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Rob Demovsky, ESPN Scribbler Team
GREEN BAY, Wis. — It didn’t take long for Robert Saleh to find a job.
A little more than two weeks after being fired by the New York Jets, Saleh was in the Green Bay Packers’ practice yard on Wednesday in a new capacity.
Packers maestro Matt LaFleur, who has credited Saleh with helping him break into the NFL coaching ranks, has recruited his old friend to back up the team.
Saleh spent the first part of the application looking at the offensive aspect of the ball.
“Yeah, I think it helps,” LaFleur said. “Having a defensive mind talking about offense and helping us with things that he might be able to see, similar schemes, things that the defense might be looking for, it helps.”
He added: “I think he has an elite defensive mind. But that’s why I want him on the offensive end, so he can help us attack defenses.”
LaFleur said Saleh would work with the group through this time Thursday and called his role “fluid.” Saleh has been staying in the LaFleur area this date.
Saleh and LaFleur first worked together at Central Michigan College as graduate assistants in 2004. They shared a rented apartment that had two beds and a kitchen table, but the wrong chairs.
In 2008, Saleh (then Houston Texans teacher) Gary Kubiak sent LaFleur on the road as an offensive colleague. They are so similar that LaFleur was once the most efficient man at Saleh’s wedding ceremony. Saleh once hired LaFleur’s brother, Mike, to be his offensive coordinator with the Jets (2021-22).
In gratitude for their friendship, Saleh said during the 2023 offseason, when the Jets were negotiating trade terms with the Packers to acquire Aaron Rodgers, that he and LaFleur decided not to talk about the quarterback and let the general managers. each and every group maintains the industry.
Saleh also previously worked with first-year Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, although Saleh won’t help on that side of the ball in Green Bay. Hafley was the San Francisco 49ers’ defensive backs maestro from 2016 to 2018. Saleh became the Niners’ defensive coordinator in 2017, a task he held until the Jets hired him in 2021.
But Saleh may not be doing the rest with Hafley’s side of the ball.
“No, I don’t want to do that. I think Haf and our defensive staff have a great thing right now,” LaFleur said. “And I totally trust them, so I think in Year 1, he has to go through that himself. So I don’t want to do that.”
Jets owner Woody Johnson fired Saleh on Oct. 8 after a 2-3 start to the season that began with high expectations given Rodgers’ recovery from the torn Achilles tendon he suffered in the first game of 2023. Saleh went 20-36 in three-plus seasons and did not lead the Jets to the postseason.
Saleh was no longer available to reporters in Green Bay on Wednesday. LaFleur joked that he told Saleh to shoot a day before the Jets cut him.
“Well, I told him to do that, but he didn’t listen to me,” LaFleur said. “So, yeah, I think it speaks to how much he loves football and obviously it’s difficult when it’s taken away from you. And I don’t think it was the right decision.” [to fire Saleh]But that’s not for me to say.”
Packers quarterback Jordan Love said he hasn’t asked Rodgers about Saleh, but he likes the theory of getting an overview of the offense from anyone with a different point of view.
“Having a defensive mind talking about offense and helping us with things that he might be able to see, things like schemes, things that the defense might be looking for, it helps,” Love said.
The Packers do not play the Jets this season.
This isn’t the first time LaFleur has made a midseason addition to his staff. In November 2022, he brought in Aubrey Delightful and would soon be released as the Lions’ defensive backs coach. Delightful helped LaFleur and the offensive staff work for the rest of that season.
