Jets' Robert Saleh more involved with offense after unit's struggles last season
Jets head coach Robert Saleh during workouts at the Jets training facility in Florham Park, NJ, Tuesday, May 20, 2024. Credit: Ed Murray
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. – Robert Saleh has been spending more time with Aaron Rodgers and the Jets’ offense than he did last year.
Rodgers said Saleh “is taking a deeper role in the offense” and providing “some really good ideas.” Saleh was expected to be more involved after all the offensive struggles the Jets had last season and with everyone’s jobs on the line.
There was a report that the Jets tried to hire someone above offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett to oversee and run the offense. The Jets did not adjust to losing Rodgers in Week 1 and had one of the NFL’s worst offenses.
The defense, which is Saleh’s system, is in good hands with coordinator Jeff Ulbrich so Saleh is floating around more, according to Rodgers.
“He’s been kind of sitting over to the left of me a good amount of the offseason so far,” Rodgers said. “We appreciate his influence. He’s brought some really good ideas to the table. He’s been joking now, he doesn’t know everything about the offense yet, definitely not the signals but he’s added a lot of interesting stuff that you’ll see throughout the OTAs and training camp, which I think could be pretty cool for us.”
Saleh wouldn’t address the report on Hackett. Saleh said “yes,” when asked if Hackett would be the Jets’ primary offensive play-caller. Rodgers said he and Saleh have “a lot of faith” in Hackett.
Hackett also said “yes” when he was asked if he believes he has Saleh’s full confidence.
“He’s been around a bunch,” Hackett said. “It’s great when you have that defensive perspective in there to kind of tell you some extra rules, things that you can attack, so you spice some things up versus our defense and you kind of test them out. It’s fun.”
Hackett said he was “involved in every single conversation” about the offense. The Jets hired a new running backs coach (Tony Dews) and wide receivers coach (Shawn Jefferson). Hackett tried sidestepping the story about his role.
“I don’t know what those reports are and I don’t know where those sources came from,” Hackett said. “I know what happened with us. It was great. We had a lot of conversations, got to talk to a lot of different people. It’s that simple. It’s already been addressed.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
