Aaron Rodgers’ fingerprints are all over Robert Saleh’s firing

It seems a lifetime ago since Robert Saleh was part of the euphoric Jets traveling group that flew to Malibu to convince Aaron Rodgers that the final years of his career should be as a New York Jet. Rodgers raved about playing for “Rob.”

But his Achilles tendon would not allow him to play more than four plays for “Rob” in 2023.

Five games and four games were enough for him.

If Woody Johnson and GM Joe Douglas had come to Rodgers to tell him they wanted to fire “Rob,” Rodgers could have saved “Rob.” Because the Jets moved heaven and earth for Rodgers, he was held in the same regard as Tom Brady and Peyton Manning were throughout all those years. Just like Broadway’s Joe Namath has done for all these years.

Randall Cobb? Let’s make him a jet. Allen Lazard? Let’s make him a jet. Nathaniel Hackett is the OK? Fine with me.

Aaron Rodgers didn’t fire Robert Saleh.

But you’d be naive if you didn’t think his fingerprints are all over this place.

“I spoke to him the night before, but we didn’t talk about it specifically at all,” Johnson said in a Bloody Tuesday conference call. “We basically talked about the previous game (Broncos 10, Jets 9) and how he broke the 60,000-yard record and did that, and I’m sorry he got hit as many times as he did he felt? No, whether I would do it or not, no, we didn’t talk about that.”

File this under “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.”

Yet another Aaron Rodgers conspiracy theory.

No owner who hands the keys to his kingdom to a future First-Blot Hall of Fame quarterback, whom he has proclaimed to his fan base as The Savior, would be operating in such a vacuum…especially when that future First-Blot -HOF quarterback believed he deserved to be consulted on important matters with Packers management and went berserk when they named Jordan Love his successor.

Rodgers came here to win his second Super Bowl and the Jets’ first since Jan. 12, 1969, and to establish a lasting New York legacy.

He’s looked and undoubtedly felt like a battered 40-year-old quarterback over the past two weeks, and now more than ever it’s up to him to pull out a big win in this “Win Now” season.

Johnson was overseas as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom when brother hired Christopher Saleh to replace Adam Gase. But it was Woody who announced with three games left in the 2023 season that Saleh and GM Joe Douglas would get a mulligan and return in 2024.

“My decision is to keep her,” Woody Johnson told the Post’s Brian Costello. “I think we’ve taken some very positive steps. The culture in the team is much better. The defense is better. The offense needs some pieces.”

I think it was the right move at the time, and that was Aaron Rodgers on the Pat McAfee Show:

“I believe in the leadership we have here.”

If Rodgers had said those words to Woody Johnson before Bloody Tuesday, “Rob” would still be the Jets’ head coach, even with a 20-36 record in three-plus seasons.

But DC Jeff Ulbrich, who can command a room and has head coaching skills, is now the Jets’ interim head coach.

Douglas, in his limited sessions with the media, advocated for Saleh, the culture he built and their friendly working relationship at every turn.

Everyone saw Saleh try to hug Rodgers after the Jets took a two-point lead against the Patriots, and Rodgers pushed him away and glared at him. Everyone heard Saleh call Rodgers’ cancellation of mandatory minicamp for this trip to Egypt an “unexcused absence.” Everyone heard Saleh and Rodgers arguing about which weapon was the future first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback’s cadence.

Asked last week about his relationship with Rodgers, Saleh said the only thing he could say publicly: “It’s fantastic. I love him.”

In London, Rodgers said the only thing he could say publicly: “We’re really good friends. We enjoy each other. We spend time almost every day, I’m in his office talking about things, talking about the energy of the team, the focus of the team, what we need to get done, how I can help him, how he can help me out.

“So we have a great relationship.”

Of course, just because you like the guy a lot as a friend doesn’t mean you like him a lot as a head coach.

Saleh is a good man, everyone likes him. But he wasn’t the CEO the Jets thought they were hiring. It was ridiculous to oblige the owner by suddenly offering his expertise in the offending meetings.

“This is one of the most talented teams ever assembled by the New York Jets,” Johnson said.

It was an underperforming team, largely due to an underperforming offense. With an underperforming 40-year-old future HOF quarterback in the first round.

The owner, meanwhile, made it sound like Ulbrich was a mix of EF Hutton and Vince Lombardi who would bring a spark of positivity to the players.

“When he talks, they listen to him in a way that hopefully reflects the fact that he played the sport for 10 years as a linebacker, which is pretty unique,” ​​Johnson said.

Right. Ulbrich played linebacker. It would have been more understandable if he had been a mix of EFHutton and Bill Walsh.

Saleh will emerge as the fiery defensive coordinator he once was with the 49ers. He and Ulbrich know defense. In his defense, he never really had a chance with Zach Wilson, the second overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, as his quarterback. On the other hand, he failed to develop it further. On the other hand, OC Nathaniel Hackett was the incentive to acquire Rodgers.

Woody Johnson’s early statement on Bloody Tuesday: “We are not where our expectations should be.”

Would he have been inclined to throw red meat to the disgruntled masses if the score was 3-2?

The Jets are one game behind the Bills in the division. Josh Allen will return to the scene of the Achilles crime Monday evening. “Rob” won’t do it.

If Woody Johnson told Rodgers he was considering firing “Rob,” here’s the bottom line:

He could have told him: RELAX. And he didn’t.