Tag: Woody Johnson

Raiders fans: Be thankful at least this guy isn’t the owner of the team

Fans of every NFL team not named the Jets should be thankful Woody Johnson is not the owner of your team.

Yeah, the Raiders have not been good for a good long while. And yeah, fans have plenty to be upset about, including with regard to the ownership job being done by Mark Davis. But should you ever lament how the team has performed under Davis, just say to yourself ‘at least we don’t have Woody Johnson calling the shots.’

Woody Johnson is the owner of the Jets. And hoo buddy is he a real piece of work.

Today a report came out in The Athletic that had some real doozies by Johnson.

One of them was after a game in 2022 when QB Mike Johnson played through a broken rib and after the game, in the locker room, threw his helmet. Johnson saw it and said “you should throw your helmet, you f—king suck.”

Can you even imagine Mark Davis ever saying something like that? Hard to imagine anyone in a position of authority saying some crap like that. But that’s good ol’ Woody.

Another story comes from this past offseason when he stepped in to nix a trade deal with the Broncos for receiver Jerry Jeudy…because of the player’s Madden rating.

In case you didn’t know, despite all the issues at QB in Cleveland, Jeudy is having a career year, and has already surpassed 1000 yards. And when *Browns* ownership is thanking you for being an imbecile, you’ve really accomplished something.

But back to the whole Madden rating thing. Seriously, this is like peak NFL fan insult territory here. I mean, how many times have you heard somebody essentially call another fan’s idea stupid or naive by saying ‘this isn’t Madden’?

Now imagine if that ignorant fan was implementing their dumb ideas to overrule actual NFL GMs and coaches on how to run a franchise?

Then imagine that impulsive unqualified fan boy was named Ambassador to the UK by a certain former administration and has since ordered everyone to refer to him as “Mr Ambassador”. Even though the unearned title ended four years ago.

You would have an entitled trust fund baby like Woody Johnson. Who, by the way, also takes advice from his own two trust fund baby teenage sons and allows them to have access to the locker room postgame and inner workings of the team.

The results of his and his sons’ overbearing, meddling presence has made Jets a complete laughing stock and the most dysfunctional franchise in the NFL. It is not a coincidence the franchise last made the playoffs 15 years ago.

Even with as bad as the Raiders have been, they’ve at least made the playoffs twice in that span.

The entire article is worth a read. There is a laundry list of Johnson’s terrible meddling and boneheaded, impulsive ideas and overconfidence in his acumen. At least Mark Davis seems to understand his shortcomings in terms of knowledge of the business and game of football and attempt to lean on those who do when making decisions.

So, yeah, I suppose it’s a low bar to clear, but be thankful, Raiders fans, you don’t have Woody effing Johnson in charge of your team.

Garrett Wilson reportedly wants off the Jets and has the Madden rating to make it happen

Wilson wants off the Jets’ sinking ship and could you really blame him?

These days, it’s very hard to deny the New York Jets are a glorified circus act masquerading as a professional football team.

After promises of being this moribund franchise’s savior, Aaron Rodgers is a washed-up pseudo-intellectual with zero self-awareness. Meanwhile, owner Woody Johnson is passing up on trades because his sons don’t like some players’ Madden ratings. Seriously.

New York’s mess is, quite frankly, beyond parody.

This should make it no shock to learn that one of the Jets’ actually promising young players — third-year receiver Garrett Wilson — wants to leave this doomed enterprise.

According to ESPN’s Rich Cimini during the latest episode of the network’s Flight Deck podcast, people in Wilson’s circle believe the playmaker will ask to be traded during the 2025 offseason. While that is not specifically Wilson saying this, if people close to him are already reading the tea leaves about his future, it’s not a stretch to assume that Wilson does want the chance to flourish elsewhere:

In a broken Jets offensive situation, Wilson is on pace to start his NFL career with three consecutive seasons of at least 83 receptions and 1,000 receiving yards. Just imagine what the electric receiver could do in a functional offense with a gifted quarterback who isn’t past their best days. He seems to understand what he could bring to a better team and organization and knows that the Jets are likely going nowhere moving forward.

