All it takes is one.
NFL owners sometimes need someone to do it first — it can even serve as a reminder that they can change the leadership of their football team if they aren’t happy with the product. Most don’t like to fire head coaches during the season — including the New York Jets, who hadn’t done so since the 1970s. But now that Jets owner Woody Johnson has ripped off the Band-Aid, many around the league expect the owners who were already contemplating change will be more comfortable making the move.
Robert Saleh’s firing looked impulsive and sent shockwaves around the league, prompting many to wonder who’s next. Full disclosure: In-season firings happen, but I didn’t expect to be reporting on one in early October. (Panthers owner David Tepper was the last owner to do it this early, in 2022, after Week 5, when he fired Matt Rhule.) I definitely didn’t think I’d be asking decision-makers around the league about the top coaching candidates, or about Bill Belichick’s or Mike Vrabel’s desires and availability, before the trade deadline. But here we are — and there could be more openings soon.
This is what I’m hearing this week:
• How Saleh tried to fix the offense
• How the Jets are still trying to reel in a pair of All-Pros
• Ferris Bueller, Dennis the Menace, and the 2024 Denver Broncos
• The Steelers’ strong feelings about Justin Fields
• Saints coaches love them some Spencer Rattler
• Why Drake Maye’s time arrived
• “This defense is not aging like a fine wine.”
The Jets before and, now, after Saleh
It was a chaotic week for the Jets, yet if they win on Monday night against the Buffalo Bills, they would grab first place in the AFC East. It’s hard to believe. It’s also why Robert Saleh is going to have a hard time watching his former team — he knows they could easily be dancing in January.
It’s also hard to ignore that Saleh, according to league sources, tried to recruit multiple different offensive coaches during the offseason in an attempt to get things right on that side of the ball. The Jets spoke to Eric Bieniemy (now UCLA’s offensive coordinator), Kliff Kingsbury (now the Commanders’ offensive coordinator), Luke Getsy (now the Raiders’ offensive coordinator) and Arthur Smith (now the Steelers’ offensive coordinator). Both Smith and Kingsbury are recent head coaches in the NFL, and Getsy has a strong relationship with Rodgers from their days together in Green Bay, where he was the quarterbacks coach. Saleh wanted to add a great mind to the offensive staff, and if he had succeeded, he might still have a job, but it proved too difficult to make an addition since he didn’t have an “offensive coordinator” title to offer.
He tried. The Jets knew the offensive play calling wouldn’t simply improve because Aaron Rodgers and Nathaniel Hackett are buddies. Rodgers was involved in the process to add a new coach, so he at least knew something needed to change, but he wasn’t going to boot Hackett. So Saleh ran it back with mostly the same offensive coaching staff, other than new running backs and wide receivers coaches.
It’s only Week 6, Saleh is out, Hackett has been demoted, and passing game coordinator Todd Downing will call plays under interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich. The Jets should improve in the run game. As for the red zone, another area where the Jets have struggled offensively, Downing’s 2021 and ’22 Tennessee Titans offenses were great at finishing drives.
It won’t ultimately change much about the Jets’ offensive process, though. As it was explained by coaches familiar with Rodgers, the call will go into Rodgers’ headset, and the four-time MVP will decide to either run the play, or to signal his own play to his receivers at the line of scrimmage. That’s what you get with Rodgers — sometimes that’s a gift, and sometimes it’s a curse.
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Saleh was fired because Johnson decided the team’s roster was too talented to perform the way it had, too good to lose to a rookie QB (Bo Nix) who threw for only 60 yards that day (and a team led by Sean Payton, who ethered Hackett in comments last summer). Then the Jets lost to the Vikings, and former Jets quarterback Sam Darnold, in London. Johnson wanted to fix this before it was too late. Sources with the Jets are adamant Rodgers didn’t know (Rodgers has said as much publicly). The QB knew the owner was pissed, but he wasn’t told Saleh was getting fired.
Johnson spoke to the media hours after firing Saleh, the same coach he supported during the hiring process back in January 2021 — a hire he approved, even though he was away working for the White House at the time. Johnson also used the news conference to recruit Haason Reddick, who was just dropped by his longtime CAA agent Tory Dandy, saying, among other things, “You’ll love it here.”
We all know money talks, but if Johnson’s sell job is, “We’ve got something great here, trust me!” Reddick probably won’t be showing up for Monday Night Football. We told you in September that league sources shared Reddick is ready to “die on this hill,” and that sentiment has not changed.
One last Jets-related item: New York is still having conversations with the Las Vegas Raiders about a trade for wide receiver Davante Adams. The receiver won’t be active this weekend against the Steelers due to a hamstring injury. The Saints, Steelers and Bills are also in touch with Vegas. As it stands, the Raiders haven’t moved their asking price off a second-round pick. They also want the team acquiring him to pay the entirety of Adams’ remaining 2024 salary. Something will give.
NFL owners are in Atlanta for the fall league meeting on Tuesday. We’ll see if Raiders owner Mark Davis tries to get the deal done himself!
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Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?
He’s right here.
Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton, who was once nicknamed “Dennis the Menace” by mentor Bill Parcells, referred to rookie quarterback Bo Nix as “Ferris Bueller,” the 1986 movie character. Good ol’ Bueller would get himself into trouble … and find his way out.
The Bueller reference was made in response to a third-quarter incompletion in Sunday’s win over the Raiders. Nix whipped the ball to the end zone to wide-open receiver Troy Franklin, who extended his body but dropped it. This wasn’t the play Payton called; Nix changed it. When Nix returned to the sideline to explain, Payton went nuts.
Nix yelled back.
