The Jets are currently trying to save their season. And they’re going to do whatever it takes to make that happen, including Tuesday morning’s shocking decision to fire coach Robert Saleh after their latest disastrous defeat – 23-17 to the Vikings on Sunday in London – dropping them to 2-3 in a game have decreased. Season they were expected to compete for a playoff spot and even more.

That appears to be the thinking, as owner Woody Johnson explained in a statement after parting ways with Saleh — a decision that almost no one in the organization saw coming Tuesday morning, according to multiple sources — and hiring 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 get our expectations, and I believe now is the time to move in a different direction.”

BUY JETS TICKETS: STUBHUB, VIVID SEATS, TICKET SMART, TICKET MASTER

And if you compare Saleh’s performance as a head coach and as a leader alone, that’s an understandable line of thinking. Saleh was 20-36 and his team looked woefully unprepared in each of the last two games, a theme that continued a trend we’ve seen in Saleh’s three-plus years as head coach.

We’re starting to see cracks in the unity in the locker room, with defensive star Quincy Williams criticizing the team’s lack of accountability after 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 during the season for the first time in 25 seasons.

At first glance it all sounds so clean and reasonable. But that line of thinking also reflects the truth: Johnson, not Saleh, is the leader of this organization. And this latest batch of dysfunctional dump trucks — and don’t be fooled, the Jets are a team in turmoil, with or without Saleh — falls at the feet of none other than 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 made the decision against his quarterback’s wishes in, or without consultation with him. Rodgers’ hand-picked offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett certainly didn’t do Saleh any favors. Where does the responsibility lie for him?

There’s also plenty of room to criticize general manager Joe Douglas’ draft and roster decisions — not counting the sheer amount in the 2022 draft that infused the roster with talent.

But it was Johnson who set this disaster in motion late last year, when he decided to retain Saleh and Douglas for 2024, with three games remaining in the season, despite their three-year partnership producing no winning seasons and no meaningful progress.

Perhaps a deep dive into what went wrong in the disastrous 2023 season would have revealed to the Jets that they needed to make the same change they did then, and that they could have avoided this disaster. But we’ll never know, because Johnson didn’t. He seemed more concerned about avoiding weeks of questions about Saleh’s job security than doing what was best for the team.
And that seems to be the bigger problem here. Is winning and being a functional organization the most important thing? Or is winning the battle convincing everyone else that they can’t see the dysfunctional mess that’s right in front of them?

Perhaps this move will save the Jets’ season and end the longest playoff drought in North American sports after thirteen seasons. But right now, the Jets’ results under Johnson speak for themselves.