The Jets are trying to salvage the season by firing Robert Saleh, but this mess raises bigger questions about Woody Johnson

The Jets are currently trying to save their season. And they will do whatever it takes to make it happen, including Tuesday morning's shocking decision to fire coach Robert Saleh after their last disastrous loss – 23-17 to the Vikings on Sunday in London – dropped them to 2-3 in a game They were expected to fight for a playoff spot and more this season.

That appears to be the line of thinking, as owner Woody Johnson explained in a statement after parting ways with Saleh — a decision that almost no one in the organization expected as early as Tuesday morning, according to multiple sources — and naming defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich as his Interim coach.

“This was not an easy decision,” Johnson wrote in a statement. “But we are not yet where we should be meeting our expectations and I think now is the time for us to move in a different direction.”

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And when you look at Saleh's performance as a head coach and executive in isolation, that's an understandable way of thinking. Saleh was between 20 and 36 years old and his team appeared woefully unprepared in the last two games, a theme that continued a trend we've seen throughout Saleh's three-plus years as head coach.

We've begun to see cracks in the unity in the locker room, with defensive star Quincy Williams criticizing the team's lack of accountability following Sunday's loss and quarterback Aaron Rodgers imploring his teammates to “stick together.” Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? So that explains Johnson's decision to fire a coach mid-season for the first time in his 25-year tenure.

On the surface it all sounds so clean and sensible. But this thinking also obscures the truth: Johnson, not Saleh, is the leader of this organization. And this latest garbage truckload of dysfunction — and make no mistake, the Jets are a team in turmoil, with or without Saleh — falls at the feet of no one but him.

Yes, there are others to blame for this mess: Aaron Rodgers' public defense of the team's leadership last week and again less than 48 hours ago seems hard to believe – unless you believe Johnson's decision against him Hit him at the will of his quarterback or without consulting him. Rodgers' hand-picked offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett certainly didn't do Saleh any favors. Where is the responsibility for him?

There's also plenty of room to criticize general manager Joe Douglas' draft and roster decisions – aside from the big haul in the 2022 draft that filled the roster with talent.

But it was Johnson who set this disaster in motion late last year when he decided to keep Saleh and Douglas for 2024 with three games left in the season, even though their three-year partnership had produced no winning seasons or significant progress .

Perhaps a deep dive into what went wrong in a disastrous 2023 season would have made the Jets realize they needed to make the same changes they are making now, and that they could have avoided this disaster. But we'll never know because Johnson didn't do that. Dodging weeks of questions about Saleh's job security seemed more important to him than doing what was best for the team.
And that seems to be the bigger problem here. Is winning and being a functioning organization the most important thing? Or is it about winning the battle and convincing everyone else that they don't see the dysfunctional mess that's right in front of them?

Maybe this move will save the Jets' season and end the longest playoff drought in North American sports at 13 seasons. But for now, the Jets' results under Johnson speak for themselves.