Ex-NFLer Says Aaron Rodgers ‘Fired’ Robert Saleh After Jets QB Repeatedly Undermined by Ex-HC

Robert Saleh getting fired wasn’t on Mark Schlereth’s “bingo card.” But unforeseen circumstances made him dive deep into the “power struggles” that may or may not have taken place within the New York Jets organization. The Jets stand 2-3 right now, and this journey has been very polarizing. The last two games were, to say the least.

However, the sword was already hanging over Robert Saleh’s headway before he was fired. The Broncos’ and Vikings’ losses just escalated the process. While it’s logical to not fire players in the middle of the season, the presumed “discourse” between the 4x MVP and the former Jets coach might have implored Woody Johnson to pull the trigger on Saleh.

How is that? Well, ignoring Robert Saleh’s 20-36 record with the Jets, the exchanges between Saleh and A-Rod didn’t really inspire confidence. Per Schlereth, Rodgers and Saleh had to get on the same page on their “two score lead” story, but things might have been very different. Come next week, Saleh was calling Rodgers out for his “cadence,” but backed out later.

If anything, these events just attract apprehension. Also, there’s a narrative going around that Rodgers holds all the power in the New York Jets organization. Hence, he was somehow involved in all this. However, per the QB’s own admission, he didn’t know about Saleh’s firing before he entered the facility. Woody Johnson and Aaron Rodgers had a meeting before the decision was made; however, Johnson said that his QB didn’t have any input in Saleh’s firing.

All this sounds a bit suspect to Mark Schlereth, the former Broncos lineman. “Okay, so there’s a power struggle; I get it. Aaron Rodgers wins the power struggle; you know, he calls Robert Saleh into his office this morning and fired him apparently. So, that’s kind of what went down, I would assume, or at least that’s the way it happened in my mind,” the former NFLer said on The Stinkin Truth Podcast with Mark Schlereth.

Even Shannon Sharpe believes in the narrative that it was Aaron Rodgers’ transgressions that got Saleh fired. The Hall of Famer TE believes that Rodgers stripped Robert Saleh of his power by not attending the mandatory minicamp. Stephen A. Smith, on the other hand, believed that Robert Saleh never had the reins of the team to begin with. So, what’s true?

How the dynamic between Robert Saleh and Aaron Rodgers changed

There may have been some power struggle ever since Aaron Rodgers succumbed to an Achilles injury. Rodgers was working on the Jets offense when he was recovering. Many believe that Saleh left all the offensive workload to Rodgers and Hackett and never worried about it. But the Jets found themselves in a lot of drama after the Super Bowl-winning MVP decided to miss the mandatory training camp because he found it trivial.

Saleh abruptly informed the journalists of Rodgers’ “unexcused absence,” and things went haywire. Team owner Woody Johnson believed that Rodgers missing the training camp wasn’t a big deal, and they informed everyone the way they did because they don’t want Jets players to undermine the mandatory training camp.

Rodgers suggested that he planned the trip way before the training camp and had no way of knowing that his tour day clashed with the camp. The QB was subject to about $100k in fines. Even Jets players had “zero issue with Rodgers missing minicamp.” All this drama just suggests that the Jets have serious communication lapses within their organization. The loss to the Broncos just enforced that narrative.

The Jets were penalized 13 times in the game against the Broncos; 5 of them were false starts. By the time that storm of a game was over, Saleh called out Rodgers’ “cadence” and said that it was too complex for the offense to understand, leading to several false start penalties. The Jets quarterback refuted those claims and asked the former HC to hold the players accountable.

Saleh dialed back on his words later. But it was as if the two-minute warning had sounded for Saleh the moment he lost to the Vikings in London. The Jets QB threw 3 interceptions in the game; the O-Line couldn’t protect him. Then there were lapses in run game, and the defense couldn’t do much either in the 23-17 loss.

Woody Johnson felt like he was running around in circles, and his team was repeating the past mistakes. Hence, the circumstances forced the team owner’s hand to ask his director of security to escort Robert Saleh out of the Jets facility.