THE COLLAPSE OF THE NY JETS
Collapse of the NY Jets
The New York Jets were hotly tipped to be Super Bowl Contenders this year. They have one of the best defences in the League, star studded players like Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson, they even traded for the now injured, Aaron Rodgers. Things haven’t quite panned out how Jets fans would’ve hoped for.
There’s no doubt that the Rodgers injury may have derailed their season but let’s take a deeper dive into the Jets and the coaching staff behind them.
Bar, quarterback, the Jets are stacked in basically every position. Obviously, the QB is the most important position on the field, evident by how the Jets can’t get anything going at the moment with Zach Wilson at the helm. But at what point do we start pointing fingers at the Jets coaching staff?
Let’s start with Robert Salah. Former defensive coordinator for the 49ers, we know his story, he is one of the best defensive minds in the league. Has he got what it takes to be a Head Coach though?
Most people have watched Hard Knocks, its’s hard to dislike Saleh. He’s relaxed and seems like he knows what he’s doing. Something isn’t quite clicking with the Jets, there seems to be a lack of passion from the players and Saleh. Obviously, everyone wants to win, but show us, show us how much it means. You’ve lost your star QB, fine. This season isn’t over, fight to the very end, it’s what the Jets fans deserve.
Saleh’s lack of passion isn’t the only part of him that can be questioned. He doesn’t have the attitude that a normal Head Coach has. Look at Andy Reid, John Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin, they command respect and make the tough decisions.
Saleh is a great leader of men, no question, but is he the Head Coach? There’s a lot of rumors going around that Saleh sees himself as one of them, like he’s no different to the players on the team, ‘one of the boys.’
You wouldn’t catch any of the top coaches dead doing something like that. Could you imagine Belichick as ‘one of the boys’? There’s a reason teams coached by the top coaches always win and it’s not because they’re chummy with their players. They create a separation. I’m the coach, you’re the player.
Everyone around the league loves Saleh, but there’s speculation that in the Jets, the players are calling the shots. Saleh isn’t their head coach, but more of a face that is just occupying the position. Perhaps, Saleh’s likeability comes from him being a pushover and letting the players have their own input as a team instead of making some of the tougher decisions for himself.
This is Saleh’s third season as Jets Head Coach, he has a .324-win percentage and a 12-25 record. Considering the team he has, this isn’t good enough. There’s plenty of teams out there who can manage to win games without a decent quarterback. The Falcons are sitting at 2-1 and might be favorites for their division, they have Desmond Ridder. The Cardinals are rolling out with Joshua Dobbs and just beat the Dallas Cowboys. Saleh and the Jets got nothing going against the Cowboys, but the Cardinals could? C’mon now.
As the Head Coach, Saleh is going to receive the brunt of the criticism, but let’s shift the focus to Nathaniel Hackett. Hackett’s been around the league for the past ten years, spending time at Buffalo, Jacksonville and most notably Green Bay as their offensive coordinators.
We all know how Hackett got on last year at Denver as the Head Coach. To quote Sean Payton, it was “one of the worst” jobs he’d ever seen in the NFL. Hackett was sacked after leading the Broncos to an 4-11 record.
Yes, during his time at Green Bay, Hackett and Rodgers became the league’s best scoring offence and he helped Rodgers win back-to-back MVP awards, but how much of that was Rodgers?
The Jets obviously brought Hackett in as their new OC to tempt Rodgers into making the switch to New York, and it worked. It’s a small sample size but we’ve seen that without Rodgers, Hackett is not a good coach. He can’t get anything going offensively. He’s blessed with Breece Hall, Garrett Wilson, even vets like Dalvin Cook and Randall Cobb but still can’t do anything. This season, Hackett could be exposed even more without the help of Rodgers unless he can turn Zach Wilson around.
On the other side of the field, we have Jeff Ulbriich. Ulbrich was hired by Saleh to be his defensive coordinator after being on the Super Bowl Falcons team and briefly being their defensive coordinator in 2020.
This is Ulbrich’s first big-time coordinator job, and he’s been fortunate enough to have one of the best group of players in the league to coach. The Jets defense is by far the highlight of this team. Obviously Ulbrich is a part of this, but sometimes, you can’t coach natural talent, and the Jet’s defense has buckets of natural talent.
Following the Jets recent 15-10 loss to division rivals, the Patriots, Ulbrich was asked if he’d let star cornerback Sauce Gardner roam around because offenses are trying to avoid him. His response was that it wasn’t part of their DNA.
Look, its understandable, they want to stick to what they know and do best. But you have one of the best cornerbacks at your disposal and you’re not even willing to think about scheming something different so he can make more plays? That seems outdated and stubborn if you ask me.
With a defense as good as this, you have to wonder why the Jets are allowing so many yards. Against the Bills and Cowboys, fair enough, they’re top offenses. But the Patriots with Mac Jones should not be putting up 358 total yards against you. The Jets didn’t even sack Mac. It was a poor defensive display, and if Ulbrich doesn’t relax about his need for the Jets to have an identity on defense, this won’t be the last poor defensive display.
There’s a lot of things going wrong right now in the Jets organization. My point being made here is that it’s not all on Zach Wilson or the Aaron Rodgers injury. There are other components here playing a role in the collapse of the Jets and you have to start with the coaching staff.
It’s still early, but if this season continues the way it’s going and Robert Saleh ends on another losing record, is it time for him to get the boot? Or do you give him another year when Rodgers is back.
