Tag: Christopher Johnson

Report: Jets have no intention of trading Jamal Adams

According to SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano, the Jets have no intention of trading All-Pro safety Jamal Adams anytime soon.

Contract negotiations between the Jets and Jamal Adams may not be going as smoothly as both sides would like, but that does not mean New York is preparing to ship away its All-Pro safety.

According to SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano, the Jets have no intention of trading Adams and are committed to making a long-term extension with him happen. The expectation is that New York and Adams will eventually come to terms on a contract that will make him a “Jet for life.”

Adams is entering the fourth year of his four-year, $22.2 million rookie contract and wants to get paid before his rookie deal expires. More specifically, all signs point to Adams wanting to get paid this offseason. Jets general manager Joe Douglas and CEO Christopher Johnson have maintained that they want to keep Adams in the Big Apple, but it appears the organization is not in a rush to do anything right away.

Douglas reached out to Adams’ representation shorty after the 2020 NFL Draft to open initial discussions regarding a contract extension. However, the Jets’ preference is to wait before extending Adams long-term.

New York’s reluctance to aggressively pursue an extension with Adams has led to rampant trade rumors throughout the last couple of weeks. According to Vacchiano, the Jets have not had any meaningful trade discussions involving Adams since October’s trade deadline, when the Cowboys and numerous other teams inquired about the 24-year-old’s availability.

Adams wants a contract that would make him the highest-paid safety in football. That means any deal would have to surpass Eddie Jackson’s $14.6 million per year salary. Timing, not money, is the reason why the two sides currently find themselves at an impasse.

The Jets want to wait to extend Adams, largely because they hold all of the leverage in contract negotiations. He is signed through 2021 and New York could use the franchise tag on him once, or even twice. With that kind of financial control working in their favor, it makes sense that the Jets want to save some money and wait as long as possible to extend the LSU product.

Adams is currently refusing to participate in the Jets’ virtual offseason program. Could a training camp holdout be in store once New York returns to its facilities? That remains to be seen. It doesn’t look like contract negotiations between the Jets and Adams are going anywhere anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be donning the Green and White next season.

In other words, don’t expect Adams to be anywhere but at One Jets Drive in 2020.

Betty Wold Johnson, mother of Jets owners Woody and Christopher, dead at 99

Betty Wold Johnson, the mother of Jets owners Woody and Christopher, has died at the age of 99.

Betty Wold Johnson, the mother of Jets owners Woody and Christopher, has died at the age of 99. The team announced her passing on Friday but did not specify a date or cause of death.

Johnson “was a renown philanthropist and long-time contributor to arts, education and healthcare initiatives throughout the New Jersey and New York regions,” per the Jets’ obituary. She was described as “a staunch supporter of her sons and their passions” who “used to refer to Jets players as her grandchildren.”

“There are very few people in this world who live to 99,” said former Jets RB Curtis Martin. “And I’m sure if you go back and look at everything she did for other people, you could probably write a book on her from a philanthropic standpoint… She had such a charitable heart and a charitable way about her.”

Per the team’s release, Johnson grew up in Minnesota, where she attended Golden Gophers games with her father. She married Robert Wood Johnson, who died in 1970. The couple had five children together, including Woody and Christopher.

WATCH: The moment Mekhi Becton became a New York Jet

The Jets official Twitter account gives a behind the scenes look at the moment Mekhi Becton officially became a New York Jet.

Mekhi Becton realized his NFL dreams Thursday night when the Jets used the 11th pick on the Louisville tackle.

Prior to announcing the selection, Joe Douglas called Becton, telling him how “ironic” it was that they were talking for the second time in 24 hours. The Jets had Becton in mind all along and even with Tristan Wirfs falling out of the top-10, the Lousiville offensive tackle was still the No. 1 player on the Jets’ board.

Take a look at the moment Becton found out he was joining Gang Green:

Becton couldn’t hold back his excitement. From Douglas to Christopher Johnson to Adam Gase, Becton had the same level of emotion. He certainly seems ready to come in and get ready to protect Sam Darnold’s blindside as he kept repeating the phrase,” I’m ready! Let’s go!”

Johnson family, Jets donate additional $2 million to COVID-19 relief

The Jets and the Johnson family are donating $2 million to support COVID-19 relief response in New York and New Jersey.

The Jets and the Johnson family continue to do their part in helping combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The team announced Thursday that it is donating an additional $2 million to COVID-19 relief in New York and New Jersey. The Johnson family already donated $1 million to United Way agencies in the tri-state area.

“On behalf of my family and the Jets, we would like to extend our support to these organizations who battle daily against an unprecedented challenge,” said Jets CEO Christopher Johnson. “No region in the country has been affected by COVID-19 more than ours and because of that, our resolve has only grown. These organizations continue to nourish the vulnerable and target the needs of those on our front lines. At no time has being a good teammate ever mattered more.”

