The New York Jets have fired head coach Robert Saleh, making him the first coach to lose his job during the 2024 NFL season. The move comes just four days after Saleh told reporters in the UK to “jump on the [Jets] bandwagon,” because it was going to get full.
Sadly for Saleh and the Jets the bandwagon broke a wheel, crashed into a pile of horse manure, before bursting into flames — sending the fumes of smoldering feces into nearby counties. New York was close on the scoreboard to the Vikings in London, but the game felt anything like it. Aaron Rodgers played one of the worst games of his career, the offense never found a rhythm, and it brought the team’s record to 2-3 on the season.
The job now falls to defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, who has been named as the interim head coach. Ulbrich was the smartest decision the Jets could have made based on their coaching staff, avoiding the obvious mistake of having Rodgers’ friend Nathaniel Hackett take over.
As for Saleh, it’s a crushing end to a disappointing era. Widely viewed as a home-run hire in 2021, Saleh came to New York hot off the heels of a Super Bowl run with the San Francisco 49ers where he served as defensive coordinator. One of the most coveted coaches on the market, the belief was that Saleh could bring back the hard-nosed defense the team built its identity on.
What followed was crushing mediocrity. Saddled to quarterback Zach Wilson from start, the Jets were an offensive mess that couldn’t be corrected through defense. Then, with the decision to pull the plug are trade for Aaron Rodgers the belief was that the team would contend for a Super Bowl — but now the Jets are locked in the same mediocrity they have been for the better part of their franchise history.
This is Aaron Rodgers’ team now, for better and worse. Time will tell if Ulbrich has the ability to pull the team out of its tailspin, or whether Saleh was just a scapegoat for the failures of the team’s aging quarterback.
