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Some might think this story is a “nothing burger,” no pun intended.
Former Jets WR Allen Lazard said on “The Big Dubs” podcast, hosted by former NFL RB Jamaal Williams, “After my first year (with the Jets), they took a million dollars out of the food budget. “That tells me two things, right? How much was in the food budget before? Now, if we put 20 million in and we took a million out, that’s not that big of a deal. If we only put in 4 million and we took a million out, it’s a quarter of the money.”
Former Jets defensive lineman Leonard Williams is listed as a co-host of the “The Big Dubs” podcast, but didn’t seem to be on this episode.
Lazard joined the Jets in 2023, so he’s theoretically talking about a 2024 budget cut.
“You can’t downsize in quantity because you still have the same number of people in there that need to eat,” Lazard went on to say. “So that means you downsize in quality. So I ended up having to be a chef in New York because I couldn’t eat the food at the facility. It would hurt my stomach. I’d be in practice having bubble guts.”
The second part of that quote is frivolous, so I’m not going to address that. I eat the food there all the time and never got sick.
But the first part is somewhat newsworthy.
Remember, in March of 2025, Sports Business Journal reported that the Jets offered 170 of 250 employees buyouts.
But while that came out in March of 2025, this was after a “comprehensive study” of the organization and growth priorities according to SBJ.
So that was clearly some of what was going on in 2024. Reportedly, there was an outside consulting firm evaluating every aspect of the Jets’ operation.
So with the food budget cuts and the buyouts, seemingly not far apart, it made some wonder about team finances, and perhaps some belt-tightening that might be going on (which is going on with a lot of corporations these days).
Now I don’t really cover the business side of the Jets, but if there are some financial concerns, perhaps related to what seems like an attendance drop in the last few years, could it impact some football decisions?
For instance, it was reported last January that Aaron Glenn was interested in hiring Wink Martindale as his defensive coordinator, but their seem to be a pivot in the 11th hour, and a decision was made to have the head coach call the defense as well.
For what it’s worth, Martindale feels the decision was related to money.
“Just think if the owner would have actually paid for a real defensive coordinator, they might have had a chance to win some more games,” Martindale said on Pat Leonard’s podcast last week.
The Jets are reportedly paying Glenn somewhere in the vicinity of $12 million a year. Glenn made the dubious decision to hire Steve Wilks, who is more of a position coach than a DC, as his DC last year, and Johnson fired him late last season. Reportedly, the Jets are paying Wilks somewhere around $3 million this year.
So the speculation is that, with Johnson eating money on Wilks contract and paying Glenn, who has a defensive background, big money, perhaps he told Glenn to handle the defense himself.
While you can understand on some level why an owner might say that, the results of Glenn trying to run the defense and manage the game this year have not been good.
And you could also argue that Glenn is not the great defensive coordinator the media echo chamber made him into while in Detroit. He’s okay.
So that takes us to a big decision that might need to be made after the season with the coach.
While I’m not calling for him to be fired (I’m not in the firing business), the way things are going, there is a lot of speculation that he’s on the hot seat.
And ESPN’s Rich Cimini, who has a good relationship with the coach, having covered him as a player, said this week on his podcast, “You know what I said last week. I said it’s not over because I still think there’s a path to him keeping his job. I don’t see that path anymore. I don’t. And I hate to say it.”
Some thought that after losing to a pair of struggling teams like the Dolphins and Raiders at home, Glenn might lose his job.
However, this takes us to the finances. If they fired him now, they would probably owe him about $40 million, and if they did it after the season, it would probably be around $36?
Considering what Lazard and Martindale said, and the buyouts last year, would management be comfortable with the kind of massive buyout Glenn could require?
Some thought that Glenn’s first season, ending in five blowout losses, could have led to a one-and-done.
But while the Jets’ last opponent, the Raiders, are still paying off a bunch of former coaches (McDaniel, Pierce, Carroll, OC Kelly), they are awash in cash, with a usually sold-out, brand-new stadium in Vegas, and tons of cash from casino and personal injury lawyers ads (anybody who has been to Vegas will know what I’m talking about – personal injury lawyers like no market we’ve ever seen).
Look, I’m not into counting anyone’s money, and the Jets have always treated me with class, dignity, and respect. I’m not judging how they chose to spend their money as an organization. That is rude.
Just thinking out loud: how much the financial landscape right now with the Jets, and some other teams, dealing with a rough economy and sluggish ticket sales, can impact football matters, like hiring a DC or giving a head coach a huge buyout, if you are considering moving on.
November 5, 2026
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