When the New York Jets play the Buffalo Bills on Monday night, they’ll be under the direction of Jeff Ulbrich for the first time. The New York defensive coordinator, Ulbrich became the interim head coach when the Jets fired Robert Saleh five games into his fourth season on Monday.
“We have 100 percent trust and support with Brick, and so does the coaching staff,” New York linebacker and team captain C.J. Mosley said. “So, I mean, at the end of the day, our goal remains the same, so that’s how we have to approach it because this is a business.”
With the Jets at 2-3 after a 23-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Oct. 6, the former Theodore High School star and Alabama All-American said he was “pretty shocked” by Saleh’s firing the next day. Mosley missed that game and a 10-9 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sept. 29 because of a toe injury.
“You get the news, and you think about it, the only thing I come up with: How could I have done better?” Mosley said. “Me missing these last two games, that played in my head. So I always think about: What can I do to make things right or could have done better? He’s the reason that we’re in this position today, man. You know, most of this team is, it’s coming from his choice and what he saw and what he believed in players that we have on this team, some household names that are going to, hopefully, keep this Jets organization going for a long time. So a lot of credit goes to coach Saleh.
“He didn’t have to take a second chance on me coming back to the Jets when he came here, but he did. And he challenged me to be a great linebacker in his defense because he told me at one point that he wasn’t sure if I could fit with his defense because of my style of play with the Ravens, so things like that. He challenged me that day, and every single day that I came here for work, I wanted to be one of the best linebackers in this system. So a lot of things that he’s done, the stories he told of hard losses and the great wins that we’ve had together, it’s built us, it’s built his mindset of his team, so we definitely have to keep it going.”
Mosley said Saleh’s dismissal should be “a wake-up call and an eye-opener for a lot of people.”
“At the end of the day, like I said, we all have to take some type of accountability on how we cannot let this, one, stop us from achieving our goal,” Mosley said, “but also make sure that something like this won’t happen again.”
Ulbrich has been New York’s defensive coordinator in 2021. In 2022, the Jets yielded the fourth-fewest yards in the NFL. In 2023, they were third, and, this year, they’re second.
“He’s an ultimate competitor,” Mosley said of Ulbrich. “Just working with him every day, going through the battles that we’ve been through these last four years, I know what makes him tick. I know his story. I know his why. I know his family. So when you know somebody that intimately, you naturally want to perform at your best for him and you want to do things to make him proud. So he’s just one of those coaches that brings that out of you every single day. Even when you’re tired, even when he’s tired, he finds a way to motivate, you know, our defensive staff and our defensive room every day.”
Mosley was a limited participant in practice last week, and his status for the game is listed as questionable.
The Jets and Bills square off at 7:15 p.m. CDT Monday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. ESPN will televise the game.
“I would assume that they’re smelling blood right now,” Mosley said of New York’s AFC East rival. “So I’m sure they’re getting ready to play a great game Monday night, so I won’t expect nothing less. But as far as us, this is an opportunity for us to understand: What was it happened? You know, these type of things are real. Like, this is what this business can be about if it happens.
“But don’t be scared of this moment. We had a crack in our foundation. It might’ve had some trickle-down effect, but it won’t tear down our house if we build it back up right. If you seal it up the right way, if you don’t try to patch around things and let it go by, let it trickle down a few years later, then we’re going to be back in the same boat. So this is a moment for us to all. Link up, all be strong together, all have more faith in each other, us to hold more accountability -- all those words you want to put in front of it. But we have to be those people, and we have to stay strong for each other. And we have to get ready for more tests because it’s coming.”
