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Rich Cimini, ESPN Staff Writer
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — New York Jets center Connor McGovern was within earshot of Robert Saleh on the sideline when the coach received the crushing news from a medical staffer that Aaron Rodgers had torn his Achilles tendon. McGovern wasn’t sure if he heard it correctly. Or maybe he just didn’t want to believe it.
“Then I saw the look on Saleh’s face,” McGovern said, “and that confirmed my eavesdropping was right.”
Saleh’s expression went from anguish to a blank stare as he processed the season-altering moment. Who loses their starting quarterback only four plays into the season? It was quintessential Same Old Jets.
Dazed by the loss of his future Hall of Fame quarterback, Saleh regained his composure and made sure his team did the same. It took a few games to settle down, but here they are, still contending at 3-3, only 1 1/2 games out of first place in the AFC East. Forty games into his Jets’ tenure — a period marked by extreme lows and flashes of tantalizing promise — Saleh might be doing his best coaching.
With backup quarterback Zach Wilson running the offense — the same Wilson who was in such a mental funk last season that he was demoted from starter to third string — Saleh has the Jets positioned for a possible playoff run. He did last season, too, but they hit a big, green wall at 7-4 and finished with a six-game losing streak, setting up 2023 as a potential make-or-break year for him.
Trying to avoid a repeat of last season’s collapse, Saleh used the bye week to self-scout. Specifically, he re-evaluated the daily schedule and practice regimen, looking for subtle ways to help the team for its 11-week run to the finish line.
“There are a lot of things I look at from an inward standpoint, like what could I have done better from a scheduling standpoint to help our guys stay fresh? What could we have done from a practice standpoint to help our guys stay healthy?” he said.
In retrospect, Saleh believes he may have eased up too much last season to the point “where it just kind of fizzled away.” In his first year, trying to establish his program, he “stayed on the gas and we did improve as the year went on” even though the record (4-13) didn’t reflect that. The trick is finding a happy medium. No one wants to reach the homestretch with a burned-out team or a team that has lost its edge, which might have been the case last season. Saleh said he’s “trying to be more cognizant of the total human, if you will,” saying the goal is to keep the players mentally fresh for the entire season, not just physically fresh. He said he may have taken the mental aspect for granted last season.
Saleh would be a candidate for Coach of the Year if he could end the franchise’s 12-year playoff slump with Rodgers on the sideline; this is a wonderful opportunity to silence his critics.
The Jets are 14-26 under Saleh, who missed one game (a win in 2021) due to a bout with COVID-19. Based on the old Bill Parcells grading system — “You are what your record says you are” — Saleh is a struggling coach.
Since hiring Saleh in 2021, the Jets are 28th in winning percentage (.350), one spot below the New York Giants (.378), whom they face Sunday at MetLife Stadium (1 p.m. ET, CBS). Of the 18 head coaches with at least 40 games in their current job, only one had a 40-game mark worse than Saleh’s — the Cincinnati Bengals’ Zac Taylor (11-28-1). It should be noted, though, that Taylor reached the Super Bowl in his third season.
That’s the 30,000-foot view, which doesn’t show the nuances of the situation. Walking into a total rebuild, Saleh devoted 2021 to player development and culture-building. Last season yielded mixed results — a three-win improvement, a top-5 defense, but ultimately a disappointing finish due, in part, to Wilson’s regression (29th out of 33 quarterbacks in Total QBR).
That led them to Rodgers, whose arrival fueled Super Bowl expectations. Then, the injury. Then, after a season-opening win, there were two dispiriting losses in a row. The once-promising season appeared to be teetering on the brink, with rumblings of internal strife. Several players credited Saleh’s steady hand as a key reason for the mini-turnaround.
“He’s just very consistent with his message, very consistent with the standard he holds for us as a group,” defensive end Jermaine Johnson said. “It never wavers — loss, win, it doesn’t matter. I think that’s very important for a head coach to have because if you start changing the message, based on different things, it starts getting a little blurry.”
The Jets lost a third straight game, a three-point defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs, but they actually outplayed the defending Super Bowl champions over the final three quarters, 20-6. They’ve now played 11 consecutive quarters of winning football, including a signature win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 6. Suddenly, there’s hope.
Saleh praised the players, saying “character overcomes adversity more than athletes … and we’ve got a group with great character.” One current personnel executive, a former general manager, said Saleh deserves some credit, too, citing his positive energy and team-galvanizing skills. While the executive likes Saleh’s long-term potential, he’d like to see him develop into a well-rounded coach with a better grasp of offense. He’d also like to see more consistency from the team.
“You know what I need to see from him? I need to see him stack some wins — three or four in a row,” the executive said. “Then he’s got my attention. That’s the litmus test for him. If they’ve truly fixed (the offense), if they’ve got it tuned in now, they should be able to stack it up because their defense is always going to keep them in the game.”
After 40 games, the Saleh-coached Jets have produced these positive and negative trends:
• Defensive swagger. Every successful team needs an identity, and Saleh — a defensive-minded coach — has instilled this in the Jets. Cornerback D.J. Reed probably went too far by saying their goal is to eclipse the ’85 Bears as a historically great defense, but his confidence exemplified the unit’s attitude.
While the overall ranking is down from last season (13th in scoring defense), the Jets forced three of the league’s best quarterbacks — Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts — into eight interceptions. The defense is good, and the players know it.
• Quarterback instability. Saleh hasn’t had the same starter for more than seven games in a row. Due to injuries and benchings, he has made nine in-season quarterback changes, making it difficult to establish any sort of continuity on offense. All told, Saleh has started the backup in 17 out of 40 games (5-12). Some of that is bad luck. Some of it can be attributed to the slow-developing Wilson, the No. 2 overall pick in 2021. And some can be blamed on coaching. Saleh replaced most of his offensive staff after last season.
For now, the team has rallied around Wilson, who has elevated his performance the past three games. Saleh said the coaching staff has learned to trust him more, starting with the Kansas City game — and he responded with a career-high 105.2 passer rating. They reinvented their offense on the fly, no easy task after building it around Rodgers.
“We’re not trying to hide Zach at all. We’re letting him play football,” said Saleh, adding the game plans are now designed for “our quarterback we trust.”
• Poor starts, strong finishes. It’s an old bugaboo. Since 2021, the Jets own the league’s worst point differential for the first quarter — minus-101. This doesn’t reflect well on the coaching staff’s preparation. In fact, they’ve trailed at halftime in every game this season.
That’s the downside; the upside is they refuse to quit. Under Saleh, the Jets have seven comeback wins in which they trailed by 10 points or more, tied for the league lead. The disparity on defense is remarkable. This season, they’ve allowed nine touchdowns in the first half, but only one in the second half, illustrating the staff’s ability to adjust.
“I think you have to give Coach Saleh a lot of credit,” tight end Tyler Conklin said. “I think one of the big things is, usually you take on the identity of your leader, your coach. The way he is — his fight and what-not — rubs off on us as a team.”
