Tag: New York Jets

Two former Saints receivers sign with new teams during Tuesday roster moves

Two former New Orleans Saints receivers have signed with new teams during Tuesday’s roster moves, both will move to the AFC:

Two former New Orleans Saints wide receivers have signed with new teams in the AFC, the first of which being Stanley Morgan Jr. who signed with the Saints in the 2024 offseason and was waived as a part of the final roster cuts. He will move on to the Tennessee Titans where his former coach Brian Callahan is now, and he will likely get an opportunity whether it be on special teams or as a depth receiver. He will begin on their practice squad, however, and needs to work his way up to the active roster.

The other receiver who was signed is Easop Winston Jr., who was on the Saints back in 2021 for the season, and cut early in the 2022 preseason process. Interestingly enough, the first game he was ever called up for in the NFL was against the New York Jets, which is where he now will be signing on the practice squad as well. Winston looked solid in preseason for the Seattle Seahawks, including a touchdown scored against the Tennessee Titans.

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Seahawks cement 1st place status w/ Rams blowout loss on SNF

Seahawks cement 1st place status w/ Rams blowout loss on SNF

The Seattle Seahawks defeated the Arizona Cardinals 16-6 on Sunday to claim their first home win since late September. Because they won, the Seahawks moved into first place in the NFC West, which was previously occupied by the Cardinals solely. However, Seattle’s perch atop the division was only temporary… it would not be fully decided until the conclusion of Sunday Night Football.

The Los Angeles Rams, also 5-5 going into Week 12 like the Seahawks, were hosting the Philadelphia Eagles. Had the Rams prevailed in prime time, they would have forced their way into the first place conversation with a 6-5 record, as well as better division record and head to head win over Seattle.

Instead, they were promptly trounced by the Eagles to the tune of 37-20. Philadelphia ran all over Los Angeles… literally. Superstar running back Saquon Barkley erupted for 255 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, as the Rams had no answers for him.

As a result, LA fell to 5-6, further cementing the Seahawks’ grip on first place. Additionally, the San Francisco 49ers – who were without starting quarterback Brock Purdy – were also blown out, losing 38-10 to the Green Bay Packers on the road.

As a result, here are the current NFC West standings:

  • Seahawks 6-5
  • Cardinals 6-5
  • Rams 5-6
  • 49ers 5-6

Of course, with every team being within a game or two of each other, these standings can change drastically each week. I mean, two weeks ago the Seahawks were in dead last place. Seattle will also have to face Arizona in two weeks, and then conclude the season with a road game against Los Angeles.

There is still plenty of football left to be played, but the Seahawks are firmly in the driver’s seat for the division.

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Rex Ryan’s pitch to coach the Jets again is actually brilliant

Rex Ryan sold us on another tenure.

If I’m Woody Johnson, I’m listening very hard to Rex Ryan making his pitch to come back and coach the New York Jets again.

While speaking to ESPN New York’s Bart & Hahn, Ryan — now with ESPN — he made a pitch that was pretty darn good.

“There’s way too much talent on this team to play the way we’ve been playing. Period. And how hard can you get a guy to play? That’s the thing. Like, nobody’s seen a team gonna play the way as hard as this team’s going to play in the future, trust me. If I’m the guy. Trust me.”

Listen to this whole thing and tell me you don’t agree.

LET’S GO EAT A GOSHDARN SNACK!

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Report: Jets tried to trade a WR to Broncos this spring

The Jets offered Allen Lazard and a “Day 2 draft pick” to the Broncos for Jerry Jeudy, but Woody Johnson nixed the deal, per The Athletic.

Before the Denver Broncos agreed to trade wide receiver Jerry Jeudy to the Cleveland Browns this spring, they received a better offer (in terms of draft picks) from another AFC team.

Former New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas — who was fired this week — offered the Broncos a “Day 2 draft pick” and wide receiver Allen Lazard in exchange for Jeudy, according to a report from Zack Rosenblatt and Dianna Russini of The Athletic.