Uh oh? Not in Denver. I was told the 3-2 Broncos coaching staff loved it. This wasn’t just about Nix’s football abilities, it was about something more important — his belief in himself. This confidence, perhaps even more than his ability to process Payton’s complicated play calls, is what the team needs from its young captain.
Nix was born in 2000; if he didn’t get the Bueller reference, I would’ve understood (even if my holy-crap-I’m-so-old panic meter would have exploded). But he did get it. The quarterback even playfully posted to his social accounts a clip of the movie, along with highlights from the win.
Bo Nix posted the coolest game recap video ever on his IG. pic.twitter.com/qSeTjtPDIQ
— Zac Stevens (@ZacStevensDNVR) October 9, 2024
Another coach in the division told me that the best part of Nix’s post was the highlights he chose. If you watch, you’ll notice it too: It’s primarily plays his teammates made, on both sides of the ball.
This was a coming-out moment, and Denver knows it. Life moves pretty fast, and if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you can miss it …
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Justin Fields fandom grows fast in Pittsburgh
There are a lot of Chicago Bears fans who miss Justin Fields despite the early success of No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams. Fields had a special bond with the city that drafted him.
Russell Wilson (right) is getting healthier, but Justin Fields has gained a lot of support in the Steelers’ building. (Barry Reeger / Imagn Images)
Perhaps some of those Bears fans found work in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ building? It’s been made clear to me over the last few weeks that the locker room and coaching staff in Pittsburgh love Fields. So while the big question hovering over every game has been, Will Mike Tomlin make the switch to Russell Wilson now?, based on my read, the momentum Fields has built might make it impossible for a healthy Wilson to reclaim that spot at the top of the depth chart.
That doesn’t mean Wilson is done in Pittsburgh, it just means Fields has real support to be the guy for the Steelers.
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A rookie Rattler in New Orleans
Saints veteran QB Derek Carr is expected to miss multiple weeks with an oblique tear, so the New Orleans Saints are turning to third-string rookie Spencer Rattler.
They made the decision to go with Rattler instead of Jake Haener because of Rattler’s standout performance during the preseason and in practices. New Orleans has two games over the next eight days (the Buccaneers on Sunday and the Broncos next Thursday night), and head coach Dennis Allen is confident that Rattler will play loose and stay composed as the Saints search for a spark after losing three straight.
The Saints’ building is all abuzz about Rattler’s ability to process. As one coach on the staff explained, “He doesn’t panic — not with pressure, not when the offensive line breaks down, he’s just poised.”
While Rattler makes his starting debut for injury reasons, another rookie gets his first start Sunday for performance reasons …
With Drake Maye, better late than never?
Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and head coach Jerod Mayo had a specific approach with No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye: patience.
Wolf, who worked in Green Bay from 2004 to ’17 after Ron Wolf retired, watched how his Hall of Fame father navigated the young quarterback conundrum. The Packer Way when it came to quarterbacks was that a rookie QB needs time to develop and should play only when he is close to ready.
Drake Maye is set for his first NFL start on Sunday. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
Plans have changed for the Patriots, though. After losing four straight games, due in part to lackluster play from veteran QB Jacoby Brissett, the decision was made this week to give Maye his opportunity. Maye was getting ample reps in practice — Mayo said Maye has been receiving 30 percent of the first-team practice reps during the first five weeks of the season — but the plan was never to play him this early. So ready or not, Maye will start his first game Sunday, against a Houston Texans team that has one of the league’s best pass rushes.
While many around the league understood the decision for Brissett to start the season, the reality is league-wide trends are changing. As one GM said: “Young quarterbacks are playing. Teams know they may have to live with the ups and downs, but if the rookie is the best option, they should play. Most importantly? Everyone has to be aligned on the vision and have a plan from the beginning.”
Maybe this hasn’t all gone to plan, but in the end the best result might have played out. The Patriots are starting the quarterback who gives them the best chance to win, something many knew weeks ago.
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Old cats and a lack of new tricks
We told you last week that the Cleveland Browns had a players-only meeting, and we saw how that worked out against Washington. (There has to be a stat out there that tracks the record of teams after these players-only meetings; I’m going to guess it’s 0-387.)
The Cincinnati Bengals had their own “players-only” gathering to find ways to crawl out of a 1-4 hole. One Bengals player told me: “It wasn’t a big deal at all. We got a good group.” If there is any offense that can surge, it’s Joe Burrow and company. This group was humming against the Ravens, with Burrow breaking out of his usual September slog.
But the offense isn’t the issue; the defense is the group trying to keep up. Cincinnati’s 26th-ranked defense is also the oldest starting group on that side of the ball in the NFL. Most are swimming around 30 years old. Their best player, quarterback killer Trey Hendrickson, turns 3o in December. “This defense is not aging like a fine wine,” one AFC executive said. “This roster is older and slowing down.”
The 1-4 Bengals are in desperate need of a quick turnaround from an aging defense (Albert Cesare / The Enquirer / Imagn Images)
The Bengals’ best defensive performance was Week 2 in a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. They had confidence, executed the game plan and gave themselves a chance to win late in the game. They held the Chiefs to 286 yards and created three turnovers. Since then, they have struggled to get off the field. Opponents are converting almost 50 percent of third downs.
One thing Cincy might spend more time on defensively is the red zone. Sunday’s opponent, the New York Giants, knows that teams constructed like the Bengals take a bend-don’t-break tack. Cincinnati is going to rely on its red zone defense to limit offenses to field goals, and it has a good opportunity to do just that on Sunday with the Giants missing star rookie receiver Malik Nabers.
Players-only meetings always feel like the kiss of death, but entering Sunday, the Bengals are desperately searching for signs of life on defense.
(Photo: Chris Pedota / NorthJersey.com via Imagn Images)
