Jets fire Head Coach Robert Saleh

Edition #717

Good morning! ☕

You’ve always got time until you don’t.

On Monday Robert Saleh preached patience, on Tuesday he was fired. Jeff Ulbrich was made the interim head coach and Woody Johnson broke precedence by firing a head coach in the middle of the season for the first time in his tenure.

This will be the first time the Jets have made an in-season coaching change since 1976 when Lou Holtz walked away. It does make me wonder why a change was not made in the off-season if Saleh was on this short of a leash. Maybe Woody genuinely believed that Rodgers was the magic elixir to right all the wrongs. But firing Saleh after 5 games seems like a strange decision to me, especially as Saleh was reportedly about to make some moves on the offensive side of the ball, stripping Hackett of his play-calling duties.

Jeff Ulbrich is well respected within the building and his defence has been the stellar unit for the Jets, but can he get the run-game going? Can he ensure the offence is more prepared? Can he make up for the Hackett/Carter deficiencies?

It’s been confirmed that Hackett will remain with the team, and you can guarantee that’s because of the Aaron Rodgers factor. If it was any other QB in football, Hackett would be out the door. If it was any other QB in football, Hackett probably isn’t hired in the first place. But it is and he was, so we’re stuck with him. Like The Buffalo Jets fan said in the most colourful way possible "Just swapping Saleh & Jeff is like changing your shirt because you shit your pants."

Interestingly in his press conference Woody Johnson said this was the most talented Jets team in 25 years and said: "We need to find ways to win. We're not going to find those ways doing the same thing over and over and over." Considering it’s the offence that is letting us down, If you’re going to make a big decision on the HC you probably need to make the interim coach know that changes have to happen on the offensive side of the ball.

Woody said he spoke to Rodgers on Monday night but the decision to fire Saleh wasn’t a conversation point and I’m not sure how much I believe that. If Hackett remains the play-caller I think it’s clear that Rodgers is running this team and considering his performances, that’s a problem.

According to Connor Hughes, Saleh came into the building on Tuesday as expected and the team began their review of Minnesota and prep for Buffalo. People believed Hackett was in trouble considering the pressure on him from within the building over the last few weeks, but nobody saw the Saleh firing coming.

Ulbrich later met with the media and confirmed that the product they’ve been putting out is unacceptable and that there would be a deep dive on the offensive side of the ball. While no title changes are expected, according to report Saleh was going to hand over play-calling duties to Todd Downing and that may still be on the cards.

“I am someone who relates to the players. I am going to bring a level of energy, toughness, grit & authenticity to the job. There has to be an element of change for this team - it’s bigger than me assuming the Head Coaching job.” - Ulbrich

Jordan Schultz then reported that Saleh was not even given a chance to talk to the team, instead he was “escorted out of the building by team security” although this was later largely rebuked by numerous reporters.

This is what happens on a big news day, you get headlines, then you get counter headlines.

Saleh has confirmed that he’ll head off on holiday and spend some time with his family before getting himself ready for the new coaching cycle in the off-season. He will be an in-demand defensive coordinator, nobody has ever disputed his ability on the defensive side of the ball, but I’d be shocked if he got any looks as a Head Coach.

Grab your morning ☕as it’s time for some TJW. Fortunately a lot of the newsletter that I wrote before the news broke is still usable and very relevant.

• Garrett Wilson’s 13 catches tied a 36-year record for most receptions by a Jets receiver in a road game. The last person to do that was Al Toon back in 1998 against the Colts.

• If Wilson records 10 receptions on MNF, he’ll be the first Jet to record back-to-back double-digit receptions since Keyshawn Johnson in 1999.

• Only Aidan Hutchinson (6.5) has more sacks than Will McDonald (6) through the first five weeks of the season. Hutchinson’s sacks have come in 174 pass-rush snaps, whereas McDonald is working at a higher efficiency rate, with his sacks coming on just 111 pass-rush snaps.

• D.J Reed is continuing to play like an All-Star this season, the Jets #2 corner has allowed just 6 catches into his coverage on 18 targets, that’s a 33.3% reception percentage. He’s yet to allow a touchdown but has 4 PBU’s to his name.

• Aaron Rodgers has dropped back to pass 43 times off of play-action but he’s completing just 58.5% of those throws for 1 touchdown and 1 interception.

• Rodgers average time to throw when sacked is just 2.84 seconds, that’s 32nd out of 35 quarterbacks who have taken at least 50 dropbacks. Meaning that most QB’s have a lot more time before they’re sacked. Brock Purdy for example averages 5.05 seconds before he’s sacked. Some of that is the offensive line, some of that may be based on age, as the QB’s ranked lower than Rodgers are Dalton, Cousins and Flacco.

• Do you want to hear a crazy stat, the Jets offensive line is actually ranked as the 7th best unit in terms of pass-blocking efficiency. Their 88.0 is the same as Tampa and bested by only the Colts, Broncos, Ravens, Commanders and Panthers. 16 teams have allowed more sacks. Certainly doesn’t feel that way, but there you go.

• Nobody with 30 targets has a higher drop % than Allen Lazard, who sits at 23.1%, which is higher than Amari Cooper in 2nd (20%) and noticeably higher than Brian Thomas Jr in third (12%). It seems that other teams stop throwing balls to people who have a tendency to drop them. The redemption tour for Lazard has come to a grinding halt, although at least he’s putting points on the board.