The New York Jets have already found their replacement for Robert Saleh after firing the embattled head coach Tuesday morning.
Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich will take up the head coaching duties and lead the floundering franchise for the remainder of the season, New York announced.
Saleh was fired as head coach of the New York Jets after Sunday’s defeat to the Minnesota Vikings – just five games into his fourth season with the franchise.
The dismissal came as little surprise with the Jets enduring a miserable start to the NFL season despite star quarterback Aaron Rodgers being back to full health.
Now, owner Woody Johnson has already found the man he seemingly believes can steady the ship. The team announced that defensive coordinator Ulbrich would be taking charge ahead of the Jets’ next game against the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium Monday.
Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich (L) will take up the head coaching duties in New York
Robert Saleh has been fired as head coach of the New York Jets after their latest defeat
It was initially announced that the 47-year-old would serve as interim head coach but Johnson later confirmed that the coordinator would be at the helm for the entire season – despite 15 weeks still remaining.
‘Jeff Ulbrich will serve as our Interim Head Coach for the remainder of the season,’ Johnson said in a statement shared by the team an hour after the news of Saleh’s dismissal broke.
‘He is a tough coach who has the respect of the coaches and players on this team. I believe he along with the coaches on this staff can get the most out of our talented team and attain the goals we established this offseason.’
Ulbrich joined the Jets in 2021 when Saleh took over as head coach after previously serving as the Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.
He has led strong defensive units, despite Saleh’s 20-36 record, with the Jets ranking last in the NFL in yards allowed per game in his first season in New York.
Ulbrich played 10 seasons as a linebacker in the NFL with the 49ers from 2000-09 after being selected in the third round by San Francisco following a college career in Hawaii.
Owner Woody Johnson announced that Ulbrich would take charge of the floundering franchise
The defensive coordinator joined the Jets in 2021 when Saleh took over as head coach
Just days on from that loss to Minnesota in London – where he controversially wore a Lebanon flag on the sidelines – Saleh was relieved of his duties in New York.
Saleh, who became the NFL’s first ever Muslim-American head coach when he joined the Jets in 2021, departs with a dismal 20-36 record after failing to make the playoffs in each of his three full seasons.
The Lebanese-American went through six different starting quarterbacks in his time at MetLife; with Rodgers coming after Zach Wilson, Mike White, Trevor Siemian, Tim Boyle and Joe Flacco.
His firing on Tuesday marks the very first time Johnson has dropped the axe on a head coach in the middle of a season in his 25 years as owner. The last head coach the Jets had to replace mid-season was Lou Holtz back in 1976.
There were high hopes for the Jets in the 2024 season with Rodgers back to full fitness, following the nightmare Achilles injury he suffered four snaps into his debut last term.
Yet even with the four-time MVP available, they have struggled for form in the first five games of the campaign, including in a disastrous 10-9 home loss to the Broncos.
And while Sunday’s shortcoming against the 5-0 Vikings was by no means as humiliating, Johnson has ultimately decided Saleh is not the right man to take his team forward.
The 47-year-old played 10 seasons as a linebacker in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers
The Jets ranking last in the NFL in yards allowed per game in his first season in New York
According to NFL insider Jordan Schultz, his dismissal as head coach has taken New York players by surprise, particularly those on the defense.
Saleh is understood to have arrived at the team’s practice facility for business as usual before he was informed of the shock decision taken by Jets owners.
In what proved his final game with the team, he also sparked controversy at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium by wearing a Lebanese flag below the Nike logo on the sleeve of his hoodie.
The night before Sunday’s game – the first of the NFL’s international fixtures in the British capital this season – Israeli bombing continued on Beirut, the Lebanese capital, amid the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut was hit by more than 30 strikes overnight, which were heard across the city, with smoke still seen billowing from the site after dawn, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said.
Saleh, who is of Lebanese heritage, previously wore a similar patch last October but his decision to bear the flag Sunday raised eyebrows as the anniversary of the beginning of the war in Gaza approaches.
With the team 2-3 this season, Saleh has reportedly been relieved of his duties in New York
The Jets have endured a miserable start despite Aaron Rodgers being back to full health
His relationship with Rodgers had also been under the microscope early on this season, with the pair appearing to have a tense moment on the sidelines during their convincing blowout victory over the New England Patriots last month.
After their subsequent loss to the Broncos, radio host Boomer Esiason, who played with the Jets between 1993 and 1995, claimed there was a ‘major issue’ between the team’s star quarterback and its coach.
‘I try to watch to see if I see any interactions (between Rodgers and Saleh) on the sideline or anything – nothing, nothing. I see a guy walking right past another guy,’ he began on WFAN’s Boomer and Gio show.
‘I had those days with two coaches in particular, and it’s because I didn’t trust the guy, and I didn’t like the guy. I didn’t (know) what he was doing and it p***ed me off. And if you read my body language in those days… you could tell that I was p***ed off.
‘And when I see Aaron Rodgers on the sideline and I see him after the game in the postgame press conference… there is a major issue there. Both will deny it, I guarantee it, but there is an issue there. And it’s because you have this 40-year-old Hall of Fame quarterback to be dealing with a coach that I think he doesn’t respect.’
Jets head coach Robert Saleh sparked controversy by wearing a Lebanese flag on his sleeve
Rodgers and Saleh appeared to have a tense moment in Week 3 but Rodgers played it down
Esiason’s comments came after an awkward answer from Rodgers in his postgame press conference regarding Saleh’s comments on the team’s pre-snap cadences.
After the Jets had five false starts against Denver, Saleh questioned whether his team was ‘good enough’ to handle the current pre-snap cadence. But Rodgers appeared to take issue with the suggestion it needed to be ‘dialed back’.
‘That’s one way to do it. The other way is to hold them accountable,’ he said. ‘We haven’t had an issue… until this.’
