New Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich has opened on the regrets he has from his disappointing spell at New York Jets’ interim coach.
Ulbrich was handed the head coach role after Robert Saleh’s firing just five weeks into the season with their record at 2-3. Under Ulbrich, the Jets went 3-9.
The 47-year-old, who has since return to defensive co-ordinator duties with the Falcons, said he failed with the “delegation” side of the job while in New York.
“There is an element of a failure for myself in that way because I didn’t delegate,” Ulbrich said via The Associated Press.
“I didn’t. I just took it all on myself. In my mind’s eye, I was trying to create continuity and I didn’t want a fractious staff.
“I thought the best thing for me to do at that point in time was just try to keep everybody in the same role that they had just so we could keep things rolling.
“And it wasn’t the right thing to do. It wasn’t as I look back. I should have delegated. I should have given the defensive coordinator responsibilities to someone else.”
Ulbrich said he learned the value of truth-tellers rather than smoke-blowers during his time in the hotseat.
“I learned even more than I knew the value of truth-tellers on your staff,” Ulbrich added.
“There’s certain things that need to be told to the head coach that are occurring because a lot of times what I found in that interim role was, although it was interim, it was like I felt the shift in the way people talked to me and treated me and what they said to me and the lack of truth sometimes was really detrimental, you know?”
Ulbrich insists he will use the lessons learned in his new role in Atlanta.
“So it just it reinforced the idea that [Morris] is going to need me in that way, to make sure that I’m always telling the truth and maybe, you know, eliminating some of the blind spots that he doesn’t see,” Ulbrich said.
Ulbrich will call the defensive plays under Morris but plans for a collaborative effort with the entire staff.
“This is going to be a collaboration on the highest level,” Ulbrich said. “It would be criminal of me not to take advantage of these guys, you know, or have some hard conversations.”
