Fellow coaches and agents have advised some NFL coaching candidates in years past to turn down a head coaching interview or job offer from the Jets.
This was before Aaron Rodgers came here. This was because the organization did not and does not foster a winning environment.
The Jets are reliably unreliable. Their instability and frequent losing derails careers, so plenty of people — including some players — stay away.
Owner Woody Johnson, GM Joe Douglas, coach Robert Saleh and the rest of the Jets organization managed to assemble a pretty talented roster nevertheless the past couple years, including a ferocious defense that was Saleh’s calling card.
This created hope that the ‘same old Jets’ were morphing into a contender, especially once they added the three-time MVP Rodgers.
How naive anyone was to believe that. Of course the Jets would mismanage the situation, ordain and enable an aging quarterback, undercut the entire 2023 season by retaining No. 2 overall pick Zach Wilson one more year, trade for an elite pass rusher (Haason Reddick) this offseason but refuse to pay him enough to get in the building, and fire Saleh five games into his first full season with a healthy Rodgers.
Of course Johnson fired Saleh two days after the Jets lost to the 5-0 Vikings in London because Rodgers played poorly — and not long after Saleh and Rodgers created a mountain out of a molehill by discussing the quarterback’s cadence and the coach’s accountability measures publicly.
No one is standing here saying Saleh is without blame. He was actually on borrowed time given the free-for-all the Jets’ building became towards the end of recent seasons when they fell out of playoff contention and accountability was an afterthought.
His defense was his specialty, though, and the Jets rank fifth in points allowed per game (17.9) and second in yards allowed (255.8) as he packs up his office.
The bigger picture question Saleh’s firing creates is, who exactly will be both willing and able to take this job now?
The Jets’ toxic dynamic would seem to rule out the most attractive, up-and-coming coaching candidates.
The likes of Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, Houston Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores and New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak are young, promising candidates looking for an environment where they can turn their career momentum into sustainable success that continues their upward trajectory.
They’re not looking to step on a land mine. And they’d presumably prefer to build with their own young quarterback rather than inheriting one already set in his ways and at the end of his career.
If Rodgers is on this roster in 2025, would he answer to any of those coaches as the true boss? He and Matt LaFleur eventually made it work for a time in Green Bay, but it took time and it wasn’t easy. And that’s not an organization with the unstable infrastructure and unreasonable expectations of the Jets.
The stress and risk of taking this job in 2025, understanding how much there is to lose if Rodgers isn’t happy and the team isn’t winning, will deter some of those strong candidates.
It feels like, instead, the Jets would be pulling from the two opposite extremes of the coaching candidate spectrum: the established, retread veterans who could put Rodgers in check, and the little-known young risers who are just happy to be there and have no reason to say no to any job.
Bill Belichick and Mike Vrabel, for example, would enter the Jets’ building in Florham Park, N.J., with no mystery about who was actually running the team. If Rodgers undermined them publicly or privately, it would not fly. There would be consequences.
Would Rodgers welcome that 360-degree accountability, though? Or would that disqualify those coaches from the job?
Johnson apparently fired Saleh now because he is trying to capitalize on what he believes is a contending 2024 team before it’s too late. So should he hand Belichick a blank check immediately and pull him off all those television sets midseason?
He can get a head start if he wants.
If not, Rodgers’ presence might mean the Jets’ most likely candidate would be a lesser-known coach who is going to implement the Jets’ and quarterback’s preferences with minimal resistance.
The way the Jets hired Rodgers friend to be the team’s offensive coordinator Nate Hackett. The way Dave Canales took the Carolina Panthers’ job in a dysfunctional organization after one strong season as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator. That’s the other direction Johnson and the Jets might have to go here.
Retaining interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich as the full-time head coach next season would be another version of avoiding a big-time splash hire that threatens Rodgers’ and the Jets’ current dynamic.
Ulbrich could be a way to keep the strong defense on track while maintaining the status quo power dynamic in the organization.
Would Belichick want this Jets job? That has to be the first question answered here.
The man who once scribbled that he was resigning as the “HC of the NYJ” on a piece of loose-leaf before his introductory press conference would send shockwaves through the league if he returned to this organization of all places.
It might depend on whether he agrees with Johnson’s assessment of this Jets team being a contender. They do have more talent than some of the other teams that project to have head coaching vacancies after this season, but the Jets’ precedent is that they always find a way to get it wrong.
That’s what they did here: they got a lot wrong. Everyone is watching, and that begs the question: Who in their right mind will believe they have what it takes to fix this?
