Jeff Ulbrich was in the middle of putting together the game plan for the New York Jets’ defense when he got the news that stunned him — and the rest of the NFL.
Robert Saleh was out as the head coach. And Ulbrich was taking over for the rest of the season.
“And then four hours later, I’m doing a press conference here with you guys as the new interim coach of the New York Jets,” Ulbrich said during a video call with reporters Tuesday.
Owner Woody Johnson made the surprising decision to fire Saleh just five games into his fourth season. Johnson was disappointed by the direction the team was headed after it dropped to 2-3 with a 23-17 loss to Minnesota in London on Sunday.
The owner considers these Jets “one of the most talented teams that has ever been assembled” in franchise history. But Johnson wasn’t sold on Saleh being able to lead the Jets to the playoffs, which they haven’t reached in 13 seasons, and go on a Super Bowl run.
So, he turned to the 47-year-old Ulbrich, a former NFL linebacker and longtime assistant coach whom Johnson has watched closely during his four years with the team.
“When he talks, they listen to him in a way that probably represents the fact that he did play the sport at linebacker for 10 years, which is pretty unique,” Johnson said. “So he brings that knowledge and the respect.”
Ulbrich has gone from leading one of the NFL’s top defenses to being tasked with engineering a turnaround for a frustrated franchise.
“It has been a whirlwind,” Ulbrich acknowledged. “It has been four hours of craziness.”
And it’s about to get quite a bit more hectic for him.
The Jets entered last season with Super Bowl expectations, but those disintegrated when Aaron Rodgers tore his left Achilles tendon four snaps into his debut with the team.
A healthy and motivated Rodgers welcomed those lofty goals again entering this season. But with the four-time NFL MVP turning 41 in December, Johnson and the Jets know the window to win is small.
With New York on a two-game losing streak and facing the AFC East rival Buffalo Bills next Monday night, the owner fired his head coach in the middle of the season — something he hadn’t previously done since taking over the team in 2000.
“The change that we made today — that I made,” Johnson said, “I believe will bring new energy and positivity and will lead to more wins, starting now.”
But Ulbrich has some dubious history with which to contend. Only twice has an interim coach led a team to the playoffs: the 2021 Raiders with Rich Bisaccia and the 1961 Oilers with Wally Lemm.
“The message was: It’s time to lock arms,” Ulbrich said of his meeting with his players. “We go back to back and it’s us against everybody. And with the talent that we have in that room, in my opinion, we have everything we need to be successful and have the season that we know we’re capable of having.”
Ulbrich built a reputation as a gritty, blue-collar type linebacker who was a tackling machine at the University of Hawaii. The California native was drafted in the third round in 2000 by San Francisco and played in 120 games. He was a starter who then became a backup and a hard-nosed special teamer with 501 total tackles, six forced fumbles, two interceptions and 5 1/2 sacks over a 10-year NFL career.
After a concussion during the 2009 season ended his playing career, Ulbrich wanted to remain around the sport he loved — as a coach.
He had stints as an assistant with Pete Carroll’s Seattle Seahawks and Jim L. Mora’s UCLA squad. When Dan Quinn became the coach of the Atlanta Falcons in 2015, he hired Ulbrich — whom he knew from four seasons together with the 49ers — as the linebackers coach.
Ulbrich became an assistant head coach with the Falcons in 2020 and was promoted to defensive coordinator when Quinn was fired in the middle of the season and replaced by interim Raheem Morris. That experience gave Ulbrich some insight into how to handle a midseason shakeup.
“We’re going to take a hard look at all that we do and the process in which we get to Monday night,” Ulbrich said, “and make the changes we think are necessary.”
When Saleh got the job as the Jets’ coach in 2021, he tabbed Ulbrich as his defensive coordinator. And there were some early struggles for New York’s defense before establishing itself as one of the NFL’s top units.
“Great gratitude for him bringing me here,” Ulbrich said of Saleh. “Great gratitude for staying by me. … The success I have today, he’s a huge part of that.”
Saleh often praised Ulbrich during his tenure and believed he would someday be a head coach in the NFL. During the 2023 offseason, San Francisco reached out to the Jets to see if Ulbrich could replace DeMeco Ryans as the 49ers’ defensive coordinator. The Jets said no, wanting Ulbrich to stay put and lead their defense.
And now, Ulbrich is in charge of an underperforming team with massive expectations.
“We’re not playing to our potential, we’re not,” he said. “We’re too talented to be putting the product we put out there the last couple weeks especially, so we’ve got to take a hard look at everything and be honest with ourselves.”
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