Robert Saleh said he was surprised to find out he was fired as the Jets’ head coach on Tuesday. A report shows that he was thinking about firing offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett after the team’s loss to the Vikings in Week Five. Todd Downing, the passing game coordinator, was likely going to take Hackett’s place.
However, firing Hackett might have caused tension with quarterback Aaron Rodgers, since Rodgers and Hackett have a close history from their time together in Green Bay. Jets owner Woody Johnson said he didn’t talk to Rodgers about firing Saleh, but he might have considered Rodgers’s opinion if there were problems within the coaching staff.
Now, defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich is the interim head coach, and Hackett is still leading the offense, which has scored the same amount of points as last season when Rodgers wasn’t playing.