Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick generated headlines when he said that New York Jets owner Woody Johnson firing Robert Saleh last week showed an “appearance of dysfunctionality” regarding that franchise.
Belichick then seemed to take a shot at Johnson during the “ManningCast” alternate broadcast of the “Monday Night Football” game between the Jets and Buffalo Bills.
“That’s kind of what it’s been there at the Jets,” Belichick said shortly after New York fell to 2-3 on the season, as shared by Bridget Hyland of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. “They’ve barely won over 30% in the last 10 years. The owner being the owner, just, ready, fire, aim.”
Belichick reportedly wants to return to coaching in 2025 and was linked with the Jets before Johnson made the surprising in-season move. However, multiple NFL insiders have since insisted that Belichick won’t interview for the Jets job this coming January because of concerns related to Johnson and because the 72-year-old allegedly thinks Johnson is not “a really good owner.”
Belichick famously resigned as Jets head coach in January 2000 without having ever coached a game for the team.
“Just seemed like a little early to pull the trigger on that one to me,” Belichick said about Johnson firing Saleh during an edition of the “Let’s Go!” SiriusXM show, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “But not out of character for the owner. Woody’s always been kind of hard to predict what he’s gonna do. Some of it just is hard to make sense out of, but I think Saleh did a good job there. He brought a strong culture to the defense and, obviously, not quite there yet, but a long way to go in the season. Seemed like a premature move.”
The Jacksonville Jaguars could fire head coach Doug Pederson as soon as next week en route to pursuing Belichick. The New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles have also been mentioned by reporters as potential landing spots for the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach.
Florio directly said on Monday night that “Belichick should not be regarded as a candidate to coach the Jets in 2025” because “he clearly doesn’t want the Jets.” Gang Green fans will instead have to hope interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich can turn the 2-4 club around beginning with this Sunday’s prime-time game at the 4-2 Pittsburgh Steelers.
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