The New York Jets were eliminated from the playoffs a few weeks ago for the fourteenth consecutive season. They are 4-10 and never really had a chance this year. It is clear to many people that there are problems in the organization. It looks bad from the outside, but how bad can it really be?
Answer: unimaginably, almost incomprehensibly bad. And it all appears to be coming from team owner Woody Johnson, the 77-year-old heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune who has owned the Jets since 2000.
According to Zack Rosenblatt, Diana Russini and Mike Silver of The Athletic, Johnson’s hands-on, meddlesome approach to ownership has hampered the team, especially in recent seasons. They spoke with more than two dozen current or former Jets players, coaches and executives, all of whom were granted anonymity so they could speak freely.
“There are organizations where it is all about winning,” a player on the 2023 team told The Athletic. “It feels very different (with the Jets). It’s the most dysfunctional place you can imagine.”
Johnson reportedly ruled out trading Jerry Jeudy because of the Madden rating
One of the most eye-catching, mind-bending, mind-bending parts of The Athletic’s extensive report on Johnson is what he did in March when then-general manager Joe Douglas was about to trade for wide receiver Jerry Jeudy. Douglas reportedly had everything in place for the Denver Broncos, the team Jeudy played for in 2023, and just needed Johnson’s approval to put things in motion and bring in a player who could have been another offensive weapon for QB Aaron Rodgers.
But instead of giving his approval, Johnson reportedly abandoned the transaction and the deal never materialized. Why?
Douglas told the Broncos that Johnson did not want to make the trade because the owner felt Jeudy’s player rating in “Madden NFL,” the popular video game, was not high enough, according to sources from multiple leagues.
Real NFL stats are used to create Madden ratings, but they’re calibrated for use in the video game itself, where the digital players can do things their real, human counterparts couldn’t possibly do. It is not clear whether Johnson knows the purpose and intent of Madden ratings, or if he has ever played the game himself.
Johnson’s teenage sons, Brick and Jack, reportedly influence their father’s decisions
According to The Athletic, Johnson’s fixation on Madden ratings is thanks to his teenage sons, Brick and Jack. They reportedly have their father’s ear, which is why he likes to share posts from social media platform X and other media outlets with team leaders.
“When we discuss things, you’ll hear Woody quote something that Brick or Jack read online and it’s weighed equally against the opinion of anyone else in the department,” a Jets executive told The Athletic.
A Jets spokesperson disagreed that Brick and Jack influenced their father’s decision-making.
“It is used as a reference point; it is not decisive,” the spokesperson told The Athletic. ‘It’s really sad that an adult would use a misleading anecdote about teenagers to make his father look bad. Frankly, it’s ridiculous that this was used to influence the opinions of experienced managers.”
But before the 2024 season, Douglas reportedly told close friends, “I answer to a teenager.”
Those teens reportedly have more influence than their father’s opinions. Johnson reportedly allows his sons and their friends access to the team’s locker room, where only players, coaches and other team personnel are typically allowed. According to The Athletic, Brick and Jack were heard insulting Jets players in the locker room after games. And Brick’s presence led to a deflating moment in the locker room after the team’s victory on Halloween, its first under interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich.
Rodgers had a game ball in hand to give to Ulbrich, a tradition when a head coach gets his first win. That didn’t happen.
But before Rodgers could say anything, Brick Johnson grabbed another game ball and awarded it to wide receiver Garrett Wilson in a profanity-laced shoutout that the owner’s son later posted on Instagram. Woody Johnson then gave Ulbrich the ball that Rodgers was holding. Several players said they felt the energy drain from the room.
“It was the most awkward, cringe-worthy, brutal experience,” said one player.
