Jets Have Their First Big Shakeup Under Interim Head Coach Jeff Ulbrich

New York Jets owner Woody Johnson fired former head coach Robert Saleh because he wanted to shake things up and inject new life into the 2-3 club that still has playoff aspirations despite not having won a game in nearly a month.

Saleh was 20-36 in three-plus seasons in New York, and the team never made the playoffs, never had a winning season and never won more than seven games.

His temporary successor, defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, made his first big decision as interim head coach, stripping offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett of offensive play-calling duties and assigning that role to quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator Todd Downing, per multiple reports.

The change is one that Saleh reportedly was about to make the morning he was fired.

Through five games with Hackett calling plays, the Jets ranked 27th in total offense (286.6 yards per game), 19th in passing offense (206.2 yards per game), last in rushing offense (80.4 yards per game) and 25th in scoring offense (18.6 points per game).

Benching Hackett from play-calling has been a long time coming. It was noted several times during training camp last season that quarterback Aaron Rodgers would audible out of plays Hackett called in, and it was also reported during the offseason that the Jets wanted to hire someone to oversee the offense as a whole and supersede Hackett as the play-caller (there were reports the person targeted was former Atlanta Falcons head coach and current Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.)

New York even experimented during mandatory mini-camp with having Downing call plays during two-minute drills. It’s a role Downing isn’t unfamiliar with, having called plays in each of his three previous seasons as an offensive coordinator with the Tennessee Titans (2021-22) and Las Vegas Raiders (2017).

Related: Aaron Rodgers Gives Blessing To Jets' Offensive Changes: 'I'm On Board'