The $2 million donation will go to organizations that center on food insecurity, first responders and regional relief.

Jets, Johnson family donate $1 million to fight coronavirus outbreak

In a join donation, the Jets and the Johnson Family gave $1 million to three United Way agencies in New York, New Jersey and Long Island.

The Jets have joined the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.

The team, along with the family of owner Woody Johnson, will make a joint $1 million donation to three United Way agencies in the local area, according to the Jets’ website. All three organizations – located in New York City, northern Jersey and Long Island – have set up funds to send aid to those affected by the pandemic, either physically, financially or both in vulnerable areas. They are the UWNYC Covid-19 Community Fund, the ALICE Recovery Fund, and United Together: A Response Fund for COVID-19.

“The United Way continues to improve lives around the world and we need community-based organizations more than ever at this moment,” Jets CEO Christopher Johnson said. “Everyone has been impacted by this invisible enemy and the United Way is meeting it head-on at home, helping those disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and the economic consequences of the outbreak.”

The Jets and the NFL have been partners with United Way since 1973 and the agencies the team donated to will help people in areas where the outbreak has spread the most. New York City currently has over 12,000 cases, while Nassau County has over 2,400 and the state of New Jersey has 1,914 reported coronavirus cases.

The Jets aren’t the only NFL team or group to contribute to help stop the spread of the virus. Donations from various players, teams and owners throughout the sports world have been pouring into the country since the pandemic shut down every major sports league earlier this month. 

Antonio Cromartie calls for Adam Gase’s job, wants Jets to hire Eric Bieniemy

Antonio Cromartie wants the Jets to fire Adam Gase and hire Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.

Add Antonio Cromartie to the list of people who don’t believe Adam Gase is the right man to lead the Jets.

The cornerback spoke to TMZ about his feelings toward Gase, and he didn’t exactly give a ringing endorsement. One of the main reasons Cromartie doesn’t like Gase is because of the way he uses and treats running back Le’Veon Bell.

“We don’t give our running back the ball in the second half of a game,” Cromartie said. “It just shows you that you’re trying to say that you don’t need him.”

Gase was reportedly against paying a 27-year-old running back, Bell, a lucrative contract, but former general manager Mike Maccagnan did it anyway. Bell received a four-year, $52.5 million deal from the Jets, but his usage was limited in 2019 and he had one of the worst years of his career.

During the season, Gase seemed to avoid handing the ball off to Bell in the second half of games. He claimed it was because of the game flow, but there were plenty of times when the Jets could have used him. Meanwhile, in the one game Bell missed due to an illness, Gase made it a point to run the football with Bilal Powell and Ty Montgomery.

If Cromartie had his way, he would have fired Gase after the season, despite him leading the team to a 7-9 record after a 1-7 start. As for who Cromartie would replace him with, he would go straight to Andy Reid’s staff and hire his offensive coordinator.

“I would go get Eric Bieniemy,” Cromartie said.

Bieniemy did interview for the Jets job after the 2018 season, but New York elected to go with Gase instead. He interviewed for a handful of openings this offseason but didn’t get hired.

To the dislike of Cromartie, Gase will be the Jets’ head coach in 2020. Christopher Johnson guaranteed him another year during the middle of last season. Whether Cromartie likes it or not, Gase isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Jets, Adam Gase continue pattern of struggling after the opening drive

The Jets won but looked bad on offense after an impressive opening drive. This, sadly, has become a trend for Adam Gase’s Jets in 2019.

The Jets heralded Adam Gase as the offensive genius whose play-calling would elevate them from the drudges of the AFC when they hired him in January. But even in the Jets 16-10 win over the Steelers in Week 16, Gase proved once again he doesn’t know how to craft sustained drives after the first offensive series of the game. 

After the Jets’ opening 11-play, 75-yard drive concluded with a beautiful touchdown pass to Robby Anderson from Sam Darnold, New York’s offense sputtered. The Jets averaged only 4.1 plays for 15.3 yards per drive through their next 12 possessions, which netted only nine points and one appearance in the red zone.

This continues a worrisome pattern for the Gase-led Jets. If you take a look at the six other games New York scored on its opening possession, the offense looked dynamic, powerful and dangerous on that first drive, averaging 10.8 plays for 74.8 yards with four touchdowns and two field goals. That’s the type of play-calling the Jets wanted from Gase. But after those first drives, the Jets’ offense looked much like it has throughout the season — horrid.

