Content available exclusively for subscribers
When it comes to picking quarterbacks
it’s best to let the football people decide, not the owner.
Look, I understand that an owner can do whatever he darn well pleases since he paid big bucks to buy the team, but having owners evaluate and pick quarterbacks is a bad business model.
Just ask fans of the Washington Football Team where owner Dan Snyder had his club pick Ohio State QB Dwayne Haskins in 2019, who went to went to high school with his son.
Haskins didn’t even last two seasons. Snyder also had his team trade up for Robert Griffin III, and that didn’t work out either.
There are plenty other examples, like the owner in Cleveland pushing for Johnny Manziel, and the Tennessee owner demanding they pick Vince Young.
Former Jets receiver Brandon Marshall had some advice for Woody Johnson on Twitter the other day.
Johnson tweeted: “As you know we have pick 2 and 23. Who do you like?” Marshall replied, “Hey Woody. Justin.”
Marshall was referring to Ohio State QB Justin Fields.
This shouldn’t happen. Talking about the Jets picking Fields at two, or Woody Johnson making the decision.
If the Jets want to turn this thing around, Joe Douglas needs to make all the personnel decisions. That is why he got a six-year deal for a reported $18 million dollars.
And Christopher Johnson, the acting owner when Douglas was hired in 2019, promised Douglas that he would take a “soft touch” with him. In other words, let him do his thing and stay out of the way.
But while Christopher isn’t known as a personnel meddler, some think Woody has been over the years, with the signing of Darrelle Revis in 2015 being a perfect example. Revis signed a five-year, $70 million contract with $39 million guaranteed. The money would have been better served being given to charity. Revis played very poorly the first two years of the deal, and was released. Some believe that Woody did this as a mea culpa to the fans for trading the player to Tampa Bay, which was an unpopular move with many fans.
Woody was also reportedly involved in the Brett Favre and Tim Tebow trades.
Look, that stuff is in the past, but looking forward, it would be best for Woody to let Douglas make the player moves, and reading the tea leaves, I get he sense he knows that, and if he doesn’t, his brother will remind him of that on a regular basis. Christopher hired Joe, perhaps the best hire by the Johnson family, for any position, over their two decades owning the team, and Christopher wants to let him do his thing, and lead the Jets to the promised land. That is why Christopher, before Woody returned from his assignment in Great Britain, promoted Joe to now be the coach’s boss, which is something the Johnson’s had not done before. Up until this year, both the coach and GM where equal and reported to the owner. This led to a lot of dysfunction, so Christopher finally pulled the plug on that structure.
So the Jets must let Douglas pick the QB at two, and you get the sense they will.
And that should not be Fields. Why? It’s very simple. They just traded Sam Darnold, who wasn’t great at going through is progressions, and tends to lock on his first read, so why would they want to go down that road again?
The following comment from former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah came after Ohio State’s narrow win over Indiana, a game in which Fields was very inconsistent and threw three interceptions:
“Just some of those issues (Fields) has when he gets stuck on one, if one’s not there, (he) holds the ball; then you saw him kind of force things (against Indiana),” Jeremiah said on NFL Network. “It all comes back to the same thing — my only concern is kind of vision, just his overall vision.”
End of story. The Jets can’t go down the rabbit hole again of picking a QB who gets locked on his first read like Darnold. Can’t do it.
And they can’t go down the rabbit hole where the owner picks the QB, which almost never works.
And you get the sense the Johnson’s know that. They have tremendous respect and regard for Douglas, and Christopher made the “soft touch” promise, which I think Woody and Christopher, who are very close, will live up to.
They desperately want to win, and letting Joe do his thing, is the best way to get there.
April 19, 2021
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Tuesday.