Robert Saleh quite obviously entered the 2024 NFL season on the hot seat. Tuesday morning, the New York Jets hit his eject button.
Following a highly disappointing 2-3 start − and what appeared to be ongoing friction with superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers – team owner Woody Johnson had seen enough, and Saleh became the first head coach in the league fired this season.
‘This morning, I informed Robert Saleh that he will no longer serve as the Head Coach of the Jets,’ Johnson said in a statement. ‘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.
‘(Defensive coordinator) 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.’
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Thus ends another disappointing tenure for an NYJ coach, Saleh finishing with a 20-36 record in three-plus seasons.
Despite consistently good defenses, the bread and butter for a longtime NFL assistant and coordinator, Saleh, 45, was undone by long-chronic quarterback issues – first Zach Wilson, the No. 2 pick of the 2021 draft who was a near-total bust, and Rodgers. The four-time MVP kindled fresh Super Bowl hopes for the franchise upon being acquired from the Green Bay Packers in 2023. But after last year’s Week 1 Achilles injury ended Rodgers’ season after four snaps, this season’s turbulent start was apparently too much for Johnson, who said during the offseason that he expected major results in 2024, to bear.
Despite another fourth-quarter opportunity to win, the Jets lost their second straight game Sunday to the Minnesota Vikings in London, the Rodgers-led offense noticeably struggling after showing progress in Weeks 2 and 3. But the quarterback’s timing with receivers has obviously been off, Rodgers has taken too many hits lately, and the run game – despite the presence of explosive back Breece Hall – ranks last in the league with 80.4 yards per game. Those cascading issues have fueled growing speculation that GM Joe Douglas could (and should) trade for unhappy Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams, a Pro Bowler five times during the eight seasons he spent with Rodgers as his quarterback for the Packers.
But Saleh, whose defense has ranked in the top five each of the past three seasons, ultimately took the fall. He and Rodgers consistently defended their relationship – answering questions about matters like their sideline interactions and whether Rodgers’ famous pre-snap cadence was compromising offensive rhythm.
‘(W)e’re really good friends. We enjoy each other,’ Rodgers said of Saleh as recently as Friday.
‘We spend time with each other almost every day in his office talking about things and the energy of the team, the focus of the team, what we need to get done, how I can help him out, how he can help me out, so we got a great relationship.’
Yet that answer ultimately didn’t erase speculation that the 10-time Pro Bowler had at least as much influence at Jets headquarters as his now-former coach, nor did it produce a win that might have saved Saleh’s job.
“We have all this talent, and we have to deploy talent properly. … This is it. This is the time to go. We’ve got to produce this year,” Johnson said February during Super Bowl week, following Saleh’s second consecutive 7-10 campaign.
“We have to do a lot better than seven (victories), definitely.”
Prior to Tuesday, Johnson had never switched coaches during a season since he bought the Jets in 2000. The last time the NYJ needed an interim coach was 1976, when Lou Holtz resigned following a 3-10 start before taking the head job at the University of Arkansas.
‘(T)he NFL is built for chaos. Either the sky is falling, or you’ve got Super Bowl aspirations, there’s no in between anymore,’ Saleh said Monday in what turned out to be his final news conference.
‘The reality is what the standings look like now are going to be completely different at the end of the season. There’s so much football to be played. There’s so much, so many things that we can get better at and there’s so many things that we can continue to build on, the things that we are doing well. So, I’m not panicked, nobody in the building is panicked.’
The Jets haven’t won more than seven games since 2015, when they went 10-6. They last reached the playoffs in 2010, their 13-season absence the NFL’s longest active one. Their only Super Bowl appearance occurred following the 1968 season, when the upstart AFL team, led by brash quarterback Joe Namath, shocked the NFL’s heavily favored Baltimore Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl 3, widely considered as one of the most important games in the history of pro football.
But these Jets suddenly don’t seem much closer to ending the franchise’s championship drought.
(This story has been updated to include new information and video.)
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Woody Johnson statement
Jets’ record with Robert Saleh
After being hired in 2021, Saleh went 20-36 as the Jets’ head coach.
2021: 4-13
2022: 7-10
2023: 7-10
2024: 2-3
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