Several Jets players met with the media on Zoom call the day after the team’s season ended. They were all asked what the Jets, who had just finished their second season 2-14 and a tenth place out of the playoffs, were missing.
Each gave a similar answer about the Jets not having their identity and a winning culture.
The Jets hope they have solved the problem with the appointment of Robert Saleh as their new head coach. Saleh comes to the Jets after successful organizations like the 49ers and Seahawks. He has one Super Bowl ring and is after another.
Saleh made an impression on the Jets’ decision-makers that he could be a much-needed agent for change for the organization. He seems to have the personality and makeup to inspire and push the team in the right direction. This is something the Jets struggled with under head coach Adam Gase and Todd Bowles.
“Offensive, defensive, special teams, it does not matter,” Saleh said this season about his philosophy. “It’s the attitude of the person in charge that creates an atmosphere in which players compete and players fight for each other, and that players have a sincere love for each other.”
Saleh was a defensive quality control coach for the Seahawks from 2011 to 13. It’s a low position, but Saleh had to see Seattle head coach Pete Carroll work every day. Culture is an overused word in sports, but Carroll created a culture in Seattle.
“The one thing that put a lot of pressure on them in Seattle was just the culture,” said Jets striker George Fant, who played for the Seahawks from 2016-1919. “We have to change the culture. We need to bring culture here. I think that’s what they’re committed to. ”
Fant identified Carroll as the one setting the tone in Seattle.
‘Everywhere is different. In Seattle, Pete is the culture, ”Fant said. ‘The way he comes to work with excitement every day makes it feel like you’re not at work. You play nice football every day and bond as teammates and coaches. ‘
Bowles and Gase both tried to establish a culture, but failed. None of them had the extraordinary personality to bring about immediate change. They both thought they could do it in time by bringing in certain types of players and by winning. Rex Ryan changed the Jets’ culture when he walked in the door, the players bought when the team started winning, and that led to two AFC title games. The Jets let some key team leaders walk out the door and the team felt apart. The Jets have since tried to regroup.
There has been no identity to being a Jet for far too long.
“Just a true identity,” linebacker Tarell Basham said at the end of the season about what the team lacks, “what you see when you look at the D line, what you see when you look at the secondary, what “You see when you look at the offensive line, what you see when you look at our receiving corps, an identity. It’s one thing I feel we miss.”
Players come and go and there is no tradition passed on, as is the case with teams like the Ravens, Steelers or Patriots. Saleh will not be able to change it overnight. It will take time, and Joe Douglas, general manager, has to present the list of players who will be here for more than two years.
Still, Saleh feels he can change the conversation around the Jets if he walks in the door. In a way, he already has it, if you look at the fans’ reaction to Thursday night’s announcement. Jets fans have long been less than happy with a decision.
Saleh spoke in 2017 about how Carroll influenced him.
“The biggest influence I have from coach Carroll is from a philosophical point of view,” Saleh told ESPN. “To understand who you are as a person. To understand what is important to you as a person. And how to apply it to the message you want to deliver. The understanding that everyone has a style and that every style is the right style, provided you apply it the right way. So, just from a philosophical point of view, I talk to people and deal with people, this is where I have my biggest growth of coach Carroll. ‘