Jets owner Woody Johnson impatient yet optimistic about 2024
Jets owner Woody Johnson, left, poses with his family on the red carpet at the NFL Honors awards show Thursday ahead of Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas. Credit: AP/Charlie Riedel
LAS VEGAS — Jets owner Woody Johnson said he is not the type of owner who delivers playoff mandates to his head coach and general manager.
Then he went ahead and pretty much did it anyway.
“The discussions I’ve had in the last couple of months, they’ve seen me about as mad as I can be with what was going on with the offense particularly,” Johnson, owner of the Jets, said of the anger he has shown Robert Saleh and Joe Douglas. “We have all this talent and we have 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 playoffs aren’t exactly the bar, he said grudgingly, “but we have to do a lot better than seven [wins]. Definitely.”
There’s nothing new in that concept other than Johnson saying it out loud on the red carpet at NFL Honors on Thursday night. After a disappointing season, he decided to stick with his two key decision-makers for what will essentially be an Aaron Rodgers do-over. There won’t be a third chance.
A year ago the Jets were in celebration mode at this event. Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner each won a Rookie of the Year Award while Joe Klecko and Darrelle Revis were announced as Hall of Famers.
The future was bright, and it got brighter when the Jets traded for Aaron Rodgers in April.
On the red carpet last year, Johnson said the Jets needed a quarterback, and for four snaps at least they had one.
Asked what the Jets need this year, he said: “We need to keep the quarterback vertical.”
There are other things on the Jets’ to-do list, too.
“We’ve got Garrett Wilson, we have Breece [Hall]. We have AVT [Alijah Vera-Tucker]. [Joe] Tippmann. I think we need a guard at least. Maybe a couple tackles. And a receiver. What else?”
A backup quarterback was suggested.
“You need a backup quarterback,” he agreed. “We didn’t have one last year.”
Technically they did, but Zach Wilson wasn’t up for the task and the Jets never brought in legitimate alternatives after Rodgers tore his Achilles in the opener. The Jets are expected to attempt to trade Wilson this offseason, efforts that might be hampered further by Johnson’s dismissive characterization of his play.
As for that moment in Week 1 when all the Jets’ hopes for 2023 crumbled to the ground with their quarterback, Johnson, speaking publicly for the first tie since the injury was asked what it felt like to see that happen.
“What does it feel like having your arm chopped off?” he asked back. “That’s about it.”
When news broke late in the season that Saleh and Douglas would be returning, the coach said of Johnson, “Just the language and conversations, he obviously challenges us every day.”
Johnson said Rodgers will continue to have a voice in any decisions or strategies that take place this offseason.
“He is a free thinker,” Johnson said. “He’ll say anything. But he is a clear thinker and a deep thinker and he is very very intelligent. He remembers every play he has ever played. He has strong opinions on the way the team is built and we are digesting exactly how to interpret that. You need an interpreter a little bit there. But I couldn’t be more impressed.”
He also said he has no doubts that Rodgers will return from his injury, now at age 40, and be able to play at a high level.
“He got a hole-in-one out here in Shadow Creek,” he said. “I’ve seen him throw. He’s unbelievable. He’s such a gifted athlete.”
Even if he isn’t at the level that won him four MVP awards and a Super Bowl with the Packers, Rodgers shouldn’t have to do a whole lot to improve the Jets’ offense that averaged 15.8 points per game.
“It’s really all about the offense,” Johnson said. “For the last five years it’s been about the offense. The offense has to score, keep the defense off the field. The defense is good … If we can do anything on offense, I mean, we went games without scoring a touchdown. That’s absolutely incredible.”
By the time he headed into the awards ceremony, Johnson was expressing optimism that 2024 will be far better than 2023 for the Jets.
“We have to put a winning team together,” he said. “And that’s what we’re going to do.”
If they don’t, at least now we know exactly what the repercussions will be.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
