No. The jack was going no matter what. I highly doubt they made the decision to kill the jack dependent upon whether AirPods would be available when the phone launched.
AirPods are an accessory; phone works just fine without them.
The two things are almost assuredly related, though. I highly doubt that it's a coincidence that Apple removed the headphone jack at the same time it rolled out the AirPods. Apple wants people moving to the latter.