NEW GUY, MEET OLD BOSS
Don’t underestimate how strange Jet situation really is
obert Saleh hasn’t spoken to Woody Johnson yet and can’t say if Sam Darnold is his starting quarterback in 2021.
Other than that, the Jets’ plan is crystal clear.
So much for taking politics out of sports.
Johnson, 73, fresh off an ambassadorship on behalf of the only U.S. president to be impeached twice, was scheduled to return from London early Thursday evening.
He will re-assume his duties as the Jets’ principal owner “quite soon,” according to acting Jets chairman and CEO Christopher Johnson, who has run the franchise the past four years in his older brother’s stead.
“(Woody) will be chairman. I’m gonna be vice chairman,” Christopher Johnson, 62, said. “I’m going to be doing an awful lot of the dayto-day stuff. All of the final decisions will be his.”
While Woody Johnson’s eventual return to the Jets organization was expected given the election’s results, however, the late timing means both GM Joe Douglas and the Jets’ new head coach, Saleh, now will be working for a chairman who was not involved in their hiring.
Saleh, 41, who came off genuine, enthusiastic and a good nervous in his introductory press conference, said he believes football’s business is about people above all.
“It’s people that make things work,” Saleh said. “It starts at the top.”
But when Saleh then rattled off the Jets’ brass, he cited Christopher Johnson, Douglas and president Hymie Elhai because, as Douglas said, those three were the “primary people in this whole process” that led to Saleh’s hiring.
Douglas, 45, also said: “My interactions with Woody have been very limited.” Saleh said: “(I) haven’t had a conversation with Woody yet. Really excited to get the opportunity to in the near future.”
The coach and GM both said they were excited to build a relationship with Woody Johnson and fold it into the “collaborative” dynamic they’ve created, something Saleh referred to frequently.
Saleh had no reservations about the unknown of working for a chairman who did not hire him.
“I’m not concerned at all,” Saleh said.
Still, all sarcasm, hyperbole, and politics aside, the fact is that the man returning to run the Jets had no hand in hiring the GM and head coach now running his team.
That is unusual, and it injects a level of unknown into the immediate and long-term of what the Jets’ vision is, what it will be, and whether it can be executed with everyone pulling in the same direction.
Christopher Johnson did say the Jets have altered their reporting structure. The GM and coach now will no longer report to the owner separately.
“That structure has changed. Joe will report to me. Robert will report to Joe,” Christopher Johnson said.
And based on the hierarchy, of course, Woody Johnson has final say above all.
“It seems a clean and simple way to do things, but honestly not much really changes,” Christopher said. “We have very good communication already. I don’t think that’s gonna alter things here all that much really.”
This is not to say the Jets can’t win under Woody Johnson.
On his watch, Rex Ryan had the Jets in back-to-back AFC Championship Games in 2009 and 2010. Woody’s record since buying the team in 2000 is 132-140 (.485 win percentage) in 17 seasons with six playoff appearances.
Christopher’s mark the past four years is 1846 (.281) with no postseason trips. The Jets have fired both a GM and head coach within the past 20 months and they hold this spring’s No. 2 overall pick for a reason.
Saleh clearly connected with Christopher Johnson, though. He spoke to the new vice-chairman’s “authenticity.” He lauded Johnson as one of those “authentic people who have heart to do things that are right and who have humility to listen and implement different ideas.”
“It is hard to fail — I believe in my heart — it is hard to fail when you have those qualities as a person,” Saleh said. “He has a tremendous amount of passion to get this organization moving in a direction we all can be proud of.”
Saleh clearly means what he says and is deeply passionate about making this work. It is obvious why players who have played for him love him, and it is obvious why Christopher Johnson said “we knew we had our coach once he was in the building” for his second interview.
Saleh spoke of investing in players like they’re his own children.
“When they feel the investment, they’ll give it back,” he said. “Sometimes there’s that notion of coaches coach, players play, and I’ve never taken to that notion. I believe coaches and players are in this thing together.”
He went as far as to say the Jets’ goal under his leadership will be to connect to their players’ well-being and help them play well on Sundays “so they can get paid as much as possible.”
“Everyone says it’s a business. I get it, but it’s not,” Saleh said. “This is a personal investment to people. And the most important people are the ones who strap up on game day and step between the lines.”
While Saleh has his players’ interests at heart, though, he still doesn’t know who will be playing the most position for his team. Asked if he would commit to Darnold as his starter in training camp, Saleh said it would be “premature” to answer that definitively.
“There’s a lot of things we have to do moving forward,” Saleh said. “We’re just getting the staff into the building. So there’s so many things we have to do from an evaluation standpoint with regards to the entire roster, not just the quarterback. To give you that answer right now would not be fair.”
Saleh and new offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur do reportedly see “untapped potential” in
Darnold, per ESPN. And Saleh said people in the Jets’ building have high opinions of the QB.
“We know what Sam has done. I know how people around this building feel about him. A lot of positive things. People love him in the locker room. Everybody sees his talent,” Saleh said.
But Darnold is coming off a bad third season, he is not a Douglas draft pick, and he was also drafted while Woody Johnson was overseas.
Now the Jets have the No. 2 pick and a chance to take a new QB such as Ohio State’s Justin Fields or BYU’s Zach Wilson and maybe trade Darnold.
Or, and this is something to watch, could Woody Johnson’s presence increase the likelihood that the Jets will make a push to trade for the Texans’ disgruntled Deshaun
Watson? Johnson was instrumental in trading for Brett Favre and for Tim Tebow. He loves a big headline. The decision that Douglas and Saleh make at quarterback, after all, must tie in to what ownership’s expectations are for how soon this new regime must start winning. With Woody Johnson back, what will be his mandated timeline to become a competitive team again?
Executing a trade for Watson would give the Jets an A-list centerpiece at QB but also put pressure on Douglas and Saleh to win games immediately. (Watson, who has a no-trade clause, also would have to sign off.)
Saleh insisted “whether there’s time, where we are now, it’s all irrelevant, because as we move forward, everything we do from this day forward is to win championships.”
He also said “I do believe there is a lot of talent on this roster” but admitted they must examine “how those different pieces fit to the schemes we’re about to deploy.” And that kind of evaluation and adjustment in roster-building and philosophy does not happen overnight. ll in all, Saleh sounds like he could be the right man for the job. He is not running from the Jets’ recent failures. He has embraced the challenge of turning it around.
“You can’t hide from the past, but you can encourage people to judge you on the future… (on) what we do and how we operate as an organization,” he said.
With Woody Johnson back, however, it’s not clear how they’ll operate. So although Saleh had a lot of good answers Thursday, he still can’t answer the two most important questions: how his owner will run the team, and who his quarterback is.
In the NFL, nothing matters more.
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