He lost his quarterback four plays into the season. He didn’t exactly have the old Washington Hogs offensive line to begin with, and now that group is peppered with third- and fourth-stringers. Things started bad for Robert Saleh in this, his third year as the Jets coach, and they’ve snowballed.
He was dealt a lousy hand.
So maybe it would be unfair to throw Saleh squarely on the griddle, because it would’ve been hard for anyone to make chicken salad out of this Jets season. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to ask questions about whether he should be on the griddle. The Jets have festered and fallen that badly.
Black Friday was Bleak Friday at MetLife Stadium, a relentless parade of awfulness and Robert Saleh can’t be blamed for all of it. But he can certainly be blamed for much of it. You certainly could wonder if the 60 minutes of non-competitive football isn’t a product of this whole operation now. The final score was 34-13 in favor of the Dolphins. The Jets have suffered worse blowouts in their history.
But they’ve rarely looked this unprepared, this out of sorts. And that’s on the coach.
“We have to keep digging,” Saleh said. “We’ve got to keep preparing, keep coaching, keep trying to find ways to make things happen.”
Focus as much as you’d like on that last play of the first half, the Hail Mary that Miami’s Jevon Holland returned — untouched — for a 99-yard pick-six that immediately lands at the top of the most ignominious moments in the team’s history — and when you consider how thick that scrapbook is, that’s saying something.
But the signature moment of the game actually happened on the first defensive snap of that same half. After the inevitable three-and-out on the first offensive series of the game, Quinnen Williams had made a beautiful tackle of the Dolphins’ Raheem Mostert four yards behind the line of scrimmage. It was a brilliant play. It sent a jolt of energy among that portion of MetLife that hadn’t come wearing aqua.
And then — almost on cue — came the flags.
Unnecessary roughness, Quinton Jefferson. Fifteen yards. Instead of second-and-14, it was first-and-10. The Dolphins didn’t score on that drive only because Tyreek Hill dropped a beautiful teardrop of a pass from Tua Tagovailoa on fourth-and-goal. But that was just a technicality.
Once more, the raging lack of discipline up and down the Jets roster had reared its ugly head. It happens every week. It happens every game. That’s a coaching issue. That’s a culture issue. It happens once in a while, OK, that’s football. With the Jets it happens every week. It happens every game. That’s on the coaching staff. That’s on Saleh.
And it’s unacceptable. It’s unforgiveable. It never gets better. Ever. Ever.
“That didn’t need to happen,” Saleh said. “There’s going to be mistakes in the game. We’ll keep working to find a way to clean that up.”
Saleh almost certainly isn’t going to be fired, no matter how sideways this goes across the last six games. As long as Aaron Rodgers is on board with him as his coach, and they sure seemed thick as thieves all summer, there isn’t a prayer Woody Johnson is going to do anything other than appease his quarterback. That means Nathaniel Hackett is safe, too.
Someone actually asked Saleh directly if he felt like his job was in jeopardy.
“I’m not worried about that,” he said.
And no matter what, that’s probably going to be the same answer he’ll give even if the Jets lose out and churn out a second 4-13 record in Saleh’s three years. Again: it would be defendable if that’s the way Johnson decides to go, because from the moment Rodgers became a Jet the franchise’s entire focus has been on maximizing Rodgers’ comfort.
And Saleh seems to be a big part of that security blanket.
But also, again: it’s fair to wonder if that’s the best course. It’s fair to wonder if Saleh is ever going to figure it out as a head coach. He already has proven his chops as a defensive coach (even if, for a second straight week, that unit was fairly well tuned up by an explosive opponent). And it was only a year ago when the Jets were 7-4, and Saleh’s name was being included in Coach of the Year conversations.
But that record has flipped, and so have the Jets’ fortunes. It was wise for Saleh to tie his destiny so inextricably to Rodgers, and that knot may be the one thing that delivers him a fourth year. At some point, though, we need to see that the Jets are actually listening to him. Because at some point just acknowledging that they — in their favorite term — “shoot ourselves in the foot” a lot won’t be enough.
At some point, it’s going to matter who keeps the safety off that gun. And Saleh will have to answer for that.