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This makes a trade perhaps a little more difficult.
On December 8, 2023, Doug Robinson of the Deseret News, Zach Wilson’s hometown paper in Utah, wrote:
“Sources close to the situation confirmed to the Deseret News that the Jets have told Zach Wilson he will be traded after the season. Wilson and coach Robert Saleh agreed to a mutual parting following the benching.”
It’s not going to be easy to trade Wilson, and something that happened on Thursday, could make it even more difficult.
Woody Johnson, during an interview with ESPN on the red carpet entering the “NFL Honors” awards ceremony in Las Vegas last night, said, “You need a backup quarterback. We didn’t have one last year.”
If you are trying to sell a commodity, and you make that kind of comment about the commodity, who is going to buy it?
ESPN headline after the comment: “Jets owner slams Zach Wilson.”
He not only slammed Wilson with the comment, but some would argue he slammed Joe Douglas.
He said the team didn’t have a backup QB, and Douglas put the roster together, so how could you not view that as a slam of the GM?
But some would argue, that Woody’s a hands-on owner, much more than his brother, was involved in the decision to go with Wilson as the backup entering last season.
Some would make the argument that the decision that the plan to go with Wilson backing up Rodgers, was partially a financial decision.
Think about it. With Aaron Rodgers at around $37 million, and Wilson around $10 million last year, some might have argued: “How much more do you want us to spend at the QB position with the salary cap.”
So I don’t suspect that Douglas decided to go with Wilson as the backup on an island.
Most owners rarely talk to the media, and that is fine. They have a GM and head coach to do that.
It’s often best to just have the GM and head coach talk. Let the GM talk about roster moves, free agency, the draft and so forth. Let the head coach talk about the team, practices, games, strategy and so forth.
That is why you pay them the big bucks.
Because anything an owner says to the media can be used against him/her.
For instance, and this happened to Woody early on, when he fell for a trap question about whether the team had enough talent to win more, and he responded “yes,” and the media took that as a shot at the coach.
If you go the other way and say they don’t have enough talent, that is a shot at the GM.
Woody also told the reporter on the red carpet about the offense:
“We have all this talent, and we have to deploy talent properly. So I think they all got the message. This is it. This is the time to go. We’ve got to produce this year. We have to do a lot better than seven [wins], definitely.”
This led to an ESPN headline: “[Woody] puts heat on Saleh.”
First of all, once Rodgers got hurt, things fell apart.
And secondly, there wasn’t that much talent. They had three undrafted free agents, two rookies, and one second-year player, playing at receiver.
But good luck trying to trade Wilson and getting anything decent after the owner basically said he didn’t exist last year.
Perhaps Woody could cut back on interviews and Twitter stuff for the sake of football staff and culture. Maybe Ira and Christopher can talk to him about this.
Just sit back, enjoy your team with your family, and avoid the annoyance and landmines of dealing with the media.
February 9, 2024
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