During his 25 years as Jets owner, Woody Johnson has been widely criticized for the team’s on-field performance.
There also has been rumored dysfunction surrounding the organization.
But following the introductory press conferences of Jets head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey, Johnson says it’s time for him to do some self-reflecting.
“I have to look in the mirror and I have to be a better owner,” Johnson said. “I’ve tried to be better and I do self scout and a lot of people scout for me.”
So, how does Johnson be a better owner?
“I think I did it by introducing the two new leaders of this team,” he said. “The second is we gotta have patience. I gotta let them evolve in these positions, which I think they will.”
The last time the Jets made the playoffs, Avatar was the biggest movie in the country, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” was the top song, and the San Francisco Giants were two months removed from winning the World Series. That was in 2010 when the Jets made back-to-back AFC Championship appearances.
Since then, Gang Green has missed the playoffs for 14 consecutive years under Johnson’s ownership, the longest current postseason drought in North American sports.
The 2024 season was again full of disappointment for the Jets and turmoil within the organization. Johnson, 77, was more involved in decision-making throughout the season.
Johnson fired a coach for the first time during the season on Oct. 8 after giving Robert Saleh the pink slip following a 2-3 start. A month later, he fired general manager Joe Douglas.
The two decisions did little to improve the Jets’ record after Jeff Ulbrich went 3-9 during his 12 games as interim coach. Gang Green finished 5-12 overall. This was after Johnson called the Jets roster the best he had had as owner.
There were also reports that Johnson was meddling and hands-on throughout the season. The Athletic reported in December that Johnson was causing dysfunction within the organization, such as reportedly wanting to bench Aaron Rodgers, getting involved in the Haason Reddick and Davante Adams acquisitions, and calling for safety Tony Adams to be benched.
“You don’t believe those reports, do you,” Johnson said when he was asked about The Athletic article.
“It was a lot of exaggeration and hyperbole, it really was. You really have to take all that stuff with a grain of salt because you don’t know how much — nobody knows how involved I was.
“Yes, I want Aaron Glenn to coach the team. I want the general manager to manage the assets and the players, and I’ll take the owner’s position.”
Johnson thinks he became a better owner after hiring Glenn and Mougey. This will be Glenn’s first chance at being a coach after he was the Lions defensive coordinator for four seasons. During that time, Detroit improved its record from 3-13-1 during Glenn’s and coach Dan Campbell’s first season in 2021 to a 15-2 record and the No. 1 seed in the NFC in 2024 before the team lost to Washington in the Divisional Round.
Like Glenn, Mougey is also getting his chance to lead an organization for the first time. He was in the Broncos organization from 2012-24. Mougey began as a scouting intern in Denver and worked his way up to assistant general manager, a role he had for three seasons prior to becoming the Jets’ new general manager.
“We had questions for each other,” Glenn said about interviewing with Johnson. “I was here when Woody bought the team, and my conversations with him back then were really, really positive.
“Coming back here on my second interview and sitting and talking with them, there’s no better person to work for when they sit there, and they tell you, and you talk about, and you strategize about having a winning commitment, and he has that, and that’s all I need to know. And we are going to continue to have conversations to make sure we continue to look at that. I trust him with everything I have, and I look forward to working with him.”
The new Jets brass, along with Johnson, will try to put a difficult season behind them and work to improve the roster. It remains to be seen if Johnson will let Glenn and Mougey do their jobs and stay out of their way.
If he does not, the Jets’ record could look a lot like it has the past 14 seasons. One thing is sure — the Jets roster will look completely different than it did the last two seasons.
Rodgers is under contract for the 2025 season but has zero guaranteed money remaining. If he retires or is released, the Jets would have a $49 million salary cap hit that they could spread out over the next two years.
Gang Green also has 28 players scheduled to become free agents, including cornerback D.J. Reed, linebacker Jamien Sherwood, and right tackle Morgan Moses.
“I’m not going to tell you how many games we are going to win,” Johnson said about the 2025 season. We’ll put the team together maybe we we’ll be in a better position.
“But they are going to put a team together, there’s a process they’re gonna go through and Darren is very good at that and that’s why he’s here. Aaron, he’s an authentic guy, and I think he’s going to be a great head coach, and he’s going to be good with coaching his coordinators and all the position coaches he has.”
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