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I’m not a special pleader for Steve Wilks.
And I was the only one who said they shouldn’t hire him when there were rumors they were going to hire him.
Well, actually, I didn’t write they shoiuldn’t hire him at all. I said he should be the assistant head coach/secondary, not the DC, after what happened in San Francisco.
But after his firing following the Jacksonville game, nothing has improved.
Nothing against Chris Harris, who is a good man, but let’s be honest here – the Jets promoted their safety coach to DC, and their safeties have not had a good season. I know there have been guys in and out of the lineup, but the overall body of work, even with the original starters has not been great.
Malachi Moore is very tough and a good hitter, and forced a fumble in New Orleans, but his work in coverage has not been great.
The Jets’ safety play today was problematic.
The bottom line is that the firing of Wilks and the promotion of Harris to replace him have made no difference.
The Wilks firing seemed like something to appease the fans.
Once again, I warned the Jets against hiring him, so this isn’t me working as a lobbyist for Wilks.
But Wilks had the same problem in his last two games, as Harris in his first two games – personnel issues of biblical proportions.
Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey need to blow up this defense, and not make the same mistake they made last off-season, overpaying a free agent linebacker with suspect film. That was a strange move because that wasn’t a contract that Glenn/Mougey inherited. They looked at the film from the previous season, from before they got to Florham Park, and paid that linebacker big bucks. Weird.
But next off-season, nobody on this defense up for a new contract should get megabucks. Learn from the linebacker contract . . .
Brady Cook is an awesome young man, but having him in the #3 spot was an odd decision.
Look, people might say – “Who cares, it’s the #3 spot.”
But with all the QB injuries, you can’t minimize the importance of the spot.
I know it was a meaningless game, but did you see how Commanders #3 Josh Johnson, who had a cup of coffee with the Jets, performed on Thursday in Dallas?
Now you don’t need to have a 39-year-old #3 like Johnson, but you can’t have an undrafted rookie free agent who had accuracy issues in college and needs a ton of work to fix his game.
I seemed like there was some confirmation bias at work on the Cook front.
They didn’t draft a QB. They signed Cook after the draft, thinking they got a diamond in the rough, and they kept him over the more experienced Adrian Martinez for the #3 spot. The new regime inherited Martinez, but they signed Cook themselves.
Sorry, you can’t have a QB like Cook in the #3 spot as a rookie.
Got get Brett Rypien or Nick Mullens – somebody like that.
In reviewing what went wrong this year with their football operation, they need to do some self-scouting on their QB scouting.
To look at Justin Fields’ film and give him a 2-year, $40 million deal, was absurd. Mac Jones got 2-year, $8 million deal from San Francisco. Let that sink in for a minute.
Then, to make Cook the #3.
And send Aaron Rodgers packing.
You need to scout the scouts on this stuff.
The Jets made some good moves in 2025, like drafting Armand Membou, and the Sauce Gardner/Quinnen Williams trades look like astute moves, considering what they got in return, and the fact that those players haven’t really improved their new teams.
But on the QB front, it would not be unfair to give the new regime an “F.” . . .
I have praised Aaron Glenn as an alpha dog and leader of men, and I still stand by that, but something he did today, or actually didn’t do, was a bad look for him on the accountability front.
Late in the second quarter, on third-and-six, nickel back Jordan Clark, who has been struggling, actually made a very nice play on a pass on the deep right side to WR Stefon Diggs, but then he started taunting Diggs after the play and was called for a 15-yard penalty.
I thought for sure Glenn would pull him for a play or two and talk to the kid, before letting him continue in the game. He is certainly replaceable with Ya’sir Taylor or Tre Brown for a play or two. But it didn’t happen. Clark stayed in the game.
I was shocked by this. I thought Glenn, the alpha dog, would pull the kid, a least for a bit, and let him know – “That doesn’t fly around here.”
Robert Saleh tended to not use these as teachable moments because he didn’t seem to like confrontation, but Glenn? Wow . . .
December 28, 2025
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