All Eyes Will Be on New York Jets New-Look Coaching Staff vs. Buffalo Bills

The New York Jets are going to look vastly different on the sidelines in Week 6.

Oct 2, 2022; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; New York Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich on the sidelines against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the second quarter at Acrisure Stadium. / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

This week has been a whirlwind for the New York Jets.

After losing to the Minnesota Vikings in London in Week 5, they returned home on a two-game losing streak. Disappointed with the direction his team was going, owner Woody Johnson made a move, firing head coach Robert Saleh.

It wasn’t a move anyone saw coming five games into the season. At 2-3, the team hasn’t performed up to par, but if they wanted a new head coach they could have made a move during the offseason.

Instead, they did it in the midst of a two-game winning streak while preparing for a huge matchup against the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football in Week 6.

It is certainly peculiar timing for such a move. If the Jets can defeat the Bills, they will be in first place in the AFC East with a 3-3 record courtesy of the tiebreaker over their divisional foe.

Tasked with leading the team in Saleh’s place is defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, who will be taking over on an interim basis. Along with a new head coach, the team is changing play callers on the offensive side of the ball.

There is a lot going on with New York, as they have a ton of storylines heading into Monday night. But, the new-look coaching staff is where everyone will be putting their attention.

“Jeff Ulbrich makes his interim head-coaching debut, inheriting a two-game losing streak but only a one-game deficit from the top of the AFC East. One of Ulbrich's goals is to eliminate the Jets' reputation as perennially slow starters, which plagued them through the Robert Saleh era. This season, they have almost as many penalties in the first quarter (13) as points (14). Ulbrich, who demoted playcaller Nathaniel Hackett and replaced him with Todd Downing, said the team will play with a "heightened sense of urgency,” wrote Rich Cimini of ESPN in a Week 6 preview.

Ulbrich has been dealt a tough hand, but he has to make the most of it. If he can turn things around, it will make him not only a candidate to have the interim tag removed for the Jets but also put him on the radar of other franchises around the whole that may need a new head coach.

As Cimini noted, there are clear goals in place for the new coaching staff. Eliminating the slow starts will help avoid early deficits, something they haven’t proven capable of successfully climbing out of.

There is a lot of work to do with the team, but there is also a ton of talent. New York has been underachieving and a new voice could help them find their groove in what looks to be a wide-open AFC East race.