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The New York Jets have fired head coach Robert Saleh following the team’s disappointing 2-3 start to the 2024 season.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the season. The Jets are now the first team to fire a head coach this year.
Given that quarterback Aaron Rodgers seems to have the ultimate say within the organization, it’s unlikely that the decision to axe Saleh happened without Rodgers’ approval, who cut a clearly frustrated figure in the Jets’ loss to the Minnesota Vikings over the weekend.
Rodgers is so influential within the Jets organization that embattled offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett — who was specifically hired to recruit Rodgers to New York — has kept his job despite being widely considered to be overseeing a wildly inept offense.
Hackett is so bad, in fact, that the Jets are no better through five games with Rodgers than they were through five games with Zach Wilson last season: through five games in 2024, the Jets have scored 93 points, which is the same number the scored in 2023 through five games.
Saleh, a former defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, has a 20-26 record as the Jets head coach since being hired in 2021.
“I think they believe that they have a really good team. They think this team, especially in that division, can compete to win the division and it wasn’t performing the way that everybody expected,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter said of Saleh’s firing on First Take.
“Woody Johnson didn’t want to squander what could potentially be the last year of Aaron Rodgers’ career. We don’t know if we’ll see Aaron Rodgers again.”
Rodgers and the Jets will look to get their record back up to .500 when they host the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football on October 14. If the Jets win that game, they’ll take over first place in the AFC East.
Rodgers to Saleh pic.twitter.com/l72mV6p9MA
— Tone Digs (@ToneDigz) October 8, 2024