Robert Saleh and Mike McDaniel have been friends for 16 years, but Sunday they will be rivals

Robert Saleh and Mike McDaniel have been friends for 16 years.

But Sunday will be the first time Saleh and McDaniel will be rivals on the opposing sidelines.

In their first AFC East game of the season, the Jets (2-2) will host the division-leading Miami Dolphins at MetLife Stadium.

“It’s a tremendous challenge because at the end of the day with all of their speed, Mike is at heart a run, run first guy,” Saleh said. “He wants to run the ball. They’ve got exotic runs, and you’ve got to be able to pay attention to that part of it because if you just sit there and try to play as far back as you can, they can gash you in the run game.

“It’s a tremendous challenge because of the amount of stress they put on you vertically and horizontally. It’s a challenge, a challenge that we’re excited for.”

Saleh and McDaniel career’s parallel one another in many ways.

Saleh began his NFL coaching career in 2005 as an intern for the Houston Texans. He eventually worked his way up the ladder as Saleh became the team’s defensive quality control coach and later the assistant linebackers coach.

In 2006, McDaniel met Saleh when he was added to the Texans staff as an offensive assistant once Gary Kubiak became the coach. This was after McDaniel was an intern for the Broncos in 2005.

“He was a squatter when he first got the job in Houston, which was hilarious,” McDaniel said about Saleh. “I came with Gary Kubiak and Troy Calhoun, really, from the Broncos. In Houston, what was then Reliant Stadium, we had an office where there was one guy in there when I got there, and it was Robert Saleh, and he hadn’t been terminated.

“He hadn’t been terminated, I think he had like two more weeks of pay or something. So he did an excellent job of just forcing his hand and getting face time with the head coach. There were a lot of those stopgaps at the beginning of Robert Saleh’s career.

“Always a sponge. Always unbelievably smart. He would always blow my mind because we’d have a problem with our printer, we’re trying to print Visio or Excel or something, and he wouldn’t call IT. He’s always (been) super smart, but had some hiccups in his career, which I really, really respect because he just really stayed true to himself (and) kept pressing.”

After McDaniel left Houston in 2009 and Saleh in 2010, the two reunited in 2017 after Kyle Shananah made Saleh the San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator. During this time, current Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur was also on the 49ers’ staff as their passing game coordinator.

During their four seasons together, success didn’t come easy for the 49ers as they endured losing records three out of four years. However, in 2019, Saleh, McDaniel and LaFleur were part of a San Francisco team that won the NFC and reached the Super Bowl before losing to the Kansas City Chiefs 31-20.

He’s a great, great man,” LaFleur said about McDaniel. “It’s obviously well-documented how smart of a coach he is, but now he is getting to show how good of a leader he is, we all knew that in San Francisco, everyone in Atlanta knew it, guys in Cleveland knew it, Miles Austin and all those other guys.

“Now he is able to get up there in front of the team, be the leader that he always knew he was, great person, great family man, his wife Katie, and his daughter Ayla are absolutely beautiful, and he’s one of my best buddies, so outside of this Sunday, and obviously one more Sunday, you wish him all the best, but this week it’s about the Jets and the Dolphins.”

After their time with the 49ers, Saleh and McDaniel are now both coaches for AFC East rivals. Saleh was hired by the Jets in 2021 to turn around a franchise that hasn’t been to the postseason since 2010. McDaniel took over a Dolphins team with back-to-back winning seasons but decided to move on from the previous coach Brian Flores.

Sunday’s matchup is enormous not only because of how Saleh and McDaniel are linked to one another, but also because a win would be significant for both teams. The Jets are coming off a come-from-behind 24-20 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Also, Gang Green has lost 12 consecutive division games, as its last AFC East win came against the Buffalo Bills on Dec. 29, 2019.

Miami has gotten off to a 3-1 start, with two of those wins against division opponents (Patriots and Bills). So a victory would continue to solidify the Dolphins’ place in the division.

The Jets have talked about closing the gap within the division and Sunday’s game is a perfect opportunity for the team to show they can do exactly that.

“That’s what makes division games different,” Saleh said. “It’s personal because it’s like fighting your brother because you just get sick of each other. They’re some personal feelings carried over from one game to the next.

“The easiest way to get to the playoffs is to win your division. With all of those, does it make it a little different, yeah. Does it make it bigger, not necessarily as you just want to make sure you hold your own in the division if you truly want to look at yourself as a team that can take that next step and be a consistent playoff contender or being a part of that discussion.”