Let’s take a look at those six games:

Week 8 vs. Jaguars (loss)

Opening scoring drive: 11 plays, 98 yards

Average drive after first: 3.4 plays, 9.6 yards

Week 9 vs. Dolphins (loss)

Opening scoring drive: 11 plays, 80 yards

Average drive after first: 5.1 plays for 14.4 yards

Week 10 vs. Giants (win)

Opening scoring drive: 12 plays for 71 yards

Average drive after first: 4.2 plays for 11.6 yards

Week 11 vs. Redskins (win)

Opening scoring drive: seven plays for 70 yards

Average drive after first: 5.5 plays, 30 yards

Week 12 vs. Raiders (win)

Opening scoring drive: 10 plays, 79 yards

Average drive after first: 5.3 plays for 32 yards

Week 13 vs. Bengals (loss)

Opening scoring drive: 13 plays, 51 yards

Average drive after first: 6.8 plays, 22 yards

The pattern is obvious. Gase rarely, if ever, builds a drive better than his first one of the game. That makes sense from the perspective that coaches spend the entire week prior to crafting the perfect plays for their opening drive so they get points quickly. 

This wouldn’t be a big deal if Gase’s Jets scored on every opening possession. The problem is, those six games plus the Steelers’ win were the only times they did. It took the Jets until Week 8 to score a point on their first possession, which at the time was the longest streak in the NFL. 

Gase’s Jets have six wins after Week 16 – a miracle given the roster construction, injuries and play-calling by the coaching staff. But just because the Jets have won more games than anticipated shouldn’t take away from the fact Gase hasn’t been able to adjust his gameplan over the course of the contest. It’s a huge reason why the Jets ranked 28th in points, 31st in yards, 29th in plays and 32nd in yards per play heading into Week 16.

The win over the Steelers is nice, but in the grand scheme of things, it won’t matter for the Jets in 2019. Their season is over and they should be focused on the 2020 season – which means evaluating the current roster and correcting the mistakes that led to this disappointing season. This play-calling pattern is a huge problem that needs to be resolved this offseason if Gase is to succeed as the Jets coach.

Six wins look good on paper, but if New York doesn’t dive into the minutia of its games and fix the many problems it has (both from a personnel and coaching/play-calling standpoint), the same results could doom Gang Green in 2020 before the offseason even begins. 

A pattern of behavior only the Jets could pull off

Jets Wire breaks down New York’s alarming recent pattern of behavior.

Only an organization as dysfunctional as the Jets could have one of their star players make headlines for going bowling on a Saturday night.

News broke on Tuesday that running back Le’Veon Bell went bowling hours after he was ruled out for New York’s Week 14 matchup with the Miami Dolphins. Bell isn’t in trouble for his night on the lanes, but this is an issue that is much bigger than just one player.

Whether or not there’s really an issue with what Bell did is up for debate. What’s not up for conversation is the direction the Jets are trending in from a behavioral standpoint. Time and time again, members of the organization make questionable decisions that paint the organization as a circus.

Considering some of the things that have transpired in the past year, calling the Jets a circus might be putting it nicely. Let’s rewind to the offseason in order to appropriately recap New York’s dysfunction. A head coach won a power struggle with a front office executive and forced him out of a job. That’s not a never seen before occurrence in sports, but it’s a rare one nonetheless.

Despite Adam Gase’s victory over Mike Maccagnan, the damage was already done in terms of free agents that Gase was never behind in the first place. New York’s first-year head coach didn’t want to break the bank to bring in Bell. In what looks like an effort to prove his point, Gase has not altered his offensive scheme to fit Bell’s running style in the slightest. He has seldom used him in the passing game as well.

In other words, Gase has essentially gone out of his way to prove his point to ownership. He’s the smartest guy in the room and he’s going to do things his way with the personnel that he, not general manager Joe Douglas, feels is the best fit for his team. Based on his behavior, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say Gase is sabotaging the operation just to prove to Christopher Johnson that he is the alpha dog in the organization.

There have also been a series of specific leaks to the media that makes you wonder what’s going on behind closed doors at One Jets Drive. It’s not a coincidence that Bell’s night at a bowling alley or Sam Darnold’s escapade at a club after a win were leaked directly to one media outlet. Whether it’s Gase behind it or another member of the organization, it’s a concerning pattern.

And all of that is to say nothing of the injury disputes involving Kelechi Osemele, Luke Falk and Quincy Enunwa. Or the trade rumors that swirled around Bell and Jamal Adams. The Jets realize future prospective players can see this all from afar, right?

It’s almost as if the Jets go out of their way to put themselves in the news at this point. Almost nothing is kept in-house at One Jets Drive. Leaks are inevitable in today’s world, but why does almost every other organization in the NFL limit what information gets made public, while everything the Jets do is on display for the world to see?

It comes back to the same old Jets mantra. Nothing will ever change if the organizational higher-ups don’t take a look in the mirror and right some blatant wrongs. Until then, there’s no doubt that New York’s alarming pattern of questionable behavior will continue for the foreseeable future.

