina before drafting Zach Wilson with the No. 2 overall pick in Saleh’s first season — but you can bet owner Woody Johnson didn’t enjoy his former would-be franchise quarterback looking good for someone else against his vaunted defense. The Jets offense under Saleh’s tenure ranks dead last in several major categories, including points scored and offensive EPA.
Yet this is where the move makes little sense: The most underwhelming aspect of the Jets this season is the offense, of which Saleh really doesn’t have his hand in things. When the Jets traded for Aaron Rodgers, the widespread understanding was the team would cater to his desires when it came to personnel decisions and coaching moves.
They’ve done just that. Nathaniel Hackett was hired as offensive coordinator, despite a disastrous tenure as Broncos head coach for less than a full season the year prior.
Allen Lazard was a high-priced free agent, Randall Cobb picked up a payday. The Jets even brought in ex-Packers quarterback Tim Boyle to be Rodgers’ backup.
The defense hasn’t been dominant, but it’s been good enough this season, giving up the fifth-fewest points in the NFL. They’ve held all but one opponent (the 49ers in Week 1) to 23 points or fewer and still find themselves at 2-3 on the year. The offense has topped out at 24 points in Week 2 and Week 3.
Saleh’s defenses, meanwhile, have been strong throughout his entire tenure as well.
The quarterback problem is a big one! Zach Wilson ended up being a bust and Rodgers has not delivered on the expectations created by his trade. But, again, Saleh’s primary job is to coach up the defense, and he did just that.
This is Johnson’s first-ever midseason firing during his 25-year run as primary owner. The timing is odd. The Jets are one game out of first place in the AFC East with a Monday night home matchup against Bills looming in Week 6. Starting 3-3 isn’t ideal, but win on Monday and you’re in first place in a two-horse division, with the Dolphins and Patriots looking like non-factors. New York is the current eighth seed in the AFC. The Chiefs are the only undefeated AFC teams and there’s just one (Houston, at 4-1) with more than three wins. It’s a tight race early in the season.
Should the Jets have lost 10-9 at home to the Broncos? Absolutely not. But a modicum of offense from Hackett and Rodgers in that matchup and this team is sitting pretty as a current playoff team that hasn’t really found its stride on offense.
You can make the case Saleh is far from the league’s best in-game coach, and I don’t have a problem with it. But firing someone this early in the season usually only happens in more, ahem, rare situations. The last coach fired after just five weeks was Matt Rhule, after David Tepper’s frustrations with a 1-4 start by the Panthers boiled over. Darnold, somewhat ironically, was also involved.
Johnson, in a statement released by the team, cited a failure to meet expectations for the first mid-year coaching change for the Jets since Lou Holtz resigned with a game left in the 1976 season.
“This morning, I informed Robert Saleh that he will no longer serve as the Head Coach of the Jets. I thanked him for his hard work these past three-and-a-half years and wished him and his family well moving forward. This was not an easy decision, but we are not where we should be given our expectations, and I believe now is the best time for us to move in a different direction,” Johnson said.
“Jeff Ulbrich will serve as our Interim Head Coach for the remainder of the season. He is a tough coach who has the respect of the coaches and players on this team. I believe he along with the coaches on this staff can get the most out of our talented team and attain the goals we established this offseason.”
It’s impossible to wonder if maybe this was more personal than personnel. Or at least involve Rodgers’ impact on the coaching staff and overall roster. Saleh and Rodgers had at least one camera-captured interaction that led many to wonder if the relationship between coach and quarterback was strained.
This team is going to go as Rodgers goes, and Johnson siding with the star quarterback over the coach with the terrible record wouldn’t be surprising at all. If the blame game was being played in the wake of the Jets loss, and the offense was starting to get fingers pointed at it, it’s easy to imagine how this power struggle would go down. The results speak for themselves.
Zero changes on the offensive staff is curious, to say the least. Promoting a defensive coach in Ulbrich to the interim role isn’t a bizarre move, but it is a little odd when you have someone like Hackett with head-coaching experience on the roster. It also seems as if the offensive and defensive sides of the ball will continue to be siloed off, with Rodgers having an immense impact and ultimately some control over the offense.
I guess I just don’t understand what changes about the Jets outside of just moving around some deck chairs. Maybe the offense magically discovers a spark without Saleh running things. The phrase “respect of the coaches and players on this team” from Johnson in that statement implies some sort of fracture within the locker room.
Rodgers will appear on “The Pat McAfee Show” Wednesday for his regular weekly appearance. He won’t take “credit” for the move, obviously, and I expect him to point out “it’s a results business” and “these decisions are made above my head.”
But with the Jets having a long flight home after an embarrassing loss — fueled by a Rodgers pick six and sealed by another interception — it might have given Johnson too much time to think, too much time to talk with other members of the organization and the genesis of change at the highest on-field-product level.
Time will tell if it was the right move or if making this move in Week 5 was the right call. But it certainly makes clear who holds the power inside the Jets building.
