So here’s a wrinkle to the Jets firing Robert Saleh: according to CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones, Robert Saleh was thinking of firing Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett before he himself was fired Tuesday.
And that gives Evan one conclusion: it was Woody Johnson’s decision alone…but Aaron Rodgers fired Robert Saleh.
“If we put this all together, Aaron Rodgers fired Robert Saleh! We all know Aaron Rodgers loves Nate Hackett, and there’s no way Aaron Rodgers, upon hearing the rumblings that Robert's thinking of getting rid of my BFF, my OC, would be okay with it,” Evan said. “So this may have been kind of like that hit job when Aaron talked to Woody, where he didn’t say to fire Robert Saleh, but it was like, ‘you know what to do, Woody.’”
“Do unto others before they do unto you, meaning, get rid of this guy because he's gonna get rid of me,” Tommy, not the positive kind, jumped in. “Nate goes to Aaron and goes, ‘you gotta get rid of Saleh.’”
Who’s really running the show?
“Could you imagine if Saleh went through with firing Hackett, what Aaron Rodgers would have done? He would have burned the organization down! I can only imagine what he would have said about it,” Evan said. “He loves Nate Hackett! Jets fans may not love Hackett, but like I said at the beginning of the season, they're married; Rodgers and Hackett are running the Jet offense, and we have to accept it.”
“I think this comes down to two things. Number one, if Saleh was going to do this, and this isn't out of the ordinary where coaches that sense they’re on the hot seat make a move with a play caller or something like that, but Robert Saleh can't stop running his mouth to media members everywhere,” Morash jumped in. “If he was gonna do this to Nate Hackett, he probably told 15 people he was gonna do it, and it got back to Aaron Rodgers which got into that room with Woody Johnson, and Saleh’s mouth, unfortunately for being such a nice guy, probably came back to haunt him.”
Tiki tried to figure out who would’ve taken over as OC had that all happened, and settled on pass game coordinator Todd Downing, who has been an OC for the Titans and Raiders in the past, and…
“Couldn’t Rodgers player-coach it?” Morash chimed in. “I'm not even trying to make a joke about it, I’m being serious.”
“Isn’t that basically what's happening? I mean, Aaron Rodgers is running the offense, and look, I agree that that's the thing that needs to change for the Jets to turn their season around, but you were never gonna fire his BFF,” Evan replied. “It was never gonna happen, and Robert Saleh trying to do that was his death sentence.”