Kyle Shanahan’s Phone Call About Jeff Ulbrich Piqued Woody Johnson’s Interest

The San Francisco coach wanted to make the Jets’ new interim his defensive coordinator in 2023. Plus more on the Steelers’ QB situation in Albert Breer’s Tuesday notes.

Ulbrich takes over the Jets, who are 2-3 with a huge AFC East showdown Monday night against the Bills. / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

A very newsy Tuesday morning delayed my NFL notes a little. But here they are for you …

• Back in 2023, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan called the New York Jets asking for permission to talk to defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich about replacing DeMeco Ryans as his DC, with Ryans off to coach the Houston Texans. Ulbrich and Shanahan were together with the Atlanta Falcons from 2015 to ’16, and Ulbrich had a decade-long run as a 49er linebacker, and San Francisco thought that, perhaps, coming home and having full rein over that side of the ball would lure him home.

Ultimately, the Jets said no, so it didn’t get that far.

But Shanahan’s interest in Ulbrich piqued Woody Johnson’s interest in one of Robert Saleh’s top lieutenants. Now almost two years later, and Johnson’s making Ulbrich the interim head coach for the rest of what’s a critical year for the franchise, with Saleh now out just five games into the 2024 regular season.

Also, Johnson didn’t hire Saleh, who was brought aboard while Johnson’s brother Christopher was running the team. The elder Johnson was finishing his term as U.S. ambassador to the U.K.—and you see where the team owner was reaching for the escape hatch on an uneven start to a critical season.

So that’s some of the reasoning for the dysfunction but not an excuse for it. Last year, while three teams fired coaches at midseason, the Las Vegas Raiders, Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Chargers weren’t nearly in the same position as the Jets, who are heavily leveraged this season. Those teams were in different stages of rebuilding. The Jets are not, with a roster full of veterans chasing rings, and young stars who still come relatively cheap, and won’t for much longer.

What does firing Saleh accomplish now after a listless home loss to the middling Denver Broncos, and a sound defeat in Woody’s old home of London to the Minnesota Vikings and former Jets No. 3 pick Sam Darnold? It shows an owner who’s been embarrassed and is angry. And maybe it gives the team a spark—at least in the short term.

That said, the challenge for Ulbrich is a big one.

Ascending to a head coaching role for the first time, he’ll have to learn on the fly. He could delegate the defense to safeties coach Marquand Manuel, the only other assistant on the staff with defensive coordinator experience. All of that experience as a player should help him, too, in managing a roster that probably has more questions now that it’ll get answers. Still, someone steering the ship at this juncture won’t be easy.

His first shot to do it comes Monday in front of a fed-up fanbase against the four-time reigning AFC East Division champion Buffalo Bills, who are coming off a loss in Houston.

It’s not what Ulbrich signed up for. Then, again, he chose to work for the Jets.

• Two other quick items to clean up here.

One, if the Raiders get a second-round pick for Davante Adams, I think Adams is gone. It’s a price, as we’ve gone over, that’s above how most of the league values the three-time first-team All-Pro receiver at this stage—given his contract and age (he turns 32 in December), the expectation would be he’d go for a third- (roughly the Stefon Diggs price) or fourth-rounder (the Keenan Allen price). But I could see where the Jets may now jam on the “Buy Now” button, and pay the higher price to give themselves, and Aaron Rodgers, a pivot point as Ulbrich takes over.

Two, Saleh’s plan right now is to take a deep breath before diving back into coaching. He’ll be in demand, for sure. He’s very close with Washington Commanders coach Dan Quinn, Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur and Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, and with a deep NFL network in place, I’d imagine someone will try to bring him aboard to consult for the rest of the season. But at this point, I think he’ll give himself, and his family, a break to reset, knowing that sort of interest will still exist in bringing him aboard somewhere in early 2025.

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Mahomes passed for 331 yards in the Chiefs' win over the Saints on Monday night.. / Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

• Last night was the embodiment of what you’d want when your quarterback is on an outsized contract. Rashee Rice wasn’t out there, neither was Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, and both were a big part of the Kansas City Chiefs’ summer plan. Kansas City leaned harder on 35-year-old Travis Kelce than anyone wants to. The run game averaged 3.6 yards per carry.

None of it mattered.

What did—the Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes.

Despite all of the above, the 29-year-old three-time Super Bowl champion connected with eight different receivers. Juju Smith-Schuster, who sustained an ankle injury that had him appearing in complete disrepair as a New England Patriot, exploded for 130 yards on seven catches, including a 50-yard catch-and-run that helped close out the New Orleans Saints. Mecole Hardman, who the Jets had no use for, had four catches. Denver Broncos castoff Samaje Perine converted a third-and-22.

Mahomes is what Tom Brady and Peyton Manning once were as dominant NFL quarterbacks. He doesn’t create margin for error. He is the Chiefs’ margin for error, and the marks of it were all over a breezy 26–13 win Monday over a good Saints team. The same way that Brady could have Deion Branch return 90 balls at 32 years old—after Seattle deemed him done—or Manning could get a 36-catch season from Blair White (look it up), Mahomes, too, can turn football water into wine.

And with the way quarterback contracts work now, this is really the ideal. It’s easy to cheat the system when your guy is on a rookie deal. The path to building a championship team is narrower after he gets paid. So to justify it, a quarterback has to prove he can keep doing more even when there’s less around him. Mahomes personified that Monday night.

Josh Allen’s shown this year that he can, too, despite Sunday’s performance. Joe Burrow’s getting his first shot to, albeit in a different way—where he still has the skill-position talent around him, but has to carry a defense that’s shown some age and holes. Eventually, C.J. Stroud will get to this point, too.

