Jet fans rejoice.
You have your man.
Robert Saleh is everything you wanted for your last coach.
Even when you were skeptical and sure that the Jets were wrong when they let you leave New Jersey without a contract on Wednesday after your two-day visit, the Jets delivered, delivered your man.
You insulted Adam Gase from the moment he was hired two years ago. You wondered why Jets CEO Christopher Johnson did everything except take Gase to Florham Park five minutes after his dismissal for being mediocre in Miami.
You made fun of Gase’s wandering eyes on social media during your introductory press conference. You hated how he trained quarterback Sam Darnold, who never became the franchise quarterback he was drafted for when Gase was hired to do just that, the supposed “quarterback whisperer” he was sold to as when he arrived.
Before Gase, Todd Bowles also never excited him. Whether his training in the field or his mild personality was shown at press conferences he treated as dental appointments, he never seemed like the right man for the job here.
Bowles never introduced himself as a men’s leader, and the team’s poor results reflected his qualification in the locker room, allowing some of the inmates to administer the asylum (see Muhammad Wilkerson as Test A).
Saleh looks different from the last two main Jets coaches. He is a beam of energy and intensity for 41 years, a coach whose side attitude screams that his players will run through brick walls for him.
Saleh, a Vin Diesel doppelganger, has a perfectly working-class history in the NFL, having worked his way from the bottom of the league’s training barrel, from a low-level quality control coach earning a few shekels more than the minimum wage for position coach to decorate 49ers’ defensive coordinator for the past four seasons.
And now the head coach of the Jets, 16 years old on his journey as an NFL coach. Worthy of paying your debts and qualified for your accomplishments.
Saleh is everything that Jets fans want, the perfect coach to excite a disillusioned fan base that has been waiting for a decade since his last playoff selection.
Saleh is everything the Jets locker room will want, a coach who will energize him after a miserable 2-14 season.
Saleh may also be everything Darnold wants, since his hiring is probably a better case for Darnold to stay with the team than if one of the candidates for offensive coordinator had been hired.
On Monday, after Doug Pederson was fired by the Eagles, I strongly supported Pederson as the surest thing for the next Jets signing, because he is just three seasons away from winning the Super Bowl for Philadelphia and is an excellent coach.
This column generated a largely negative response from Jets fans via email and Twitter, because they didn’t want a “retired” head coach with luggage. It was clear that they wanted a new face, new blood, hopefully the next successful young coach.
I maintain my belief that Pederson will be a winning head coach again, despite his problems with Carson Wentz’s regression and his reckless coaching work in that end-of-season fiasco against Washington.
But Jets fans spoke. They want their own young head coach to become a star with their team. They want what Sean McVay brought to the Rams, what Matt LaFleur brought to the Packers, what Mike Vrabel brought to the Titans, what Sean McDermott brought to the Bills, what Kevin Stefaski brought to the Browns.
The ownership and management of the jets delivered that man on Thursday night.
Hopefully, they got it right.