Jets fire Robert Saleh: Live updates as New York moves on from head coach, Aaron Rodgers comments

When Jeff Ulbrich was asked about his relationship with New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers during his first media address as interim head coach, he said he has “a good relationship” with the 40-year-old signal-caller.

“He’s one of those guys who just has incredible experience,” Ulbrich said. “He has seen this game at the highest level for a long time. So he's a guy with a lot of ideas and really positive feedback on a lot of different things, whether it's meetings, training, game planning, scheduling, all of it. “You know he's going to be an important resource for me in that way for sure.

Ulbrich later added that he had been thinking about the impact of firing a head coach midseason with Rodgers that day. Ulbrich was the defensive coordinator for the 2020 Falcons, who fired head coach Dan Quinn after an 0-5 start. Rodgers was also part of a midseason head coaching change in Green Bay. The Packers fired Super Bowl XLV champion Mike McCarthy's head coach in 2018 following a Week 13 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

“There has to be an element of change,” Ulbrich said when discussing the conversation with Rodgers. “The players have to feel that, whether that's our process, whether that's planning meetings, training sessions, evenings before games. Whatever that is, there has to be a change that’s bigger than just me taking on the role of head coach.”

As interim coach, Ulbrich noted that Rodgers “will be involved in a lot of conversations going forward.”

“Obviously there's a lot of insight into that offensive system and he was a part of it when it was operating at the highest level, so responsibilities and roles and so on. We will take a close look at all of this, the process included.”