What Jeff Ulbrich Must Do in New York Jets Head Coaching Audition

When the New York Jets fired Robert Saleh and named Jeff Ulbrich interim head coach last week, the predictable buzzwords bubbled up in the national media. 

Respected. Authentic. Honest. A players’ coach, but tough on his men.

Team owner Woody Johnson wanted to turn the season around before it was too late, but at the same time, fans began thinking of 2025 and beyond. The director of one of the NFL’s top defenses, Ulbrich figured to be an attractive head coaching candidate in the next cycle—even Saleh himself reportedly said so—and the Jets will have an inside track to make him the permanent coach after this 12-game audition, if they want.

Ulbrich’s tenure, whether it lasts 12 games or longer, begins tonight against the Buffalo Bills on “Monday Night Football.” Already one major change was made, removing offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett’s play-calling duties and assigning them to quarterbacks coach Todd Downing.

What else does Ulbrich need to do to fix these Jets, make a run at the AFC East title and, potentially, earn himself one of 32 coveted HC jobs? That checklist is considerable. Let’s start with these three things:

Run the damn ball

Aaron Rodgers might be buddy-buddy with Hackett, but I’m sure even he didn’t want to throw 19 straight passes during one stretch of last week’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings in London. That’s asking too much of a 40-year-old quarterback—even one with Rodgers’ resume, even in a situation where the Jets were trying to come from behind.

It’s an indictment of the Jets’ rushing attack, which was supposed to be more productive than this. The tandem of Breece Hall and Braelon Allen rolled over the New England Patriots in Week 3. New York has totaled just 100 rushing yards across two games since, and it ranks last in the league in rushing offense and 29th in rushing attempts as the Jets take the field Monday.

“There’s not going to be this wholesale change schematically. How the game is called will be different,” Ulbrich said, potentially foreshadowing a more varied game plan within the current structure of the Jets’ offense. Downing once coordinated a top-five rushing attack for Tennessee, though to be fair, he had Derrick Henry at his disposal.

Get Rodgers in rhythm

Any Jets fan with eyes can tell you Rodgers has been getting rid of the ball as fast as the Flash, but there are advanced metrics to back this up. Per NFL Next Gen Stats, Rodgers’ average time to throw of 2.51 seconds is fastest in the NFL besides the injured Tua Tagovailoa, and his completion percentage is seven percentage points worse than his expected rate.

Releasing the ball fast is only a valuable trait if receivers are catching it. What can Ulbrich and Downing do to change this? It might take more than one week, but it’s a combination of changing up the play-calling habits and getting the offensive line to get its act together. The Jets’ slant routes have become predictable, and as the Jets X-Factor pointed out, they could stand to put three wide receivers on the field more instead of their ineffective two-tight end sets.

Play smarter, not harder

Mental mistakes have cost the Jets. What else is new? Not only do they rank among the most penalized teams early in the season, they’ve somehow committed more penalties per game at home (10.5), when the crowd noise is ostensibly on their side.

“The aggressive penalties that occur within a game, we can live with those. We’re going to teach and encourage a violent brand of football,” Ulbrich said. “The pre-snap stuff, the focus stuff, the offsides, false starts, illegal shifts, illegal formations—that’s unacceptable. It’s got to go away. It’s not good enough.”

If Jets players respect Ulbrich so much, would it kill them to listen to that?