The second day of the draft features the second and third rounds, so that would have been better compensation for Jeudy than what the Broncos ended up getting from the Browns (fifth- and sixth-round picks).

The Jets deal was vetoed by New York co-owner Woody Johnson, according to the Rosenblatt and Russini report.

Getting a higher draft pick for Jeudy would have been nice, but Denver also would have inherited Lazard’s contract. The receiver, turning 29 next month, is scheduled to have base salaries of $11 million in 2025 and 2026.

After Johnson nixed the trade, the Broncos later traded Troy Franklin and Devaughn Vele in the NFL draft. Those receivers will have team-friendly contracts over the next four years with the highest cap hit among them being Franklin’s $1.4 million charge in 2027.

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Woody Johnson wanted to bench Aaron Rodgers after Broncos beat Jets

After an ugly loss to the Broncos in Week 4, Jets co-owner Woody Johnson suggested benching quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

The New York Jets had a meltdown following their 10-9 loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 4.

Following that loss, Jets co-owner Woody Johnson wanted to bench veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who struggled against the Broncos’ defense.

One day after the loss, Johnson held a meeting with team brass and “suggested to the coaches that they bench Aaron Rodgers in favor of Tyrod Taylor because he felt Rodgers’ performance was holding the team back,” according to a report from The Athletic‘s Zack Rosenblatt and Dianna Russini. The report has since been confirmed by ProFootballTalk.com’s Mike Florio. Jets coaches and general manager Joe Douglas talked Johnson out of it.

Two months later, Douglas has been fired. New York is 3-8 and it would take a near-miracle to reach the playoffs this season. Rodgers has completed 63.4% of his passes for 2,442 yards with 17 touchdowns against seven interceptions through 11 games this fall.

It appears that the Jets never bounced back from that Broncos game.

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Jets owner Woody Johnson reportedly wanted to bench Aaron Rodgers after Week 4 loss

Oh.

As if the New York Jets weren’t already a dumpster fire this year, The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt and Dianna Russini dropped a bombshell report on Tuesday night that showed even more signs of aggressive dysfunction.

According to Rosenblatt and Russini, Jets owner Woody Johnson actually wanted to bench quarterback Aaron Rodgers after the team’s Week 4 loss to the Denver Broncos.

Yes, you read that correctly. The Jets owner wanted to bench Rodgers four games into his comeback season from his 2023 Achilles injury.

If your jaw is on the floor, consider this is a franchise that has already fired its head coach (Robert Saleh) and general manager (Joe Douglas) this season. Here are Rosenblatt and Russini on the details on this reported fracas.

“According to those sources, the day after the Jets’ loss to the Denver Broncos on Sept. 29, there was a contentious meeting at the team facility,” the report read. “It included [Woody] Johnson, [Joe] Douglas, vice chairman Christopher Johnson, team president Hymie Elhai, and Ira Akselrad, an advisor to Johnson. It also included a group of coaches: then-head coach Robert Saleh, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, then-defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich and special teams coordinator Brant Boyer among them.The coaches had been called in to explain what happened with their units during the 10-9 home loss to the Broncos. During the meeting, [Woody] Johnson suggested to the coaches that they bench Aaron Rodgers in favor of Tyrod Taylor because he felt Rodgers’ performance was holding the team back.

“The coaches and Douglas, stunned at the suggestion, talked him out of it and convinced Johnson to stay the course and that benching Rodgers, with his pedigree, four games into the season would not sit well with the locker room. The coaches also felt it would embarrass Rodgers. The idea of benching the future Hall of Famer sounded so absurd that one coach asked whether the owner was serious — multiple sources from that meeting believed he was.”

Welp! As if the Jets 3-8 season wasn’t bad enough, here’s this brand-new controversy. We’re sure Rodgers will take this report well.

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Nick Saban pal, former Alabama football analyst named acting GM of NFL team

The New York Jets have announced their interim general manager. It’s a name that Alabama fans will definitely recognize.

