Robert Saleh was unexpectedly fired by the Jets in the fifth game of the season

The Jets surprisingly fired head coach Robert Saleh on Tuesday after a 2-3 start to the season.

Saleh was 20-36 when the Jets coach was five games into his fourth season on the job. The Jets entered the 2024 season with Super Bowl aspirations as quarterback Aaron Rodgers returned from a season-ending injury in 2023.

However, the Jets didn't look good at the start of the season and have lost their last two games. The final straw was a 23-17 loss to the Vikings on Sunday in London, a game in which Aaron Rodgers threw three interceptions and the offense seemed lost for much of the game.

The interim coach will be defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.

“This morning I informed Robert Saleh that he will no longer serve as head coach of the Jets,” owner Woody Johnson said in a statement. “I thanked him for his hard work over the last three and a half years and wished him and his family all the best for the future. This was not an easy decision, but we are not yet where our expectations should be and I believe now is the best time for us to move in a different direction.

“Jeff Ulbrich will be our interim coach for the remainder of the season. He is a tough coach who has the respect of the coaches and players on this team. I believe that, together with the coaches on this team, he can bring out the best in our talented team and achieve the goals we set for ourselves this offseason.”

Saleh's contract, which he signed in 2021, had one year left to run.

This is the first time that Woody Johnson has fired a head coach mid-season, and the first time the Jets have had a mid-season coaching change since 1976, when Lou Holtz resigned.

Saleh's tenure was marked by good defense and terrible quarterback play.

He inherited a team that went 2-14 in 2020 under Adam Gase. The Jets selected quarterback Zach Wilson with the No. 2 overall pick in 2021 and went 4-13 in Saleh's first year. Wilson never advanced and the Jets posted a 7-10 record and lost their final six games of the season in 2022. Toward the end of the season, Wilson was benched for Mike White.

The Jets made the big move and traded for Aaron Rodgers in the spring of 2023, and there were high hopes for Saleh's third season. But Rodgers tore the Achilles tendon in his left leg four games into the season, and the Jets went 7-10 again with Wilson, Tim Boyle and Trevor Siemian at quarterback.

The return of a healthy Rodgers this year raised expectations again.

The Jets lost to the 49ers in Week 1, but bounced back with two wins over the Titans and Patriots, the latter on “Thursday Night Football.”

But then the Jets hit rock bottom with a terrible home loss to the Broncos. The Jets called 15 penalties, 13 of which were accepted, including five false starts. The Jets didn't seem ready to play and the penalties reflected poorly on Saleh. After the game, Saleh appeared to attribute the false starts to Rodgers' cadence.

The Jets then traveled to London and fell behind the Vikings 17-0 early before recovering and making it a one-score game. They failed when Rodgers threw his third interception of the game on the final series.

That loss certainly angered Johnson, who served as ambassador to the United Kingdom under Donald Trump from 2017 to 2021. It also happened that former Jets first-round pick Sam Darnold played quarterback for the Vikings.

Ulbrich, who has been with the Jets under Saleh since 2021, gets his first shot at proving he can turn the Jets around.

If he doesn't get the job full-time, there are interesting options for next year like former Titans coach Mike Vrabel and former Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who famously resigned as Jets coach 24 years ago without ever playing a game train.