New York Jets Interim Coach Leaning on Mentors to Prep for Debut

Monday night will mark the start of Jeff Ulbrich’s head-coaching career, even if it is on an interim basis.  

The New York Jets defensive coordinator took over for Robert Saleh after the fourth-year boss was fired on Tuesday. Ulbrich will call the defensive play in his normal role as defensive coordinator but also manage the game when New York takes on Buffalo.

But Ulbrich isn’t doing this on an island. He has the remainder of Saleh’s staff to work with. And he has a group of mentors that he’s been consulting with all week.

All three date back to his time with the Atlanta Falcons, but one stands out — current Falcons head coach Raheem Morris.

Morris is only one year older than Ulbrich, who is 47 years old. But Morris has been coaching since his collegiate career ended at Hofstra in 1997. Ulbrich played 10 years in the NFL before he transitioned to coaching.

Morris, the New Jersey native, has seen and done it all. He’s been a college graduate assistant and position coach. He joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002 as a defensive quality control coach and worked his way up to being named their head coach in 2009, replacing Jon Gruden.

He lasted three years and was fired. He hit Washington for three years and then joined Atlanta in 2015 as an assistant head coach. He was a part of a staff with Ulbrich, who was the linebackers coach.

That’s where Ulbrich worked with two other coaches that would become mentors — then-Falcons head coach Dan Quinn and offensive coach Matt LaFleur. Both are now head coaches in Washington and Green Bay, respectively. They all helped the Falcons reach Super Bowl LI, where they lost to New England.

Ulbrich first met Quinn in Seattle where he was the defensive coordinator and he cut his teeth on being a position coach at linebacker.

Quinn was ultimately fired in 2020, and he was fired early in the season, much like Saleh. Also, like the Jets, it was the team’s defensive coordinator that became the interim head coach.

It was Morris, and that was the particular skill set that Ulbrich was interested in learning more about. ESPN reported that the pair spoke “at length” this week, indicating that Morris may have had his ear more than Quinn or LaFleur.

“He gave me a lot of advice,” Ulbrich said.

Ulbrich is just the latest member of that Super Bowl LI staff to be a head coach, joining Quinn, Morris, LaFleur, San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan and Miami’s Mike McDaniel. Another member of that staff, Mike LaFleur, is the Rams’ offensive coordinator.