The New York Jets have fired head coach Robert Saleh, NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero first reported Tuesday morning. According to NFL Network’s Peter Schrager, defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich will assume duties as interim head coach.
Saleh, 45, was in his fourth season as the team’s head coach. Over that duration, he went 20-36 (.357), the 21st-worst record amongst coaches in NFL History (min. 50 games) and the second-worst amongst active coaches, with the only worse one being Dennis Allen (26-49).
He never won more than seven games in his brief tenure, going 7-10 each of the last two seasons after going 4-13 in his first year. The quarterback play during his time in New York was nothing short of incompetent, but New York got off to a slow 2-3 start this year under 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers.
Poor quarterback play will generate bad results, which in turn gets head coaches fired. Sometimes, it isn’t as simple as that, but for Saleh–in addition to poor decision-making and the lack of adjustments–solving the quarterback issue was the biggest problem.
Ulbrich has been the team’s defensive coordinator over the last four seasons after being a DC and linebackers coach in Atlanta. The Jets have been remarkable defensively under Ulbrich’s watch, finishing first in EPA/play and third in success rate since taking over. Generating those results with how much strain’s been on the defensive to keep the Jets in games is quite impressive.
Now, he will lead this group for the remainder of the season before a new voice possibly enters the building.
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