Bill Belichick discussed Jets’ head coaching situation, praised passion of fans

"As much as they got on me for a long time, I still respect the Jet fans for their passion for the team."

Given his personal history, Bill Belichick is a qualified analyst to weigh in on the Jets’ recent coaching change.

New York announced earlier this week that head coach Robert Saleh had been fired, a surprising move given the timing even amid a subpar 2-3 start.

Belichick, now in a commentator role for various media platforms in his first season after departing the Patriots, has experience leaving the Jets in surprising circumstances. In 2000, he resigned as “HC of the NYJ” just 24 hours after he was named to be Bill Parcells’ successor in New York. Eventually, Belichick wound up in New England, where he led the Patriots to six Super Bowl wins in 24 seasons (much to the chagrin of his former employer).

In the aftermath of Saleh’s dismissal, one of the more enjoyable longshot rumors even involved a dramatic Belichick return to the Meadowlands.

Yet in a recent appearance on his weekly podcast, “Coach with Bill Belichick,” the former New England head coach seemed to signal his stance on the issue.

Asked why the Jets chose to move on from Saleh after five games as opposed to the end of the 2023 season, Belichick noted that it’s unclear who is calling the shots in New York.

“Yeah, I’m not sure,” he replied. “That would be a good question for the Jets’ decision-makers, whoever that was. I’m not sure if that was [general manager] Joe Douglas, or [owner Woody Johnson], or whoever. It is a little bit puzzling, it is what it is and everybody has to move forward. It’s the owner’s prerogative to make that decision and clearly that’s what he decided to do.

“But there have been a lot of things that are kind of confusing,” Belichick added, “and it hasn’t been a great situation at the Jets this year. You can kind of feel there’s been kind of a chill.”

Co-host Mike Lombardi (a former front office executive who worked under Belichick in both Cleveland and New England) outlined the Jets’ abysmal record in the NFL over the last decade. Since Rex Ryan left New York following the 2014 season, the Jets have won just 34-percent of the team’s games.

“That’s a tough situation,” said Belichick. “It really is. I think when you look at the Jets over the last decade, back to Rex Ryan, [Eric] Mangini, and Adam Gase, and now, there hasn’t been a lot of success. There really hasn’t been a lot of success.”

He pointed to some of the moves that New York has made in recent years have failed, such as draft choices and recent trades (including the bizarre outcome of the Haasan Reddick deal).

Interestingly, Belichick also acknowledged that he watched the 2023 season of HBO’s “Hard Knocks” that featured the Jets.

“There are really just a lot of things that haven’t worked out,” Belichick explained. “It hasn’t all been the coach, certainly there’s ownership, the personnel department, and just I’d say the overall culture. Watching ‘Hard Knocks’ from a year ago, there were a lot of things that just didn’t look quite right there.”

Despite his longtime competition against the Jets, and the circumstances of his departure in 2000, Belichick nonetheless admitted he has “respect” for the team’s fans.

“The Jet fans, as much as they got on me for a long time, I still respect the Jet fans for their passion for the team, even though it hasn’t had a great run here lately,” he said. “They’re always optimistic, they’re very vocal, they’re very passionate, and they have that base. They have that support.”

Belichick theorized that the support would only escalate if the Jets could someday produce a winning team. Still, the coach who led New York’s division rival for so many years admitted he wouldn’t enjoy the Jets as winners.

Reacting to a Lombardi joke, Belichick concurred that a championship Jets team would be “unbearable.”