Robert Saleh oversaw the defense of the San Francisco 49ers that came just minutes after winning the Super Bowl last year and has managed to rank among the best in the league this season, despite losing many of its best players.
But that was not why the Jets coveted it.
After one of the worst seasons in the franchise’s history, a 2-14 fiasco that exposed a lack of comprehensive oversight and resulted in Adam Gase being fired after two years in office, the Jets did not focus on finding an offensive mentor or wizard defensive when they sought the replacement for Gase. They wanted a leader, an experienced communicator, an energetic motivator capable of inspiring both the locker room and a fan base that grew more discontented each day.
An extensive process led the Jets to Saleh, who after two interviews with the team agreed on Thursday night to become the next head coach, the climax of his 20-year odyssey from a low-level position in the business world. leadership of an NFL team.
Saleh, 41, who is of Lebanese descent, is considered the league’s first Muslim Arab-American coach. He spent 16 seasons as an NFL assistant, the last four as a defensive coordinator for San Francisco, where players and other coaches hoped he would get a job as a head coach someday.
“When you’re looking for a coach who can establish a culture and get the respect of his players and is just a great teacher, this is 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 needed to be done, whether in practice or in the game.”
The Jets have struggled to establish almost everything in the past decade, except dysfunction and despair, winning the third smallest number of games in the NFL 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 former tight end in northern Michigan, is an imposing figure and his demonstrative side presence – screaming, punching, clapping – after great defensive plays that earned him airtime. during 49ers broadcasts.
Off the pitch, Saleh projects a calm and controlled attitude, said Coyle, and in the coach’s stressful world, which resonated with his players.
“He really put critical thinking into his training,” said Coyle. “He’s not that ego-driven guy. He really thought about what would be the best way to convey the message he wanted to his player and always wanted to hear what the players thought. His door was always open. “
After two difficult first seasons under Saleh’s supervision, the 49ers’ defense, fueled by an influx of talent, led the team to the Super Bowl, which San Francisco lost to Kansas City. Impressed, the Browns interviewed him in the last off-season and, after learning that Cleveland would hire Kevin Stefanski, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said: “Every year we keep him we will be very lucky. Saleh will be the head coach of this league. He could have been one this year. It will probably be one next year. “
Several vital members of the 49ers 2019 defense, including Nick Bosa, Richard Sherman and Dee Ford, lost most of this season due to injuries, but the team still finished fourth in passing yards allowed and fifth in total yards allowed by game.
As Saleh prepares to assemble a team to his specifications, he is likely to import players and coaches from San Francisco. That group could include Mike LaFleur – the younger brother of Packers coach Matt LaFleur, who was the best man at Saleh’s wedding – as the Jets’ offensive coordinator.
In that case, LaFleur would certainly borrow Shanahan’s heavy scheme, laden with movement and change, a decision that could influence how the Jets would approach the defender’s position in this off-season. The incumbent, Sam Darnold, played on a version of that scheme as a rookie, but the Jets must decide whether to continue building around Darnold or switch, taking his place with a veteran or a first-round choice, perhaps Justin Fields of Ohio State or Brigham Young’s Zach Wilson.
Saleh grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, home to one of the country’s largest Arab American communities in the country, and after graduating from Northern Michigan in 2001, he chose finance over football, going 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 reevaluated what he wanted out of life.
“His love and passion for football is ultimately why he wanted to be a coach,” David Saleh told The Detroit News in 2020. “He just didn’t want to leave the game.”
Saleh worked on three college programs in the next four years before joining the Houston Texans as a defensive intern in 2005, a change that changed his career path. There he met Shanahan, who would hire him in 2017 as the 49ers’ defensive coordinator.
Saleh became the fourth color coach currently in the NFL, according to the league’s diversity measures, with four vacancies to be filled. He was hired several months after the league updated the Rooney Rule, which aims to increase diversity in applications for chief technical positions and certain front office roles. The rule was changed in May to increase its requirement for interviews from at least one candidate from an external minority for each position of head coach to at least two.
When Jets general manager Joe Douglas recently outlined his ideal qualities for the next coach, he just alluded to football. He mentioned character, integrity and communication skills. After interviewing nine candidates, after hearing their plans, visions and ambitions, Douglas and the Jets knew what they needed.
They needed Robert Saleh.