[ad_1]
Robert Saleh oversaw a San Francisco 49ers defense that came minutes after winning the Super Bowl last year and has managed to rank among the best in the league this season despite missing many of its top players. .
But that’s not why the Jets coveted him.
After one of the worst seasons in franchise history, a 2-14 fiasco that revealed a lack of overall oversight and resulted in the firing of Adam Gase after two years on the job, the Jets failed to focus. on finding an offensive mastermind or a defensive wizard when they sought out Gase’s replacement. They wanted a leader, a communications expert, an energetic motivator who could inspire both the locker room and a fan base that was growing more and more unhappy by the day.
A long process led the Jets to Saleh, who, after two interviews with the team, agreed late Thursday night to become their next head coach, the culmination of his 20-year odyssey from a low-level position in the business world to lead an NFL team.
Saleh, 41, of Lebanese descent, is said to be the league’s first Arab-American Muslim head coach. He has spent 16 seasons as an NFL assistant, the last four as a defensive coordinator with San Francisco, where players and other coaches expected him to one day secure a coaching position- chief.
“When you’re looking for a head coach who can build a culture and get the respect of his players and who’s just a great teacher, it’s Saleh,” former NFL linebacker Brock Coyle, who played two seasons for Saleh in San Francisco, said Friday in a telephone interview. “Every time I left a meeting with him, I knew exactly what to do, whether it was in training or during the game.”
The Jets have struggled to establish many things over the past decade except dysfunction and desperation, winning the third few NFL games since their last playoff appearance, in the 2010 season. Saleh offers a welcome infusion of dynamism.
With his shaved head and muscular physique, Saleh, a tight former end from northern Michigan, makes an imposing figure, and his demonstrative presence on the sidelines – screaming, pumping, high-fiving – after large defensive pieces earned him a sustained airtime during 49ers broadcasts.
Off the pitch, Saleh projects a calm and collected demeanor, Coyle said, and into the very stressful world of training, which resonated with his players.
“He really put a critical mind into his training,” Coyle said. “He’s not that ego-driven guy. He really thought about how best to convey the message he wanted to his player and always wanted to hear what the players were thinking. Her door was still open.
After two torn first seasons under Saleh’s watch, the 49ers’ defense, fueled by an influx of talent, propelled the team to the Super Bowl, which San Francisco lost to Kansas City. Impressed, the Browns interviewed him last offseason, and after learning Cleveland would be hiring Kevin Stefanski instead, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said, “Every year we keep him, we’ll be very lucky. Saleh is going to be a head coach in this league. He could have been one this year. Most likely there will be one next year.
Several key members of the 2019 49ers defense, including Nick Bosa, Richard Sherman and Dee Ford, have missed most of this season with injuries, but the team still finished fourth in passing yards and allowed. fifth for total yards allowed per game.
As Saleh sets out to put together a squad to his specifications, it is likely that he will import players and coaches from San Francisco. That group could include Mike LaFleur – the younger brother of Packers coach Matt LaFleur, who witnessed Saleh’s wedding – as the Jets offensive coordinator.
If so, LaFleur would surely be borrowing from Shanahan’s race plan, loaded with movement and change, a move that could influence how the Jets approach the quarterback position this offseason. The incumbent, Sam Darnold, played in one version of this scheme as a rookie, but the Jets must decide whether to continue building around Darnold or swap him, filling his place with a veteran or a first-round pick, maybe Justin Fields from Ohio State or Zach Wilson from Brigham Young.
Saleh grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, home to one of the country’s largest Arab American communities, and after graduating from northern Michigan in 2001, he chose finance over football, to work for Comerica Bank. But a few months later, when his brother David escaped the South Tower during the September 11 terrorist attacks, Saleh reassessed what he expected from life.
“His love and passion for football is ultimately the reason he wanted to become a coach,” David Saleh told The Detroit News in 2020. “He just didn’t want to leave the game.
Saleh worked for three college programs over the next four years before joining the Houston Texans as a defensive intern in 2005, a move that changed the course of his career. There, he met Shanahan, who would hire him in 2017 as the 49ers’ defensive coordinator.
Saleh became the fourth head coach of color currently in the NFL, according to league diversity metrics, with four openings still to be filled. His hiring came months after the league updated the Rooney rule, which aims to increase the diversity of applicants for head coach positions and certain front office roles. The rule was changed in May to drop its interview requirement from at least one external minority candidate for each head coach position to at least two.
When Jets general manager Joe Douglas recently defined his ideal qualities for the next coach, he only hinted at football. He mentioned character, integrity and communication skills. After interviewing nine candidates, after listening to their plans, visions and ambitions, Douglas and the Jets knew what they needed.
They needed Robert Saleh.
[ad_2]
Source link