In 2023, Robert Saleh was gearing up for his third season opener as the New York Jets coach with future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers set to make his debut for the Green and White.
It was supposed to be a franchise-altering moment, but it was derailed four offensive snaps into the game. Rodgers was lost for the season with an Achilles injury, and Saleh’s third straight losing season would follow.
With Rodgers back in 2024, expectations were high, but after the Jets opened the season 2-3, Saleh was fired.
Coincidentally, one of Saleh’s two wins that season came against the Tennessee Titans, and he’s now tasked with turning around that franchise -- which hired him in January -- after back-to-back three-win seasons.
Each team has a host of ex-players and personnel from the other side, but virtually the entire football operation in New York has changed since Saleh’s ouster. Still, there will be familiar faces on the Jets’ sideline -- 14 holdovers from his era, including top players like Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall. The defense he built, which peaked in 2022 when it ranked fourth in scoring, was dismantled. Only four players remain, most notably Jamien Sherwood and Will McDonald IV.
Schedule makers decided to start things off Sunday (1 p.m. ET, CBS) with Saleh’s old team versus his new one in Week 1 -- leaving both sides with months of anticipation.
It’s funny how things work out, but now they have to face off. Titans reporter Turron Davenport and Jets reporter Rich Cimini tackle how each team is handling Saleh’s much-anticipated debut in Nashville.
A view from the Titans’ side
Instead of trashing his former team, Saleh is taking the “I want to win every game” approach in his first game as a head coach since being fired by the Jets. He said he isn’t harboring any hard feelings toward his former team.
“New York is still a special place,” Saleh said. “They gave me my first opportunity as a head coach. Our desire to win Week 1, to beat the Jets, is because it’s Week 1 and nothing more. I’m forever grateful for the opportunity they gave me. I don’t hold grudges.”
Joining Saleh’s staff as former members of the Jets’ organization are cornerbacks coach Tony Oden, safeties coach Marquand Manuel and defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton. Defensive linemen Jermaine Johnson II, Jacob Martin, Solomon Thomas and John Franklin-Myers, along with safety Tony Adams, all played for the Jets at some point in their careers as well. Practice squad players Michael Carter and Jalyn Holmes also played in New York before.
Saleh isn’t worried about the former Jets-turned-Titans losing composure or trying to be Superman against their former team. His message to them is to stay true to their process and to put their best foot forward.
“Making a team in New York changed my life altogether,” said Adams, who signed with the Jets as an undrafted free agent in 2022. “I’m already a fiery person. So me taking this game personally would cloud my judgment. You take the emotions out of it and just go out there and play ball.”
Johnson was a first-round pick by New York in 2022. He is looking forward to seeing some of his former teammates Sunday and signing autographs for the Jets’ fans who travel to Nashville. But once the game starts, he knows they’ll be trying to take him out and will be looking to do the same thing. It’s nothing personal.
“The Jets are just another thing in the way of what we want to do,” Johnson added.
While Johnson and Adams are making sure they don’t take going against their former team personally, Martin has a different approach. Martin signed a three-year $16.5 million contract with the Jets in 2022 only to get traded to the Denver Broncos later that year.
“It’s always personal for me,” Martin said. “You can make any game personal, but I know a lot of guys in this locker room that were with the Jets organization are extra excited to play in this one, myself included.”
Getting another shot at being a head coach has helped ease the sting of being fired for Saleh. He returned to the San Francisco 49ers last season as their defensive coordinator, but it took two hiring cycles to become a head coach again. Now that he’s there, Saleh is focused on one thing: starting his tenure in Nashville with a win. It’s been six seasons since the Titans won a season opener.
“Every game you go into you’re trying to win,” Saleh said. “Starting fast is always good because you never know, you win a couple early and you start getting momentum, you start getting confidence with a young group, and then who knows where it goes.” -- Davenport
Jets talk facing their ex-coach
Six months ago, Saleh bumped into a couple of high-ranking Jets officials at a posh cocktail reception during the NFL’s annual spring meetings in Phoenix. It was a potentially awkward encounter, but Saleh exchanged hugs and pleasantries with both men. It was a let-bygones-be-bygones moment.