A former Alabama football analyst, commentator and Nick Saban chum is the new interim general manager of the New York Jets.

Veteran NFL and college football mind Phil Savage was promoted to the role of interim GM Tuesday after the Jets fired outgoing general manager Joe Douglas following five-plus seasons.

Savage broadcast Alabama games with Eli Gold from 2009-2017. More recently, he had been a team advisor for the Jets. Savage was previously the general manager of the Cleveland Browns for four seasons before being fired in 2008.

He joined Gold and CTSN (Crimson Tide Sports Network) in 2009 and called four national championship seasons for Saban and the Crimson Tide. Savage worked during game weeks to provide data and scouting reports on Alabama’s upcoming opponents, he said in his 2018 book, 4th and Goal Every Day: Alabama’s Relentless Pursuit of Perfection.

Savage and Saban also worked in the same organization with the Browns in the early 90s. Saban was Cleveland’s defensive coordinator at the time while Savage was a chief scout for the team.

Savage left CTSN in 2018 to become general manager of the Arizona Hotshots in the short-lived Alliance of American Football League (AAF). He joined the Jets as a front office assistant in 2019.

The Jets are in the midst of a disappointing 3-8 season and are tied for last place in the AFC East.

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Former Browns GM gets a second chance in the Big Apple

Phil Savage has been named the interim GM of the Jets

Former Cleveland Browns general manager Phil Savage is getting a second chance with the New York Jets.

Waves made their way through the Jets facility on Tuesday morning when the team announced the firing of general manager Joe Douglas. In his place, they would name former Browns scout turned general manager Phil Savage in his place as the interim position.

This marks the second major move made by the Jets this season after firing head coach Robert Saleh earlier in the season.

Phil Savage will have a short period to audition for the full-time role and he’s more than likely serving as a placeholder, team Chairman Woody announced that the search for a new general manager will begin immediately.

Phil Savage has made his way around the football world in his career, acting as Browns’ general manager between 2005 and 2008, working in the front offices of the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles, running the short-lived Arizona Hotshots of the Alliance of American Football league, color commentating for the Alabama Crimson Tide, working as an insider for ESPN, and directing the Senior Bowl for seven years in Mobile, Alabama, where he grew up.

Most recently, Savage made his way back into the NFL joining the New York Jets as a Senior Advisor in 2019 as a part of Joe Douglas’ new front office. Now with Douglas gone, he’ll be tasked with finding a replacement for the man who hired him.

Should the Ravens have an interest in adding Joe Douglas to the front office?

Baltimore should have an interest in bringing Joe Douglas back to the Ravens front office after he was fired by the New York Jets

The Ravens are always diligent about having a solid front office and player personnel group, and a former architect could be available. Joe Douglas was fired by the New York Jets on Tuesday after amassing a 30-64 record as the team’s general manager.

The move comes several weeks after the team fired head coach Robert Saleh following a 2–3 start. Saleh finished his tenure in New York with a 20–36 (.357) regular season record overall.

The Jets requested permission to interview Douglas and hired him over then-Chicago Bears Assistant Director of Player Personnel Champ Kelly, New Orleans Saints Director of Pro Scouting Terry Fontenot, Minnesota Vikings Assistant General Manager George Paton, and Seattle Seahawks Director of Player Personnel Scott Fitterer.

Before joining the Jets in 2019, Douglas was a longtime scout with the Baltimore Ravens before becoming an executive with the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles. Douglas began his NFL career in the Ravens personnel department in 2000 and worked there until 2015.

Douglas joined the Eagles franchise in 2016 and was responsible for running the Eagles draft board and scouting department, turning the latter into the best in the NFL.

Douglas quickly developed a reputation around the league as a critical cog in Howie Roseman’s front office while playing a role in constructing the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII-winning team and the deep roster for the 2019 season.

Douglas drafted Derek Barnett and Andre Dillard for the Philadelphia Eagles while he was the team’s general manager from 2017–2019.  Rasul Douglas, Dallas Goedert, Josh Sweat, and Jordan Mailata are just a few of the players that Douglas played a part in the Eagles’ drafting.

