Damning Report Blasts Jets

#571

Good morning ☕

If there is a negative report out there on the Jets, chances are it’s originating at the Athletic. For as much as Rich Cimini is given a hard time for his negativity, he rarely has the kind of pieces we’ve seen come from the Athletic, yet despite their multitude of sources, they never really break any news. Saying that, the report is as believable as they come, but it makes for very uncomfortable reading. I’m going to cover that this morning.

As disillusioned as some have become when it comes to the Jets, reading a piece like the one in the Athletic is still difficult.

It pained the picture of a weak HC who became infatuated with his QB, an owner who is meddlesome and brings negativity into the building and a GM who basically has to work at the whim of his QB.

Here are some of the key bits from the piece, anything bolded is a direct quote from the article.

• Jets failed to adapt after the injury to Rodgers.

• “It’s just such a f—ing mess,” one Jets coach said. “Something has to change.”

• In New York, Rodgers was afforded a direct line of communication to general manager Joe Douglas.

• “Rodgers isn’t the assistant GM,” one AFC general manager said. “Joe Douglas is the assistant GM.”

• Saleh still remains very hands-off when it comes to the offensive side of the ball, allowing Rodgers and Hackett to calibrate it.

• Growing pains were expected in a new offense full of new personnel, but one coach said it was concerning how little urgency Hackett and his staff showed in trying to fix it, saying he’d never seen a team watch less practice tape in training camp than the Jets did with Hackett.

• Jets did test the waters with free agent QBs after Rodger’s injury, reaching out to Henne, McCoy and Wentz, but people inside the building thought that Joe Flacco wouldn’t be an upgrade on Zach Wilson.

• Johnson is known around the building for being active on Twitter, consuming criticism from fans and media alike. According to team sources, Johnson often shared those opinions with Saleh in conversations about what wasn’t working on offense.

• Multiple coaches and players described Hackett as lacking in attention to detail. For most of the season, Hackett would meet with offensive line coach/running game coordinator Keith Carter and passing game coordinator Todd Downing during the week but wouldn’t get together with the rest of the offensive staff until the “last minute” of game prep.

• Coaches asked for adjustments but Hackett never made them. Offensive line coach Keith Carter asked for help for Duane Brown against Micah Parsons and Hackett wouldn’t or didn’t provide it. Something we spoke about after the game here on TJW.

• Talking about Lazard’s comments following the 30-0 loss to the Dolphins: New York was “out-efforted” and “out-schemed.” Those comments angered some of the team’s defensive leaders, team sources said, especially because they came from the floundering Lazard.

• Hackett will return as the offensive coordinator in 2024, though team and league sources say Saleh has explored adding to the offensive staff and creating a more collaborative play-calling process that would reduce Hackett’s role, a clear indication the team has lost confidence in his ability to run the offense on his own.

• Saleh’s positivity is largely not retained behind closed doors. He would openly say the Giants got preferential treatment in terms of how they were covered, and wondered aloud if he was always going to let down by his offence. He wanted public support from owner Woody Johnson and QB Aaron Rodgers. He often looked at how other HC’s had done with backups using their stats to back his own, and said openly that getting to 8-wins with Zach Wilson would be a “miracle”.

• Saleh told Zach that he would be inactive the rest of the season following his benching in week 12, and openly said the team were going to try and trade him. Saleh then reversed that decision and asked Zach to prepare as it he was playing and Zach then expressed reluctance to play (Athletic report that was vehemently denied by everyone). Saleh asked Rodgers to talk to Wilson but it didn’t work and Wilson’s feelings about his idol soured over the season.

• Wilson, along with some Jets teammates and coaches, grew tired of the way Saleh fawned over Rodgers, according to team sources.

• Wilson told coaches and teammates he was under the impression he’d have a direct line to Rodgers, even after Rodgers tore his Achilles and flew home to California for surgery in the early stages of his rehab. Instead, Wilson barely heard from him.

This created quite a firestorm on Twitter…but I asked the question, does it really tell us anything we didn’t already know?

We know that Rodgers holds too much power. We know that Saleh while a good defensive mind really doesn’t get involved in the offence. We know that Woody is problematic and we know that JD basically has to work with an Aaron Rodgers-sized block around his neck. We know the defence got frustrated with the offence and we knew that Hackett was useless, a very poor coach who needs Rodgers to save him.

The Athletic claimed that they spoke to 30 sources close to or within the building and I’ll be honest, I find that hard to believe. Knowing a few people inside that building, having 30 people speak to the media is hard to belive, and despite 30 people opening up…we actually learned very little new information.

Winning cures everything. Over to you Rodgers.