The Jets, who live in the past more than any team we have in New York and perhaps more than any team anywhere, are once again a concept out of the past: The Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Clown College. That is who they so often are and where they are again under Woody Johnson, one of the worst and weakest owners we’ve ever had around here. But as the Jets fire another coach, this one in-season, at least Woody’s team still leads the league in desperation. Really, the Jets are the GOATs of only one thing, and that’s scapegoating.
You know who the lucky one here is? Robert Saleh, who doesn’t work for the Jets any longer. He must feel as if he just got a full pardon over there in Jersey from Gov. Phil Murphy.
And now that Saleh goes, the Jets better win some games, starting next Monday night against the Bills, or the general manager, Joe Douglas, will be the next one out the door when this season is over, followed by Aaron Rodgers. You would say that the Jets mortgaged their future on Rodgers but, come on, what future?
You thought that Rodgers being lost for the season on Opening Night a year ago was the most Jets thing that had ever happened. But that injury was an accident. It is the Jets who are always an accident waiting to happen.
Does this mean they can’t make the playoffs under Jeff Ulbrich, the interim head coach (and, really, shouldn’t they all be called interims over in Florham Park?)? It doesn’t. If they do gather themselves and rouse themselves and manage to beat the Bills, they will be tied with them for first place in the AFC East, in an AFC where only the Chiefs and Ravens look to be worth anything, at least so far.
You would say that Johnson and Douglas went into a full panic after the Jets went to 2-3 against the Vikings, and after the way they looked against the Broncos in the rain the Sunday before that. But these are the Jets. They go from one panic attack after another under Woody Johnson, a pluperfect example of the old Parcells line, about people who don’t know whether a football is blown up or stuffed.
Nobody is suggesting that Robert Saleh was some sort of head coaching giant. It may turn out that he is nothing more than a career coordinator. Or he may go somewhere else, the way Todd Bowles did after the Jets bagged him, and show that maybe the problem wasn’t him after all, it was the Jets. But ask yourself a question today:
If Rodgers, looking like Gramps on that last throw against the Vikings, hadn’t thrown a front-shoulder throw to the Stephon Gilmore instead of the back-shoulder throw to Mike Williams he was trying to make – who’s coaching the Jets today? Rodgers and his hand-picked offensive coordinator, Nathaniel (Can’t) Hackett did a lot more to lose that game in London than Robert Saleh did, on a day when Saleh’s defense had mostly shut down what had been one of the best offenses in the league so far this season.
These are the Jets. They fall in love with Sam Darnold and take him with the third overall pick in the draft and then they fall out of love with Darnold and before long the owner and the general manager have fallen head-over-heels in love with Zach Wilson, and they are taking Wilson with the second overall pick in the draft. Then they gave up on Wilson as fast as they’d given up on Darnold and before you know it, in their endless and flop-sweat desperate search for – bow your heads – the Next Namath, they were swinging the deal for 39-year old Aaron Rodgers.
So they were once again going into their quarterback past and trading for an aging Green Bay legend the way they did with Brett Favre, who played one season for the Jets the way Rodgers may end up playing one season for the Jets. The Jets went 9-7 with Favre. Let’s see if they beat nine wins with Rodgers now that Woody and Joe Douglas have saved the Jets and their fans from Robert Saleh, and given so many Jets fans the scapegoat they craved. Maybe if they were being totally honest about the state of the franchise, they would have officially named Rodgers the head coach.
Always remember, when just reviewing the way the Jets have looked so far, and particularly the way they have looked on offense, that Johnson went on television before the Jets opener said this:
“I’ve been doing this for 25 years now, and I know I’ve never had a team like this. The team is complete.”
So the guy was as on top of things as he’s ever been. Woody must think that the Jets having had 11 offensive coordinators on his watch somehow happened in a vacuum. No wonder Bill Belichick bailed out as HC of the NYJ and was on his way out the door as Woody was originally coming through it.
You know who made perfect sense on ESPN on Tuesday morning, after the news about Saleh broke? It was Marcus Spears, who said, “This was never Robert Saleh’s football team.”
It wasn’t. Saleh gets fired, anyway, for somebody else’s team. He gets fired by an owner who said he’s never had a team like this Jets team. He gets fired for Douglas, who sold out on Zach Wilson before they all sold out on Rodgers, and who clowned up the Hasson Reddick deal. Mostly Saleh gets fired for an offense run by Nathaniel Hackett, a coordinator only the quarterback wanted.
That quarterback still says the Jets can make a run. Maybe they still can. Maybe they would have made it under Saleh. We’ll never know. All we know is that the Jets draft a new coach now instead of a new quarterback. Same Old Jets. Emphasis on the old, now more than ever.
