New York Jets Troubles Summed Up In One Knife-To-Heart Paragraph
The most troubling paragraph perhaps of the entire NFL season was written about the New York Jets this week.
And if you're a Jets fan and you're hoping the 2024 season can finally deliver the championship promised you in 2023 – not to mention about 40 years before that – fuhgeddaboudit, as they say in town, because your team has a problem. And the problem is terminal.
The Jets, you see, are rife with betrayal.
And disrespect.
And obvious dysfunction.
EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - DECEMBER 3: Team Owner Woody Johnson of the New York Jets cheers during introductions in the game between the Atlanta Falcons vs the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on December 3, 2023 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Al Pereira/Getty Images)
Report That Shows Jets Dysfunction
That is clear to anyone that reads a well-reported story in The Athletic that outlines all the problems the team endured during the past season. The tale includes a lot of stuff we know, such as coach Robert Saleh pining for the endorsement of quarterback Aaron Rodgers near the end of the season as the team was on the deathbed of a 7-10 season that met no one's expectations.
And some of it we didn't know, such as owner Woody Johnson going on X (formerly Twitter) and reading opinions from fans and media about what's wrong, then sharing those with employees in the Jets building, including Saleh.
But none of that is the killer.
The killer is tied to the incident in which quarterback Zach Wilson, benched a couple of times during the season, was reluctant to get back in the lineup near the end of the season when he was asked to do so because he didn't want to risk getting injured and potentially hurting his chances of landing with another team this offseason.
Robert Saleh defended Zach Wilson publicly and wanted to uncover leaks about the quarterback.
‘No Place’ For Zach Wilson Character Assassination
The Athletic reported that story, based on sources. And it was true.
Aaron Rodgers, made aware of the story, took the Jets organization and culture to task for an act which he rightly noted was meant "to assassinate someone's character" through a leak to the media.
"Because there's no place [for that] in a winning culture, and this is not the only time," Rodgers said. "There's been a bunch of other leaks."
So out of that incident, here's the paragraph that is a dagger to the heart of the New York Jets:
That sent Saleh into a tailspin. The coach held a meeting with his staff two days later where he asked the leaker to reveal himself, according to multiple people in attendance. "If you come forward now, you won’t get in trouble," he told them while threatening to take their cell phones. Staffers were bemused by Saleh’s obsession with the Wilson story and his reaction to it.
That paragraph is so full of problems for the Jets, it reads like a death sentence for the 2024 season.
Jets Meeting On Not Leaking Gets Leaked
Firstly, it makes Saleh seem like some kind of foof. But that's the least of the problems.
The team's head coach holds a meeting about leaks because he's obviously and rightfully troubled by them. But after the meeting held to discuss the coach's displeasure with leaks, multiple people in the meeting leak details of the meeting.
And "staffers were bemused" by the whole affair. Like, they think betrayal is funny.
These Jets employees are actually spies. They either don't understand the harm Rodgers and Saleh clearly see or see the harm and don't give a rip.
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers sees the problem with leaks within Jets organization.
People With Agendas Want To Crash Jets
The Jets are broken, folks.
The head coach is paranoid and rightfully so.
And he's got people on his staff, people he obviously has trusted, not just leaking information about him and the club, but doing it as a common practice.
That can only lead one to conclude those people have an agenda that is more valuable to them than their jobs. They have less loyalty to their employer, the Jets, than they do to some reporters.
They obviously want to see Saleh look bad, which suggests they want him fired. And they have no respect for their organization.
Why does this doom the Jets?
Robert Saleh understandably didn't like leaks within his team. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
The Jets Fighting Opponents And Themselves
The NFL is nothing if not about competition. One team is working six days a week to beat the ever lovin' brains out of the opponent on the seventh day. That makes winning a very difficult proposition even for the best of teams.
So how do the Jets, who have people within their ranks actively working to backstab the head coach and the starting quarterback and ownership, compete with normally functioning teams?
They cannot.
NFL teams often call themselves family. Players often refer to each other as brothers. It's like a big tent with everyone trusting and leaning on the person next to them to achieve success.
Except the Jets have folks inside the tent shooting at others inside the tent.
It's impossible to win like that.