Report: New York Jets fire head coach Robert Saleh

The New York Jets fired head coach Robert Saleh, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. New York fell to the Minnesota Vikings Sunday 23-17 in London.

The Jets latest loss dropped them to 2-3 and there were more questions as the team returned from overseas. New York is back in action Monday night, hosting their AFC East foes, the Buffalo Bills.

Saleh finished his tenure with the Jets 20-36 after three-plus seasons. Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich will take over as interim head coach, per Schefter and NFL Network’s Pete Schrager.

“I think that they believe that they have a really good team,” Schefter said. “I think that they think this team, especially in that division, can compete to win the division, and it wasn’t performing the way that everybody expected. If we watch this team, everybody would admit every Jet fan, it looked off. They lost at home to Denver. They lost to Minnesota. What’s odd is, in this day and age, in the National Football League, there are peaks and valleys to every team season.

“Everybody goes through them, but with the pressure in New York, I just feel like they felt like this is a team that should be performing better, winning more often, and Woody Johnson didn’t want to squander what could potentially be the last year of Aaron Rodgers career.”

Robert Saleh fired by New York Jets

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw three interceptions in a loss to the Vikings Sunday, overshadowing some early signs the Jets would turn it around in 2024. Rodgers missed the entire 2024 season due to a torn Achilles.

Still, the Jets had a chance to win it in the end, but Minnesota picked off Rodgers to deny New York a third win.

“You’re always going to find silver linings after a loss, we are not ready to talk about them right now, but I do appreciate the way that our guys continued to battle,” Saleh said postgame. “They fought throughout and gave ourselves a chance. We were right there with a chance to go score a touchdown at the end of the game to win it and unfortunately that didn’t happen.”

Saleh became the Jets’ head coach in 2021 after spending four seasons as the San Francisco 49ers’ defensive coordinator. However, Saleh’s New York tenure was marred by poor offense, led by former No. 2 overall pick, QB Zach Wilson.

While his defenses continually got better, it seemed the Jets would turn around in 2023 by landing Rodgers. Saleh’s team managed a 7-10 record despite not having its future Hall of Fame quarterback and having arguably the worst offense in the league.