Jets in danger of falling out of top 10 in 2020 NFL draft

the Jets are in danger of falling out of the top 10 in the 2020 NFL draft after picking up three straight wins.

While it’s great to see that the Jets are stringing together a few wins, it’s also hurting their position in the 2020 NFL draft.

According to Tankathon, the 4-7 Jets currently own the tenth pick in the 2020 draft. The Jets are one of four teams who are 4-7, but only one of them is ahead of them and that’s the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars are ahead of the Jets because they beat the Jets earlier this season.

The Jets have plenty of holes to fill, including offensive line, wide receiver and cornerback. The draft is where you tend to fix these holes. So while the winning is nice, more likely than not they’re not going to make the playoffs and their primary focus will be on the draft.

Christopher Johnson has already said that Adam Gase will be back next season, so losing won’t put his job in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Joe Douglas was just brought in this year, so he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

Obviously, the players on the field want to win, so they aren’t going to tank just for a draft pick. The next couple of the games should work in the Jets’ favor too, which again will hurt their draft stock.

But this team needs some sort of confidence heading into 2020. Ending the season on a sour note won’t be good for next season. More likely than not the Jets won’t fall too far down in the draft even with a couple of more wins.

Jamal Adams proving why Jets need to keep him

The Jets can lock up Jamal Adams as early as this summer and they should seriously consider it after his second consecutive three-sack game.

Remember the idea of trading Jamal Adams after the season? Scrap it. The Jets will and should pay Adams for what he is: the best safety in the NFL.

Adams proved to the Jets for the second-straight game how much of a game-changer he can be on defense. Adams followed up his two-sack, nine-tackle performance that included a fumble recovery touchdown in Week 10 with a three-sack outing against the Redskins on Sunday. He leads the Jets in almost every defensive statistic and looks like a reinvigorated man on a mission after trade rumors upset him after the deadline. 

“I understand my worth. I know what I can bring to a team. And I’m so excited to be a part of this Jets organization,” Adams said after the game. “I’m the best doing it. That’s all that matters.”

Players of Adams’ caliber don’t come around often. When they do, teams generally try and keep them around for as long as possible. Though Adams appeared to be on his way out of New York after a tumultuous trade deadline week — he refused to talk to Adam Gase or Joe Douglas and made ambiguous statements about his future with the franchise — the safety knows he’s due for a big paycheck as early as this offseason. Every week he puts up games like his past two, his price only goes up – either on the trade block or in the negotiating room.

Douglas rightly asked for the moon when discussing trades for Adams at the deadline, and now it looks like two early-round picks might not even be enough to acquire Adams’ services. The safety is a game-wrecker and is on pace to break the NFL sack record for a defensive back set by Cardinals’ safety Adrian Wilson in 2011. Adams has a team-high six sacks through 10 games and only needs two more to tie Wilson’s total and three to top it.

Credit to defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who has unlocked Adams’ pass-rushing ability. Adams is blitzing more from the edge than he’s ever done in his career and he’s getting consistent pressure on quarterbacks. He has nine quarterback hits to go along with his six sacks. Adams is enjoying the blitz packages and his role as the versatile safety in Williams’ scheme. 

“The picks aren’t coming my way,” Adams said, pointing out his lone interception compared to his six sacks, “so I thought I’d do something different.”

Teams build identities off players like Adams. His swagger and skill blend seamless for what the Jets want to cultivate as they continue in the Gase-Douglas era. Adams provides the figurehead on defense next to Darnold on offense and to take that away for a couple of draft picks is a useless long-term play that detracts from any promising future the team may have.

But it will cost the Jets to keep Adams. A lot. Landon Collins and Kevin Byard each signed a contract this past offseason that pays them $14 million and $14.1 million a year, respectively. Those will be the starting point for Adams. 

He’s worth it.

You take away Adams and the Jets have no star on defense. No leader. No one who can terrorize quarterbacks and wide receivers alike. He is the heart and soul of the Jets defense and he’ll command a salary that recognizes that.

Christopher Johnson knows this. That’s why he told Adams he wants him to be a Jet for life. Douglas knows this even though he fielded trade calls for him less than a month ago. Gase definitely knows this and acknowledged Adams’ game-changing ability after the Redskins game.

“You feel him the whole game on the sideline [and] on the field,” Gase said. “He’s bringing everything he has. He’s just laying it all out there… It’s very impressive to watch him play. It’s as consistent as you can get, too. He’s making unbelievable plays week after week.”

The Jets don’t have many stars on their team. Darnold is still a work in progress, Quinnen Williams is young and who knows how long Le’Veon Bell and Robby Anderson will remain on the roster. Adams is the closest thing the Jets have to a face of the franchise, and they need to keep him around as long as possible.