The finer details are a bit conflicting, however, it appears that Robert Saleh was aiming toward making some sort of change to the New York Jets’ offense before being fired by the team.
On Tuesday, the Jets decided to move on from Saleh.
Prior to that, reports indicate that Saleh had wanted to make some changes regarding New York’s offense moving forward. That appears to be certain, but exactly what the change would have been is what’s in the gray.
According to CBS Sports, Saleh had been toying with the idea of firing offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett:
New at @NFLonCBS: Ousted Jets head coach Robert Saleh was considering firing OC Nathaniel Hackett before he himself was fired Tuesday morning https://t.co/LwMHoEJH61
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) October 8, 2024
But SNY has reported that the move would not have been that drastic. Instead, Saleh was considering taking play-calling duties away from Hackett in favor of Todd Downing, who is the Jets’ passing-game coordinator and quarterbacks coach:
SOURCES: Former #Jets HC Robert Saleh was never going to fire offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. That was not happening.
However he was going to demote his game day responsibilities this week. Saleh made decision to give play-calling to Todd Downing because of the… pic.twitter.com/nYJewU5KYv
— Connor Hughes (@Connor_J_Hughes) October 8, 2024
Whichever report holds more truth isn’t all that important, because regardless, it sounds like Hackett was going to be demoted in some capacity. Moving forward, the same could still happen but that’s a decision for Jeff Ulbrich, who was named New York’s interim head coach.
Jets Wire will provide updates as information is made available.