ENGLEWOOD • Robert Saleh and Vic Fangio go way back.

Saleh, now the Jets coach, and Fangio, the Broncos coach, spent one season together in Houston with the Texans in 2005. Fangio was the Texans’ defensive coordinator, while Saleh was a defensive intern.

Now, 16 years later, the intern will go up against his former mentor.

“He’s not much for words,” Saleh said Thursday. “Shoot, the first time I went out to dinner with him I think he maybe only said two words to me and I was like, ‘God, this guy is having a terrible time.’ And he got up and he said, ‘Hey man, that was fun. We’ve got to do it again some time.’ I was like, ‘Alright.’ So you learn the person as you get to know them.

“I took a lot from Vic. He’s one of the more detailed men I’ve ever been around. He’s got tremendous conviction in his philosophy. And you can see his personality, believe it or not, in the way they play.”

Saleh and Fangio’s teams appear to be heading in different directions as they prepare to face each other Sunday. The Jets are 0-2, while the Broncos are 2-0 for the first time in Fangio’s tenure in Denver. Still, Fangio has always believed Saleh had a chance to be a good coach in the NFL and still does.

“Back then, we were only one season together, and he came in late that year,” Fangio said Monday. “Great work ethic and had a good feel for the game. You could tell he had a bright future as a coach.”

The two have remained friends, often playing golf together. Saleh joked Thursday that Fangio has an “old-man swing that goes right down the middle 200 yards and I’m busy trying to pound it 300 yards going off of every fairway, so he’s a better scorer than I am.”

But no matter who’s better at golf, the respect between the two is evident.

“He’s an introvert. But his interaction with players is meaningful,” Saleh said. “He actually has a very good sense of humor and players gravitate to him because of his knowledge and because of his care for the player. Yes, he’s got his way of communicating but it’s still super effective because of how convicted and how knowledgeable he is.

“Vic really is one of the more genuine people I’ve ever been around. And like I said, I’m very fortunate to been able to cross paths with him and know him.”

Saleh impressed by Bridgewater, Miller

Saleh also spoke about Broncos quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and outside linebacker Von Miller.

The Jets coach and former 49ers defensive coordinator (2017-20) had praise for both, starting with Bridgewater who has thrown for 592 yards and four touchdowns through two games.

“He is, to me, one of the more underrated starting quarterbacks in this league,” Saleh said. “Yes, he was a firstround pick and all that, and he had that terrible injury, but ever since then, the league has a tendency to kind of tag people with a stigma. But his release is super quick, he’s very accurate, he’s a tremendous decision maker, he’s got mobility — I mean, he is everything you’d want out of a starting quarterback... He really is a fantastic quarterback and there’s a reason Denver being 2-0 and racking up over 400 yards per game on offense, is not a fluke.”

And as for Miller, Saleh said pass rusher “still garners a lot of attention” despite his age (32) and season-ending injury last year. Miller has three sacks in the first two games.

“You see people chipping him, you see teams sliding to him, they’re still trying to take him out of the game,” Saleh said. “He’s explosive. The one thing about guys like him — he’s a veteran. Half his game is still being savvy, understanding pass rush and pass protection and how to defeat protection and blockers and the angles to the quarterbacks and setpoints and all that. He still has that craftiness to him, he’s still explosive and he looks just fine.”