Hard to imagine many people had Robert Saleh as the first coach fired for the 2024 season. Sure, his team was underperforming at 2-3, and his record of 20-36 hardly reeked of success and job stability, particularly in the modern “What Have You Done For Me Lately?” NFL.
But he had a talented roster, a veteran Super Bowl-winning quarterback and an impressive 24-3 win against divisional rival New England just two weeks back. He’d at least get the rest of the year to try to live up to the fans’ and ownership’s expectations, right?
Life comes at you pretty fast in the world of professional football. Which is why we shouldn't be surprised if we hear of the Jets’ interest in a certain available head coach.
While there is nothing to substantiate it, the idea that the New York Jets would consider reaching out to Bill Belichick to gauge his interest in becoming HC of the NYJ has to be on the table. Sure, Belichick made his disdain for the Jets known publicly (and we’ll guess privately) time and time again.
He loved few things more than beating the team he abandoned just days after accepting the job to be their head coach, succeeding his mentor, Bill Parcells. Something happened along the way that made him choose the Pats over the Jets, a gamble Belichick got right as he went on to win six Super Bowls in New England during an unheralded 24-year tenure as coach under owner Robert Kraft.
But, sometimes things change. Circumstances change. Feelings change. And jobs change, too.
Bill Belichick didn’t seem to be the biggest fan of the succession plan Kraft had in mind and then ultimately enacted in New England, installing former Pats player and defensive assistant Jerod Mayo as coach to take over for Belichick this past January. Were it up to him, Belichick would still likely be the HC of the NEP, but as Kraft reminded him, it was his time, not Bill’s. Belichick’s dismissal gave birth to some hard feelings amongst his loyal fans in Pats Nation toward the organization, and some hard feelings from him toward his former employer, too.
The big question is…is he mad enough at the organization he guided to legendary greatness for almost a quarter century to consider coaching their (and his) hated rival?
Jeff Ulbrich, who’s no fan of the Pats, has been installed as interim HC of the NYJ. While he might do a fine job and help get this underperforming roster to tighten up and get into a wide open AFC East race, it's difficult to see him as the long-term answer. Rare is it that head coaches with big contracts, contracts not even close to the size of the one Belichick would command anywhere, are installed midseason. But rarely is it that someone of Belichick’s accomplishment is available. Those close to him know he wants to coach again and wants to surpass Don Shula as the winningest coach in NFL history.
That he could take over a roster with a talented defense, offensive playmakers and a Hall of Fame-bound quarterback he has professed his adoration for time and again would have to give him pause on his decades-old vendetta.
Should owner Woody Johnson make the call, saying yes to the Jets would potentially give Belichick his best shot at not only getting his wins record, but also potentially making a Super Bowl run, all while getting back at his former team, a team he loved dearly but ultimately moved on from him? That is the kind of drama the NFL is built around, especially in a season like this which is as unpredictable as ever.
Locally we’d just have to be prepared for the nausea and rioting locally that would come with it.
If ever we were going to find out exactly how mad Belichick is at the Patriots this would be the most direct way to let everyone know. He’d just have to resign as the resident analyst from about 10 different other jobs first, but in addition to coaching he’s pretty good at that, too.