Where Does ESPN Rank Jets Coaching Staff?

The New York Jets won’t publicly admit to having a playoff mandate . But make no mistake, another fruitless regular season will be head coach Robert Saleh’s last in New York.

Perhaps that’s not fair to one of the league’s most effective defensive minds. Saddled by poor quarterback play, Saleh’s teams have always been held back, tied down by rudderless offenses acting only to irritate fans and defensive talents alike. But can he be absolved of blame?

Simply put, the results haven’t been there. But on the brink of a highly-anticipated 2024 season – one with a real quarterback under center – it’s worth taking an extended look at the men wearing the headsets.

ESPN recently ranked the league’s coaching staffs , on the basis of which coaches would be preferred in a vacuum. Saleh isn’t entirely tied down by his record, nor is he put on a pedestal for his prowess in stopping the pass.

Saleh and his staff – offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich – land at No. 19.

“You need all 11 players on this defense to be hyper-specific in their communication and route recognition, and the Jets are,” Ben Solak wrote. “You need all 11 players on this defense to play at high speed and tackle consistently in space, and the Jets do.

“And over the past few seasons, specifically for the Jets, they have needed to retain that concentration and intensity despite the fact their offense is repeatedly shooting itself in the foot. That Saleh has kept this defense on task despite the travesty they've endured on offense is nothing short of a miraculous feat.”

Defense can be inconsistent year-over-year. Between injury luck, turnover regression, and constant offensive innovation, the league’s best defenses can quickly be rendered average – spoiling the investments made in their honor.

In 2022, the Jets ranked sixth in expected points added per play on defense and third in success rate. A year later, they ranked third and second in those marks, respectively.

New York is stacked with defensive talent, but that doesn’t have to be a knock on him, either. Linebacker Quincy Williams was a castaway who turned into an All-Pro talent. Slot corner Michael Carter II emerged from the middle of Day 3. Few coaches find and cultivate talent better than Saleh on this side of the ball, evidenced by three undrafted free agents making the 53-man roster on the defensive line.

However, he isn’t just presiding over the defense. And the Jets’ offense has been comically bad and unnecessarily dramatic. To an extent, that falls on Saleh.

“Now, onto that nightmare of an offense,” Solak continued. “Saleh deserves blame for not moving on from Zach Wilson sooner -- both as QB1 and as QB2 -- but I can't put too much of that on his plate. The big knock I will deliver is the hiring of Hackett, which was a kowtowing to Aaron Rodgers as the real decision-maker in New York. Hackett is not an imposing offensive mind, and he drags this coaching staff down in my rankings accordingly.”

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By season’s end, Saleh will have gone through four campaigns in the sport’s biggest market. Dealing with controversy, tragedy, hype, and everything in between.

And yet, like so much of New York’s fate, it feels like Rodgers is in control of it.

From defensive mastermind to the conductor of a clown show, Saleh has held several titles as head coach. But not making the playoffs with this roster and this quarterback would nullify any of the goodwill he’s earned since his introductory press conference.