Flailing Jets Look For Experienced Head Coach Candidate

The New York Jets fired head coach Robert Saleh on Oct. 8 while sitting at 2-3, with ugly losses to the 49ers, Broncos and Vikings. Nearly three months later, the Jets have won just two more games under interim coach Jeff Ulbrich, landing them at 4-12 with one game remaining in the regular season.

The Jets started the season out with high expectations. Nearly every news outlet took them to improve on their 7-10 record from the previous season, with many picking them to win the AFC East. Starting with signing experienced superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers and extending to fortifying the offensive line, leaning on Breece Hall, and even signing Davante Adams, the Jets made a promise to their fanbase: that they were serious about pursuing a Super Bowl.

Instead, when the team began to underperform its lofty expectations (with a preseason over/under of 10.5 wins), Saleh was the first to go. General manager Joe Douglas soon followed.

In the weeks that followed, it became abundantly clear that this iteration of the Jets never stood a chance. The team most predicted to win the AFC East has gone 1-5 against divisional foes, with another game against the Dolphins on Sunday, and was eliminated from postseason contention for the fourteenth season in a row three weeks ago.

Another shake-up is imminent. Most importantly: a new head coach.

Credible reports have linked the Jets to former Jets coach Rex Ryan and former Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera. The team is reportedly interviewing Rivera on Thursday, while Ryan has said that he expects to interview following the season. Remarkably enough, Ryan remains the most recent head coach to lead the Jets to a playoff berth.

Both men have decades of coaching experience in different organizations, and won the PFWA Assistant Coach of the Year in consecutive years (2005 and 2006). Rivera was also named AP NFL Coach of the Year in 2013 and 2015.

Both, however, were also rather unceremoniously relieved of their most recent coaching duties – Rivera was fired by the Washington Commanders following a 4-13 season in 2024, while Ryan led the Buffalo Bills to 7-8 in 2016 before being dismissed and deriding the team for quitting on him.

The Jets have already looked to winning experience for help. It’s interesting to see them return to that strategy, given it yielded an ailing Rodgers, high expectations, and two seasons of mediocre to downright awful play.

Now, even as they move on, they look to the past again. Given their track record, though, no small dose of luck may be required to make the Jets contenders.