Douglas amassed a dismal 30-64 record since taking over as Jets GM and could return to Philadelphia or Baltimore in the offseason.

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The Jets are firing everyone who trusted Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers is quickly running out of allies on the Jets.

Once upon a time, the New York Jets brain trust put all of its eggs in the Aaron Rodgers basket. General manager Joe Douglas, who had 20 total wins in four years before acquiring the egotistical four-time MVP, thought Rodgers was his ticket to sustained success. Head coach Robert Saleh, a man who had witnessed the comical foibles of Zach Wilson firsthand, agreed. Despite all the glaring warning signs from a passive-aggressive end to his tenure with the Green Bay Packers, Rodgers was Douglas and Saleh’s golden goose at all costs of their professional reputations and self-respect.

Now, both Douglas and Saleh are unemployed because they gave Rodgers undue faith he didn’t deserve. On Tuesday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Jets had fired Douglas just about a month after they jettisoned Saleh for the same “Rodgers let us down … badly” reasons.

If you weren’t born yesterday, you saw this news coming awhile ago:

On some level, I do understand the inclination to label Douglas another Rodgers scapegoat while the woeful Jets flounder. Rodgers is one of the most prominent figures in football history. He has built up such a tremendous cache of goodwill over nearly two decades as a professional quarterback (on the field) that it would probably take a lot for an owner like Woody Johnson to ever (completely) punt on the (imaginary) possibilities he presents.

But I don’t think Douglas is a Rodgers scapegoat that lets the future Hall of Famer get off scot-free for incinerating any hope this Jets regime once had. That sentiment applied much more to Saleh, who was a vessel for Rodgers’ discontent because he had a precedent of showing that he thought he knew better than his coaches over the years. Saleh was someone who never vibed with Rodgers, so the Jets were happy to throw him under the bus without a second thought when their season still, technically, wasn’t over.

At 3-8, Douglas going down with the ship now feels very different. This is the Jets cutting everyone who bought Rodgers’ brazen snake oil loose without a second thought. It’s ownership making a tacit acknowledgment that acquiring a (then) semi-washed diva like Rodgers for multiple high-end draft picks was a mistake which wasted everyone’s time with the organization.

How do I know this for certain?

Well, dearest readers, that’s because Rodgers — a year after tearing his Achilles, mind you — is having the worst statistical season of his career.

Rodgers hasn’t thrown for 300 yards in a game all season. (The last time he threw for 300 yards in a game was in December 2021.) He’s also averaging his lowest yards per attempt and has his lowest passer rating since his two initial non-starter seasons in Green Bay in … 2005 and 2006. This is beyond a quarterback struggling. This is a player who is a hollow husk of the all-world talent he once was, now at the helm of the NFL’s 17th-ranked offense on an expected points added (EPA) per play basis. Any time you might think the Jets have a modicum of hope, at this point, Rodgers throws it away himself.

And I think it’d be silly to assert that Johnson and Jets ownership doesn’t recognize this grim reality. Rodgers will be 42 come December of next year. He has just one year left on his current contract. The Jets, as it stands, have the No. 7 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Given the way Gang Green is in a complete nosedive now, don’t be surprised if that draft selection ends up being a top-five pick with the next Jets regime sticking its neck out for a new young quarterback to develop while Rodgers plays his usual brand of high-profile obscurity. That is, if they even keep him around for another season.

Nonetheless, until Rodgers’ fate is decided, the Jets will offload every way-too-willing sycophant who dared trust him in the first place. Without question. The likely next suspect on the list? Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, who has sworn by Rodgers’ antics for the last half-decade like a lowly barnacle attaches itself to the hull of a well-worn ship.

In the coming weeks, if I were Hackett, I would make sure to have my bags packed. Just in case. The Jets’ purge of everything and everyone even somewhat connected to Rodgers has likely only just begun.