The saying in sports is that one can’t win with bad ownership.
Woody Johnson has spent the Jets season putting on a master class in that.
In a damning article by The Athletic, Johnson’s incompetence as an owner appears to be the top culprit for the Jets’ disastrous 4–10 season that will extend the longest active playoff drought in North American sports to 14 years. And given the very high expectations the Jets came into the 2024 season with, finding someone to point the finger tends to start at the top.
The accusations leveled against Johnson in the story range from consulting his teenage sons for help building the team, giving input on wall decor at the practice facility, and citing the popular video game Madden as a reason for nixing trades.
And that was just this season.
The article paints Johnson as an owner who operates on instinct over rationale, interferes with every decision, and is ignorant of his role in the team’s dysfunction.
Since buying the team from Leon Hess in 2000, Johnson has led an organization that has had pockets of success, but it has never been able to sustain it as it has churned through eight coaches (nine if you count Bill Belichick’s one-day tenure) and seven GMs in 24 years. The team came within a game of the Super Bowl in 2009 and 2010, but it hasn’t sniffed the playoffs since.
Referencing Players’ “Madden” Ratings
This past offseason the team appeared close to a trade with the Broncos to acquire wideout Jerry Jeudy, giving Aaron Rodgers another weapon when he returned from his torn Achilles, which happened four plays into the 2023 season. Both front offices felt a trade was imminent, according to The Athletic. Johnson halted the trade, citing Jeudy’s player rating in Madden NFL, which he found to be lackluster. (Players’ Madden ratings are based on many data points, including official game statistics, among others.)
The Browns wound up acquiring Jeudy, who’s in the midst of his first career 1,000-yard season in Cleveland.
Five weeks into the season after a 2–3 start, Johnson proposed benching Rodgers, which has been previously reported. A team spokesperson told The Athletic that Johnson “was being provocative” and suggested the idea simply to see how it would go over.
The Jeudy talks weren’t Johnson’s only cameo in trade talks this past year. When the team traded quarterback Zach Wilson to the Broncos in April, the Broncos asked for the final pick in the draft—257th overall—which the Jets held in addition to the one before it. The pick is known as Mr. Irrelevant and historically hasn’t produced many standout players aside from 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy. Johnson asked then-general manager Joe Douglas to trade the 256th pick so the team could keep the lower Mr. Irrelevant pick, which always gets some publicity. The Jets selected Alabama safety Jaylen Key with the final pick, who spent a couple of months on the team’s practice squad before being released. He’s now on the Bengals’ practice squad.
Johnson reportedly called for interim coach Jeff Ulbrich to bench starting safety Tony Adams in November. He also had the team practice during its bye week, which wasn’t well-received in the locker room. Douglas was fired in November with his swan song coming as a bizarre visual—Johnson arrived in his helicopter in the middle of practice.
Employees believe the Madden references are the influence of Johnson’s teenage sons, Brick and Jack, 18 and 16, respectively, who have shown up in more team meetings over the years. Johnson takes their opinions seriously. “I answer to a teenager,” Douglas once said to those close to him, which acknowledged the sons’ influence, according to The Athletic.
While discussing free-agent offensive lineman John Simpson this past offseason, Johnson mentioned his Madden rating, saying Simpson had a mediocre “awareness” rating. The team signed him anyway and he’s been part of an improved offensive line.
“It is used as a reference point; it is not determinative,” a team spokesperson said to The Athletic about Brick’s and Jack’s opinions within the context of organizational decisions.
Brick Johnson had a memorable locker-room appearance on Halloween, after he awarded a game ball to wideout Garrett Wilson in an expletive-laced speech. At the same time, Rodgers was giving his own celebratory speech, awarding Ulbrich his own game ball for getting his first career win as head coach. Woody Johnson wound up giving the game ball to Ulbrich in what one player told The Athletic was “cringe-worthy.”
A Hands-On Approach
There are plenty of other incidents illustrating an owner perhaps too willing to meddle in the minutiae of team management while struggling to achieve on-field success.
Aaron Rodgers’ absence during the 2023 season left the Jets with an incompetent offense, highlighted by Zach Wilson’s poor play and Nathaniel Hackett’s play-calling. Hackett and Rodgers worked together in Green Bay, and Johnson reportedly wanted Hackett fired. Johnson and Rodgers discussed it at the end of the season, and a team source told The Athletic the meeting “didn’t go well.”
Quarterback and owner met again after the team lost to the Vikings in London on Oct. 7 to fall to 2–3. Rodgers told Johnson to be patient. He didn’t listen.
The next day, shortly after Robert Saleh stripped Hackett of play-calling duties, Johnson and his brother and co-owner, Christopher, walked into the head coach’s office and fired Saleh, because they didn’t think he could turn the season around. Rodgers didn’t agree with the decision.
Before the 2024 season, Johnson allegedly wanted Saleh’s “All Gas, No Brakes” slogan to be taken off the walls at the team facility. The Jets dispute that. “Another completely out-of-context and false narrative,” the team spokesperson said to The Athletic. “That was removed as part of the entire organizational rebrand.”
Johnson has also sent members of his investment group, nicknamed The Bobs by employees (a reference from the movie Office Space), around the practice facility asking staff about their jobs and ways the team can improve.
Internally, employees seem to be rooting for Johnson to rejoin President-elect Trump’s administration for the second time after having a better experience working under Christopher, who stepped in while Woody served as ambassador to the U.K. (Trump recently nominated billionaire Warren Stephens for the U.K. job, which The Athletic said came as a surprise to the Jets’ owner.)
But as Trump’s cabinet positions continue to fill, the possibility of another Johnson sabbatical continues to dwindle, which doesn’t bode well for a Jets turnaround.
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