Jeff Ulbrich's plate isn't just full, it's overflowing in his first two weeks as Jets interim head coach

PITTSBURGH — So much changes so quickly in this Jetsverse lately, between trades occurring and holdouts ending and psyches erupting, it was hard to remember that Jeff Ulbrich coached just his second game as the interim leader of the team on Sunday night.

It’s supposed to be a seismic shake-up when a team fires its head coach and goes in a different direction, especially five games into a season that held such promise and still retains some reason for optimism. Given the scale of things to come, though, for the Jets that switcheroo at the top was just a ripple.

That Ulbrich’s second appearance in his new role occurred here in the league’s centerpiece of coaching stability, where the Steelers have had three head coaches in the same 55 years since the Jets won Super Bowl III, only served to underscore the tidal forces that have always seemed to impact this franchise and the choppy turbulence that have hit it of late specifically.

Consider all the things that Ulbrich has already had to navigate in his short tenure.

First he took over the team on Oct. 8 and promptly named a new offensive play-caller in Todd Downing in an attempt to rouse the slumbering unit. Then he prepared them for a Monday night division game against the Bills, which they lost. In the hours (minutes?) after that debut, he learned that the Jets had completed a deal to bring in Davante Adams. Just as Ulbrich was integrating the receiver with the team, he had to massage the bruised pride of veteran receiver Mike Williams, who was called out by Aaron Rodgers for running the wrong route on a game-changing interception and skipped two practices for “personal reasons.”

Then on the morning of Sunday night’s game, Ulbrich was told that long-term holdout Haason Reddick would be joining the Jets when they arrived back at their facility Monday morning.

Some coaches go an entire career without that much turmoil.

When he was a player, Ulbrich almost certainly subscribed to that cliched philosophy of not worrying about the things you can’t control. As a head coach, he probably thought there would be more under his direct auspices. So far that hasn’t been the case, as his general manager and owner have been shuffling the deck on him while other forces have also impacted his team.

Ulbrich has so far taken this crash course in crisis management in stride. His temperament seems suited to it even if his record is 0-2 after Sunday night's 37-15 loss to the Steelers.

But he’s not going to be judged on how he handles the strife. He’s going to be judged, like every other coach in the league, on victories. He knows that, which is why coming into the Steelers game, he was preaching a desire to get things going in the right direction as quickly as possible. Each week that passes without the Jets playing to their supposed potential is another step backward.

“I think there is a sense of urgency," Ulbrich said this week. "There has to be. That's just the nature of this league. At the same time, 2-4 [headed into the Steelers game], we are by no means out of this thing. By no means. I know the character of that locker room. I know the way we will respond. I know that.”

He remains a firm believer in the big picture, even while the little ones gnaw away at this season.

“I thought last week's process was right,” he insisted. “I thought the way we were prepared was exceptional. We have to start stacking these weeks of exceptional preparation. I promise you it will start to pay off on Sunday."

It may not be Joe Namath guaranteeing a Super Bowl, but it’s still a heck of a vow for Ulbrich to make. It illustrates how certain he is in himself and what he is doing. The players at least are buying it.

"Our team is still learning every week and we should be a little better than the week before as time goes by,” wide receiver Garrett Wilson said. “Otherwise, we're not going about stuff the right way, not approaching the practice week the right way. Hopefully, we keep this thing rolling and spread the ball around, but we need our actions to start translating to winning games and we’ve got to do it now."

Ulbrich’s message this week had to balance that slim line between urgency and panic. The Jets weren’t in must-win territory on Sunday night, but they were getting close.

“I've always believed this, that if you make these games bigger, whether it's the Super Bowl, whether it's the first preseason game, and you approach them differently, I think that's just a recipe for inconsistency,” he said. “You're going to be up, you're going to be down, you're going to be all over the place. But if you approach every single game the same and your process the same, I think that's the way you can be the most consistent. Do we want to be 2-5? Absolutely not. But we’ve got to commit to the process and then on game day, we’ve got to trust that.”

If Ulbrich can deliver such steadiness to this season, which has already been rocked by strife, drama and near-daily news bombs, he’ll do OK for himself and the team.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.