Aaron Rodgers’ fingerprints are all over Robert Saleh’s firing

It seems like an eternity ago that Robert Saleh was a part of the euphoric Jets traveling party that flew to Malibu to convince Aaron Rodgers that the twilight years of his career should be as a New York Jet. 

Rodgers gushed about playing for “Rob.”

But then his Achilles would not allow him to play more than four plays in 2023 for “Rob.”

Five games and four plays proved to be enough for him.

If Woody Johnson and GM Joe Douglas came to Rodgers to inform him that they wanted to fire “Rob,” Rodgers could have saved “Rob.”

Because the Jets moved heaven and earth for Rodgers, he has enjoyed the same cachet as Tom Brady did for all those years, that Peyton Manning did for all those years. As Broadway Joe Namath did for all those years as No. 12.

Randall Cobb? Let’s make him a Jet. Allen Lazard? Let’s make him a Jet. Nathaniel Hackett is the OC? How’d ya know I’d be in favor of that? 

Aaron Rodgers didn’t fire Robert Saleh.

But you’d be naive if you don’t think his fingerprints are all over this.

Rodgers came here to win his second Super Bowl and the Jets’ first since Jan. 12, 1969, and establish a lasting New York legacy.

He has looked and undoubtedly felt like a battered 40-year-old quarterback the last two weeks, and it is on him more than ever now to Win Big in this 2-3 Win Now season.

Johnson was overseas as U.S. ambassador to the U.K. when brother Christopher hired Saleh to replace Adam Gase. But it was Woody who announced with three games left in the 2023 season that Saleh and GM Joe Douglas would get a mulligan and return in 2024. 

“My decision is to keep them,” Woody Johnson told The Post’s Brian Costello. “I think we’ve had some very positive moves. The culture of the team is a lot better. The defense is better. The offense needs a few pieces.”

I believe it was the right move at the time and this was Aaron Rodgers on “The Pat McAfee Show:”

“I believe in the leadership that we have here.” 

If Rodgers had uttered those words to Woody Johnson before Bloody Tuesday, “Rob” would still be the 20-36 Jets head coach.

But DC Jeff Ulbrich, who can command a room and has head coaching chops, is now the Jets head coach.

Douglas, in his limited sessions with the media, has championed Saleh at every turn and the culture he built and their simpatico working relationship.

Everyone saw Saleh try to hug Rodgers after the Jets took a two-score lead against the Patriots and Rodgers push him away and flare at him.

Everybody heard Saleh characterize Rodgers blowing off mandatory minicamp for that trip to Egypt as an “unexcused absence.”

Everybody heard Saleh and Rodgers spar over how much of a weapon the future first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback’s cadence is. 

When I asked Saleh last week about his relationship with Rodgers, he said the only possible thing he could say publicly: “It’s fantastic. I love him.”

Rodgers in London said the only possible thing he could say publicly: “We’re really good friends. We enjoy each other. We spend time almost every day, I’m in his office talking about things, talking about the energy of the team, the focus of the team, what we need to get done, how I can help him out, how he can help me out. 

“So we’ve got a great relationship.”

Of course, just because you like the guy a lot as a friend doesn’t mean you like him a lot as your head coach.

Saleh is a good man, everyone likes him. But he was not the CEO the Jets thought they were hiring. Obliging the owner by suddenly offering his expertise in the offensive meetings was laughable. 

Saleh will land on his feet as the fiery defensive coordinator he used to be with the 49ers. He and Ulbrich know defense. In his defense, he never really had a chance with Zach Wilson, the second overall pick of the 2021 NFL Draft, as his quarterback. On the other hand, he failed to develop him. On the other hand, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett was the lure to reel in Rodgers.

Woody Johnson’s statement on Bloody Tuesday: “We are not where we should be given our expectations.”

What if they were 3-2?

The Jets are one game behind the Bills in the division. Josh Allen will return to the scene of the Achilles crime on Monday night. “Rob” will not. 

If Woody Johnson broke the news to Rodgers that he was contemplating firing “Rob,” here is the bottom line:

He could have told him R-E-L-A-X. And he did not.