FEBRUARY 9: When speaking to ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, Johnson noted that Saleh will “concentrate” on the team’s offense this season (video link). That is notable given the latter’s background on defense, and the continued presence of much-maligned OC Nathaniel Hackett. Johnson praised defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich as well as New York’s special teams units, doubling down on the team’s abundant need for offensive improvement. It will interesting to see what alterations could be made with Saleh committing more time and attention to that side of the ball.
FEBRUARY 8: Following their offseason acquisition of Aaron Rodgers, the Jets had high hopes heading into the 2023 campaign. Those hopes were dashed when Rodgers suffered a season-ending Achilles injury on his fourth snap. The Jets still managed to finish the season with seven wins, but a five-game midseason losing streak revealed some major cracks in the foundation.
While owner Woody Johnson gave both head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas a vote of endorsement following the 2023 season, the duo won’t be completely excused for the team’s underwhelming performance. While speaking with reporters during tonight’s NFL Honors, Johnson seemed to hint that the HC/GM duo will be on the hot seat heading into the 2024 campaign.
“They’ve seen me about as mad as I could be with what was going on with the offense particularly,” Johnson said (via Adam H. Beasley of ProFootballNetwork.com). “We’ve got all this talent and we’ve got to deploy talent properly. So I think they all got the message.
“This is it, this is the time to go. We’ve got to produce this year, we have to produce this year.”
The Jets are 16-32 under Saleh, and the organization has gone 25-55 with Douglas leading the front office. While Johnson admitted that he’s not a “playoff mandate (guy),” he is counting on his coach and GM to improve on their seven-win campaign (via Costello).
During his conversation with reporters, Johnson seemed to express specific disappointment in the offense in 2023. He even took a clear shot at former second-overall pick Zach Wilson, stating that the team needs a backup quarterback since they “didn’t have one last year” (via Brian Costello of the New York Post). Johnson also pointed to the offensive line when asked about the team’s overall plan for success in 2024.
“We need to keep the quarterback vertical,” Johnson said (via Beasley). “It’s really all about the offense. For the last five years, it’s been about the offense. The offense has to score, keep the defense off the field.
“Defense is good, but we got, I think we were developing a really good plan for free agency and the draft, coaching trying to get the offense, so we have a balance, more of a balance, a balance on offense. We run the ball better in the red zone. A change in our practice schedule? We’re looking at everything. So we know we know what we can’t do, so now we got to do it.”
The owner also made it clear that he’s counting on Rodgers to return to top form. When asked if the Jets could close the gap between themselves and the top of the division, Johnson pointed directly at his veteran QB.
“Yeah. I think we can close it with Aaron Rodgers, yeah for sure,” he said (via Beasley). “We’ve got a very good defense. If we can do anything on offense. I mean, we won games without scoring a touchdown. That’s absolutely incredible.”
His company knowingly sold baby powder with asbestos in it.
If there is ANY karma in the world, the Jets…will keep being the Jets, actually.
Normally, Karma aims like Mr. Magoo with a broken bow, but when it comes to Johnson and the Jets…Karma becomes Steph Curry.
If karma were really taking a hard look at NFL owners and where their money came from, there would be a lot of lightning bolts hitting luxury boxes.
No doubt.
Woody Johnson is Karma’s broken clock moment.
They need Rodgers to be healthy coming back from a torn achilles at age 40. We’ll see how that goes.
They need two offensive tackles, ideally a high level prospect in the first round and a veteran. We’ll see how that goes.
They need to add a strong receiving complement to Garrett Wilson. They don’t have a second round pick or a ton of cap space, but there are veteran and draft options out there. We’ll see how that goes.
Even if they pull off all that, and their current players don’t regress, and they patch up some holes in the interior defensive line…
…they still have Nathaniel Hackett calling plays. This is a league where the teams that most thrive have strong offensive playcallers. Hackett is only there because Rodgers likes him. Lafleur was a better offensive coordinator, but he had to take the fall for Wilson, I guess. Saleh has built a terrific defense, but it only matters so much if the offense can’t get the car out of neutral.
I’m a Jets fan and I’m not optimistic. Don’t get me wrong, I love so much of the talent they’ve put together, and if a couple of those things above–especially Rodgers–go right, they could make the playoffs. But I’m not getting my hopes up too high.
To be fair. LaFleur was one of the ones who strongly advocated for Wilson. So he deserved to lose his job for that miscalculation alone.
He’s delusional to rely on a 39-year old. Even more so at 40.
Cheer up Woody. The offense was stinko but at least you’re Jets team ended 50 years of futility against the Eagles.
And the Patriots!
The funniest part is that every one of us casual fans commented before the season how bad the O-line was, but the GM and HC didn’t realize it! Jets jet’ing.
The best thing you can do, Woodman: fire Hackett! Don’t worry about hurting Aaron’s feelings that his buddy stinks, rip off the bandaid and let’s make something happen here
So the owner wants his D minded HC to take over the offense because he’s too afraid to tell Aaron ‘This is my team, you’re not the GM.’? Another sub .500 season coming up for the Jets. That easy to predict. Really is.
New England shyte, Miami soft, Buffalo can’t win the big one.
Yet the haters piss all over the Jets.
It’s pretty clear that ownership has been the problem with the Jets all along. Everything else is just a symptom.
One more season of AR … still without a QB2 nor protection.
Another season of frustration for Garrett
Another season of massive workload for Hall
Another season wasting an elite Defense
All those party linen “he’s our QB” only cemented Salad as the patsy for a crapfest as usual Jets front office.
party line*
Then some of these fan bases wonder why they’re the way they are. When you have a bad owner, you’re pretty much doomed. Whole interview sounded like clown s*** of the highest magnitude.
Replace the offensive line coach, get some healthy linemen in there, the Jets can have a season with 10-plus wins instead of stumbling into 7-10 or 8-9.