Robert Saleh wants to leave the Jets better than he found them. The second-year head coach sat down with ConorOrr to discuss outgrowing the franchise’s reputation, that comeback in Cleveland and why he believes his vision is becoming a reality
Sitting in his office on a Wednesday afternoon, Robert Saleh spills out of a conventional computer chair, long limbs hanging over the armrests, like a parent sitting at a kid’s desk during back-to-school night. Or, perhaps, like a former collegiate tight end crammed into his seat at the back of the plane. That’s where Saleh was on the way home from his team’s stunning 31–30 win over the Browns last week.
The 1–1 Jets are hosting last year’s conference champion Bengals on Sunday and have a chance to earn a winning record for the first time since Sept. 10, 2018, when the club won its season opener against the Lions and proceeded to lose seven of its next nine games. They do so with more positive vibes reverberating inside the walls of 1 Jets Drive than in almost a decade. The franchise has not finished with a winning record since ’15 and has not made the playoffs since ’10.
Let’s get one absolute truth out of the way: Patience and pragmatism are historically two of the most abused words in the NFL. For some coaches and GMs, the idea that they have this grand plan that requires time and resources to execute is a red herring covering up a fatal flaw. A collective eye roll is entirely understandable when a fan base that hasn’t celebrated a Super Bowl since a few months after the original Woodstock is asked to hang on a little longer.
While he has never commented on the performance of a prior regime and hasn’t used it as an excuse, the Jets’ roster building for almost a decade before Saleh arrived was, objectively, terrible. During that stretch of time, 2013–19, the franchise managed to draft just three players—Sheldon Richardson, Leonard Williams and Jamal Adams—who reached a Pro Bowl. Two GMs—first John Idzik, then Mike Maccagnan—swung and missed on young quarterbacks.
It was O.K., even, for Rex Ryan to do it back when he took over as the Jets’ head coach in 2009. Though the turnaround under Ryan seemed stark and dramatic, already on the roster were D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Nick Mangold, Tony Richardson and rookie Darrelle Revis. Three of those players are in the franchise’s ring of honor . They also had Alan Faneca, a player who would soon be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and Shaun Ellis, one of the best pass rushers in franchise history.
“I get all the sins of the past years, but this is a new group,” Saleh says. “You’ve got to give them a chance to find their footing and make their mark.” In the following weeks, he said, the volume started to increase. Verbal communication. Celebration. All organically.
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