It’s the Jets.
What did you expect … a bright business decision?
Not likely.
On Tuesday morning, the Jets cut ties with head coach Robert Saleh as he became the first of an expected seven National Football League head coaches to be fired this season. Saleh is out because he didn’t align with everything quarterback Aaron Rodgers wanted and didn’t take a stand to secure his position but rather tried to appease the situation by bowing to Rodgers more than he should have.
So the Jets, who reportedly have caused suicides in New York, cut loose their coach in favor of keeping a 40-year-old quarterback who looked all his age in last week’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings in London. Opportunities for the Jets to pin the Vikings with their first loss of the season were thrown away by the old quarterback, and in response, the Jets management fired their youthful head coach.
What did you expect … It's the Jets.
This week, New York will host the Monday Night Football game against their most serious AFC East Division competition, the Buffalo Bills. Behind Josh Allen, the Bills burst out of the gate this season with three impressive wins before dropping a couple road games the past two weeks against the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans.
If the Jets were to win this home contest, they would move into first place in the AFC East standings based on a record as good as Buffalo and with the lead based on the head-to-head victory.
Last year, the Jets opened the season against Buffalo and on New York’s first series of downs Rodgers was injured and lost for the season. In one of his scarce good showings for the Jets, Zack Wilson led New York to an upset win over the Bills in that opener. And, in fact, after five weeks last year while Rodgers was sidelined with an injury the Jets scored 93 points while still in search of a capable quarterback.
This year, with Rodgers playing the first five Jets games, the team has scored, wait for it … 93 points.
And yet, this signal caller who took a big portion of the Jets money cap room and hasn’t even won more games than he lost this year, dictates to the organization that he needs a new head coach. And, out with Saleh and onto an interim basis, defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. He will serve as the Jets head coach for in all likelihood the rest of the 2024 campaign.
I’m not an Aaron Rodgers fan. I watched him at Cal and knew that the Oakland Raiders had traded up to draft him before Al Davis did a dipsy-doodle and took Fabian Washington instead. The Green Bay Packers, who were next to pick in the 2005 draft, chose Rodgers and he led them to a series of successful seasons while winning enough Most Valuable Player awards to fill his trophy case.
But, while Rodgers was winning in the regular season, he only once guided the Packers to the Super Bowl, that being in 2010. He won that game over the Steelers and their two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger.
Fifteen years later, Rodgers is still looking for success in the playoffs and a couple years ago alienated a large portion of the human race while he lied about his vaccination status during the Covid pandemic.
Not my favorite … and, I suggest today, not Saleh’s favorite either.
Then there is the game this week that could have been for first place in the AFC East, it actually still is, but is now more focused on the power the quarterback has over the organization in New York.
Which, by the way I measure success, is a real bad thing.
Qoxhi Picks: Buffalo Bills (-2½) over New York Jets