And if Wilson wants a seamless path out of New York, he can rest easy knowing that his Madden rating isn’t high enough. At the moment, it’s just 86 overall, which is 22nd among all receivers. Ugh, that’s so mid. If you ask the Johnson scions, you simply have to trade away a player like that!

They’re not worth the trouble!

Woody Johnson reportedly rejected Jerry Jeudy Jets trade due to … Madden ratings?

This is BAD.

Ready for the latest damning “THAT’S SO JETS” story?

Here’s one from The Athletic: apparently, the New York Jets were thinking about trading for then-Broncos wideout Jerry Jeudy.

Owner Woody Johnson was typing on his phone. Then, when GM Joe Douglas spoke with the Broncos, he ” told the Broncos that Johnson didn’t want to make the trade because the owner felt Jeudy’s player rating in ‘Madden NFL,’ the popular video game, wasn’t high enough, according to multiple league sources.”

Huh? What the? Why? Does Woody play Madden? Here’s some insight from the piece that points to reported influence from his sons:

When Johnson left for the U.K. in 2017, his sons, Brick and Jack, were 11 and 9, respectively. When he returned, they were teenagers. Last year, Johnson started including his sons in some meetings at the team facility. For some Jets employees, the sons’ increasing involvement clarified their father’s propensity for sharing posts from X and articles from various outlets, including a blog called “Jets X-Factor,” with the organization’s top decision-makers.

“When we’re discussing things, you’ll hear Woody cite something that Brick or Jack read online that’s being weighed equally against whatever opinion someone else in the department has,” said one Jets executive. …

Johnson’s reference to Jeudy’s “Madden” rating was, to some in the Jets’ organization, a sign of Brick and Jack’s influence. Another example came when Johnson pushed back on signing free-agent guard John Simpson due to a lackluster “awareness” rating in Madden. The Jets signed Simpson anyway, and he has had a solid season: Pro Football Focus currently has him graded as the eighth-best guard in the NFL.

The Jets denied that the Johnson kids had a hand in making calls, but this isn’t great!

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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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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.

WATCH: Jets’ Jeff Ulbrich locker room speech post-Texans win

WATCH: Jets’ Jeff Ulbrich locker room speech post-Texans win

New York Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich made his post-win locker room speech in Week 9 all about his team.

Then in due course, following the 21-13 victory, attention was turned to the head coach by team owner Woody Johnson.

After Ulbrich broke it down to his players, as he discussed the “outside noise” before the game, Johnson awarded Ulbrich with the game ball.

After all, it was the first win of Ulbrich’s brief head coaching career.

Check out the special moment in the clip below:

Scary Halloween for Woody Johnson: Jets fans chant ‘sell the team’

Scary Halloween for Woody Johnson: Jets fans chant ‘sell the team’

The New York Jets had a brutal first half on “Thursday Night Football” against the Houston Texans in Week 9.

Team owner Woody Johnson has heard a message from fans.

We know that because everyone heard it on television, too.

Heading into halftime down 7-0, the Jets faithful decided to chant something specific toward Johnson…

“Sell the team.”

Woof.

A 2-6 start will do that, not to mention, being down on the scoreboard once again.

The chants were shared to social media and can be found below:

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Jets owner Woody Johnson is optimistic at 2-4: ‘We’re going to kick…’

Jets owner Woody Johnson is optimistic at 2-4: ‘We’re going to kick…’

There’s proof in the pudding and words when it comes to Jets owner Woody Johnson.

Johnson spoke at the NFL owners’ meetings on Tuesday. That happened shortly after the Jets traded for All-Pro receiver Davante Adams.

Despite the excitement around the move, it’s still worth asking: Will it work out after the team got off to a 2-4 record to start the season?

Johnson thinks so. He was asked if 2024 was salvageable.

Yes, was the answer.

“Salvageable? We’re going to kick…you can fill the word in,” Johnson told reporters.

Johnson met with a group of reporters. A video of that chat was shared by The Athletic’s Dianna Russini which can be found below:

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