The difference, for now, is that we know Mahomes can be that guy. It was proven in winning consecutive Super Bowls after Tyreek Hill was traded—and emphatically again last night.

(For what it’s worth, the Chiefs wanted to get a good look at what Smith-Schuster and Xavier Worthy could do as top options in the offense before deciding on how to approach the Nov. 5 trade deadline. Seeing how those guys do in San Francisco on Oct. 20 will give the front office a nice opportunity to evaluate.)

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Wilson will be a full participant this week after recovering from his calf injury. / Barry Reeger-Imagn Images

• Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday that Russell Wilson will be a full participant in practice Wednesday for the first time since tweaking his calf injury before Week 1, adding that Wilson’s work will come with the second team, “as not to disrupt Justin’s preparation.” Tomlin then vaguely added that the Steelers will see where the week leads them.

We’ve been over this, of course, plenty. There’s a strong drumbeat in the building to stick with Justin Fields as the quarterback, and concern with Wilson’s limitations at this stage of his career would put on the offense. Fields is loved by the staff and teammates, and he’s won.

What complicates this one, as I see it, is that if you stick with Fields, that’s really it, and Fields is still very much a work in progress. Conversely, if Tomlin goes with Wilson, the Steelers can give that a run, and turn back to Fields if it doesn’t work—effectively giving themselves two shots at getting the position right.

Either way, it’s pretty clear that Fields is seen by most in that building as the best option for a team that’s 3–2, and very much in a position to contend in the AFC North.

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• When I had Commanders star Terry McLaurin on the phone to talk about rookie phenom Jayden Daniels on Sunday, I had to ask the team captain, who’s done just about everything right since coming into the league in 2019, about the difference in this year’s team.

McLaurin was on Jay Gruden’s final team. He was there for the forced sale of the team, and name change, and the switch from Ron Rivera to Dan Quinn. In short, he’s seen a lot.

I thought his perspective, as such, would be really good.

“The momentum is definitely in our favor, and it’s moving in the right direction,” McLaurin said. “For a guy who’s been around here for so long and seen so much, I just try to be the best version of myself each and every day and each and every year, no matter who’s the quarterback or the coach, I try to hold myself to a high standard and be a leader by example but also to be a voice of this team. I’m fortunate and blessed to be here in a situation where they trust me to make plays. I get to learn and grow from a great player in Jayden Daniels.

“I’m playing with a great group right now. I don’t think a lot of people really felt like we had the strongest receiver group, but you just see guys being ready for their opportunity from Dyami [Brown] to Luke [McCaffrey] to Oz [Olamide Zaccheaus] and adding Noah [Brown] was huge for our team. I’m having a lot of fun right now enjoying this process. This is an environment that I enjoy because I’m a competitive guy coming from Ohio State.

“That’s what it’s about. If you compete and prepare, you’re going to have a chance to win football games. It’s just fun being able to put the time in and see the results come to life. … I think the message was clear when DQ got here. It was a clean slate for everybody. We got guys and coaches from all across the league who have years and years of experience, who have won Super Bowls. The formula and the makeup of this team was already there. Now it’s about making the identity for the Commanders.”

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• Sometimes, things are simpler than we make them out to be. And Chicago Bears coach Matt Eberflus made things like that for me, as we discussed Caleb Williams’s progress Sunday night.

He said it could be seen in passer rating, with Williams’s going from the 50s in Weeks 1 and 2 to 80.8 to 106.6 to 126.2 over the past three weeks. Easy as it sounds to calculate, that, in the head coach’s mind, reflects where Williams is making strides.

“To me, it’s always about that passer rating,” Eberflus said. “When you have a great passer rating at 126, he was over 100, at 106 last week, that’s about playing clean football. You’re taking care of the football. You’re throwing touchdown passes, not taking a bunch of sacks. But I told the guys after the game, and Caleb’s no different, that we have to learn from this game. We can get better for every performance.

“It doesn’t matter if you win by three or lose by seven or win by a wide margin, that doesn’t matter. We have to get better from this game right here.”

The cool part, now, is Williams has a lot more good stuff than bad stuff to learn from.

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• We touched on it in the MMQB takeaways yesterday—how Patrick Surtain II doesn’t want to compare himself to other guys—but I figured fleshing out the whole answer I got from the Broncos star here would be worthwhile.

My question was whether Surtain says he’s playing as well as any defensive player.

“I don’t like to compare stats and other players around the league,” he said. “I just try to be the best version of myself and, at the end of the day, I leave the assumptions up to others. I don’t really like to be in the spotlight too much because you can hear it a lot. Sometimes it can be rat poison.

“But to be able to be considered with the top of the top defensive players in the league is honestly a blessing at the end of the day. I love being able to get recognition from all around the league for my play because it’s something I work on each and every week consistently. It’s definitely great to see what’s going on and see people across the league hone in and take account of my game."

You can Google “rat poison” if you want to know where Surtain got that term.

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• Drake Maye is certainly getting closer to starting—with the staff in New England believing he is close to being the best quarterback on the team (and not just the most talented one, which he’s been since he walked in the door). A big area of progress in recent weeks was how he’s handling the blitz in practice, which is always important for a quarterback, and even more so behind New England’s leaky offensive line.

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• The teams going to London this week are handling the trip differently. The Bears left last night for the U.K., the Jacksonville Jaguars, who will be there for two games, go Thursday night. The argument here is always acclimation (which going early gives you) versus normalcy (of getting to prepare in your regular environment). We’ll see what wins out Sunday.

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• The Raiders are mulling what to do at quarterback, and it’s at least notable that there were coaches there who believed in August that Aidan O’Connell had passed Gardner Minshew II at the position. Ultimately, Antonio Pierce chose to go with the experienced hand. But Vegas, clearly, sees O’Connell as very capable.