C.J. Mosley knows what’s coming in Jeff Ulbrich’s Jets regime

Few players are closer with Jeff Ulbrich — whom the Jets named their interim coach after firing Robert Saleh on Tuesday — than C.J. Mosley. 

Mosley is in his fifth season with the team (he opted out of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and was already a staple at linebacker when Ulbrich was hired as defensive coordinator in 2021.

Mosley has been a team captain each season with the Jets and emerged as one of Ulbrich’s most trusted leaders. 

“He’s an ultimate competitor,” Mosley said on a Zoom call Wednesday. “Just working with him every day, going through the battles we’ve been through the last four years, I know what makes him tick. I know his story, I know his why, I know his family — when you know someone that intimately, then you naturally want to perform at your best for him and you want to do things to make him proud. 

“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 found a way to motivate our defensive staff and our defensive room every single day.” 

Ulbrich’s unit is second-best in the NFL in yardage this year. He oversaw top-five units each of the previous two seasons as well. 

Beyond helping high draft picks Quinnen Williams and Sauce Gardner transform into superstars, Ulbrich has helped develop less heralded players — like Quincy Williams and Michael Carter II — into some of the best at their positions across the NFL. 

And his influence has gone beyond normal members of the defense, stretching to punter Thomas Morstead. 

“I remember having a conversation with [Ulbrich] last year and asking how he ran his defensive meetings,” Morstead said Wednesday. “He said ‘Hey man, you’re part of the defense. You set us up before we go out there. We’d love to have you come sit in our night-before-the-game meeting.’ So I did that for the rest of last season. At one point, I even got a chance to speak to the guys, which was really cool.” 

Ulbrich played 10 seasons in the league as a linebacker, all with the 49ers. His energy as a former player is infectious. 

“I think the thing that I appreciate about [Ulbrich] is No. 1, he played the game at the highest level,” Morstead said. “He knows what it’s like to be a player in this league. Most guys aren’t ready to be done playing if they really love the game, and he still has kinda a player’s passion for the game. You can see that with how he talks to the guys. I hope he is just who he has always been.” 

Ulbrich briefly addressed the team Tuesday, and the team also held a players-only meeting. 

What was the new message? 

“The main thing that I heard a lot yesterday was accountability,” Mosley said. “That’s what we have to keep in mind going forward. We all have to be accountable every single day we come to the building, every single day that we wake up. Every decision that is made within our organization, especially with our team, we all have to take some kind of accountability. … I think this was definitely a wake-up call and an eye-opener for a lot of people.”