Owner Woody Johnson wasn’t present for the impromptu mini-reunion. That would’ve been fascinating.
If Saleh harbors ill feelings toward the Jets, they’re probably directed at ownership -- not that he’d acknowledged that publicly. One close associate said Saleh’s nature is to take the high road, adding that his focus in this game is securing a home win for his new team and new fan base.
“If he can stick it to the Jets in the process,” the associate said, “all the better.”
A former Jets player said, “Saleh will be after their asses.”
Saleh and Woody Johnson never had a close rapport, according to several people familiar with the relationship. The reason, many believe, is because Saleh wasn’t hired by Johnson, who was serving the final days of his U.S. ambassadorship in the United Kingdom when the move was made.
When Saleh was introduced to the media on Jan. 21, 2021, he hadn’t yet met or spoken to Johnson, whose younger brother, vice chairman Christopher Johnson, represented ownership during the coaching search.
Both Johnsons walked into Saleh’s office on Oct. 8, 2024, with Woody delivering the news that blindsided the man behind the desk. Johnson later explained to reporters that his decision -- his first in-season firing in 25 years as the owner -- was based on his belief that the team, led by a healthy Rodgers, was underachieving. The Jets were 20-36 overall under Saleh -- the worst winning percentage (.357) of any coach in team history with a minimum of 40 games.
“I just think we can do better,” Johnson said at the time.
Johnson’s bold move, going from Saleh to interim coach Jeff Ulbrich to full-time hire Aaron Glenn in 2025, hasn’t worked out. Since the firing, the Jets are 6-23 (.207), the fourth-worst winning percentage in the NFL over that span. Armed with three first-round picks in 2027 and more than $100 million in cap space, they believe they’re on the verge of a breakthrough. In case you’re wondering, the Titans own the worst winning percentage (5-25, .167).
One player said he heard Saleh’s name come up a couple times this week in locker room conversations with teammates, but that’s it. They’ve remained relatively buttoned up, no doubt heeding Glenn’s orders to avoid distractions.
Speaking of Glenn, he could be in Saleh’s crosshairs as well. A year ago, Glenn made frequent references to the penalty problem under the previous staff, also suggesting that certain holdovers -- most notably McDonald -- would flourish in his system. The inference was that McDonald hadn’t been coached properly.
“[Saleh] is going to give it everything he’s got to make a statement and get his guys ready to roll,” said tight end Jeremy Ruckert, one of the Saleh 14. “I’m not really looking into too much of the past and what’s gone down. I just know that he’s going to have his guys ready to go. Their defense is going to be flying around, and we have to be ready to match that intensity.”
Guard Joe Tippmann, another member of the Saleh 14, said: “I’m excited to see him and see [his] defense again. Quite a few of their guys I used to play with early on in my career. ... I’m excited to compete against those guys again and that Saleh defense.”
The play in the trenches should be spirited, with Tippmann and left tackle Olu Fashanu facing off against old teammates Johnson, Franklin-Myers and Thomas. Nickelback Jarvis Brownlee Jr., who was traded to the Jets from the Titans after both teams had started 0-3 last season, said he expects a lot of emotion and trash talking on the field.
It’s also a huge game for Glenn, whose popularity took a major hit last season with a 3-14 finish. He’s trying to build on the feel-good, positive vibes from the summer, and the last thing he needs is a loss to his predecessor in Saleh, who inherited a 3-14 team.
“I get it,” Glenn said of the storyline. “I mean it goes with ... the territory of Saleh once being here and then I step in as the head coach. But to me, it’s a game that we’re going out there to win, and it doesn’t matter who it is. That’s the mindset of these players, that’s the mindset of this coaching staff, that’s the mindset of this organization.
“Nothing else is to be thought of. That’s how I look at it.” -- Cimini
