No more mulligans.
No more excuses.
Zach Wilson was a bust?
No more Zach Wilson.
It is, at the least, Playoffs-or-Bust for Robert Saleh.
Here’s how Saleh keeps his job:
Win the division — which the Jets haven’t won since 2002 — and win a playoff game after 13 seasons missing the postseason.
Training camp opened with an offshore betting site listing Saleh as the first head coach likely to be fired, ahead of Mike McCarthy.
“We always feel pressure to win … now, later, it doesn’t matter,” Saleh was saying on Friday.
Except it does matter. It matters now. Not later.
“As far as outside noise and creating the expectations or ultimatums and all that stuff, it doesn’t matter, that’s an end result that we have no control over, but what we have control over and the greatest expectation is to be at our best every day,” Saleh added.
The biggest Saleh’s eggs were placed in Wilson’s basket for the first three years of his coaching career, and so that unsightly 18-33 record is the albatross around his neck now.
Woody Johnson could not in good conscience fire Saleh after last season in part because Rodgers was all in favor of playing for him, in part because who else besides only Andy Reid or Kyle Shanahan could have figured out a way to win with Wilson?
But you only get only one mulligan, if you are lucky to get one at all.
There are worse quarterbacks than Aaron Rodgers for a head coach to bank his future on than a future first-ballot Hall of Famer, but he has no choice but to keep his fingers crossed that his future first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback’s 40-year-old Achilles can withstand the rigors of a season when the future first-ballot Hall of Fame’s 39-year-old Achilles lasted just four plays.
Saleh referenced his first two seasons as defensive coordinator when the 49ers were 6-10 and 4-12 before a 13-3 season and NFC Championship.
“I think we all felt like last year was going to kind of be that for us,” Saleh said. “Last year really felt like we were getting ready to take that third-year leap, similar to what Detroit experienced this year. And obviously it didn’t work out the way we wanted to, but … this year’s going to be fun.”
For his sake, hopefully he knows something we don’t.
“I’ll always look internal first to see the areas where I can get better — my messaging, my wording, the scheduling, our teaching methods, everything,” Saleh said. “Like this offseason, and I do it every offseason, but creating more scenarios for game management stuff. Taking a deep dive with scheduling, looking at the way we work out guys, just continuing to look at ourselves as individuals to help our team be the best it can be.”
Third-year safety Tony Adams revealed that Saleh has, at the owner’s urging, indeed involved himself in the offense, although no one will ever confuse him with Reid or Shanahan.
It is past time for Saleh to show on game day that he is the head coach and not merely a glorified defensive coordinator.
“Coach Saleh’s somebody you want to play for,” Adams said.
“He’s a players coach … the guys love bring around him. You could tell he really cares about his players, so you go out there and play hard for him. Something I really respect about Coach Saleh, you never see him trash anybody. For him to go up there and take bullets for his guys? We all gotta go to war for him. I lay it all on the line for him each and every Sunday.”
The offensive line has been bolstered.
Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson, especially if receiver Mike Williams can stay on the field, should be difference-makers.
The defense — once defensive end Haason Reddick ends his contract impasse — could be No. 1.
The kicking game is in good feet.
Bill Belichick is gone from the division, and the Bills and Dolphins shouldn’t scare the Jets.
“The small things are going to take you to the last game of the season — the Super Bowl,” Solomon Thomas said. “He’s been there before, he knows what it takes.”
More importantly, Rodgers knows what it takes to win the Super Bowl. “I talk to my friends back home all the time, it’s like playing with like an MJ or Kobe,” Thomas said.
If Aaron Rodgers can’t save him, Robert Saleh will be riding camels in Egypt next year at this time.