The New York Jets fired head coach Robert Saleh following a 2-3 start, six days before a Monday night home game with the Buffalo Bills that would have, and still gives, Gang Green an opportunity to move into first place in the AFC East. Yeah, go figure.
In covering the move, we detailed how two Jets coaches since the club's 1960 founding have left the team with a greater than .500 winning percentage, including six of the seven coaches hired since Woody Johnson purchased the team in January 2000. (The lone exception Al Groh left for Virginia after going 9-7 in 2000, and was already on staff under the previous coach, Bill Parcells.)
So, we have 65 seasons of evidence that no matter who coaches the team, who plays for the team, who runs the team, what the team wears or even its name (the club played its first three seasons as the New York Titans), the Jets have an unshakable stink of losing and dysfunction.
Tuesday was yet another example. Perhaps the greatest example of all.
Saleh had no idea he'd be fired when he showed up for work Tuesday, and in fact planned to make a move himself before he was told to leave.
According to Pro Football Talk, Saleh informed the staff that he was awarding play-calling duties to passing game coordinator Todd Downing and demoting offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett out of the play-calling role. It would be up to Hackett whether he remained on staff in a reduced role or resigned.
And now... not.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich is the Jets' interim head coach, and he said that he'll take a "hard look" at everything on offense.
“We’re gonna take a deep dive on that in the next 36 hours and look at every possibility,” Ulbrich said. “I do not see changes in necessarily titles and positions. As far as responsibilities and the process itself, we’re gonna take a hard look at that.”
Who's going to be involved in that hard look? None other than Aaron Rodgers.
"I have a good relationship with Aaron," Ulbrich told the team's website. "He is, he's one of those guys that has ... he has just unbelievable experience and he's seen this game at the highest level for a long time. So he's a guy with a lot of ideas and really positive feedback about a lot of different things, whether it be meetings, practice, game-planning, scheduling, all of it. So, he will be a vital resource for me in that way, for sure."
Hackett was Rodgers's offensive coordinator in Green Bay from 2019-21. He lasted 15 games as the Denver Broncos' head coach in 2022 before joining the Jets along with Rodgers ahead of the 2023 campaign.
Rodgers, of course, tore his Achilles on the first drive of the Jets' 2023 season, pushing Zach Wilson back into the starting role.
Five games into the 2023 season, Hackett and Wilson produced 93 points. Five games into this season, Hackett and Rodgers have produced... 93 points.
So, if Hackett remains in his role -- and I'd consider that the most likely outcome here, considering Rodgers's involvement -- either the Jets will keep an OC who produced the same amount points with the Denver Broncos' backup quarterback and Aaron Rodgers, or Ulbrich and the Jets have handed equity of the offense to a 40-year-old quarterback coming off an Achilles who's no better than the Broncos backup. Or some combination of the two. (In Sunday's 23-17 loss to Minnesota, Rodgers threw 54 times for 244 yards and three interceptions.)
Either way, we should get a window into where the Jets plan to go next when Rodgers makes his weekly appears on Pat McAfee's show later today.
Oh, and did we mention the Jets play a divisional opponent for first place in the AFC East in five days?
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.