There is no bottom for the 2024 Jets.
After Aaron Rodgers’s disastrous on-field performance, after wholesale firings, after The Athletic reported on the dysfunction involvement of Woody Johnson’s teenage sons, still, there is more.
Even quarterback Aaron Rodgers is publicly roasting the owner.
On a Monday episode of the Pat McAfee Show, the host and his crew poked fun at the situation, asking Rodgers if Brick Johnson would be in charge of a Jets decision to let the quarterback go. A chuckling Rodgers played into the joke.
“I’ve never been released before, so being released would be a first. Being released by a teenager, that would also be a first,” Rodgers said. “I’m open to everything, and you know, I find the comedy in all of it. If that happens…it’s a great story.”
Last week, The Athletic published a scathing assessment of Woody Johnson’s decision-making, including using player ratings from EA Sports’s Madden video game to influence player evaluations. People inside the Jets told the publication that Woody Johnson considers information sourced by his sons, who last year started sitting in on some team meetings, to have the same merit as opinions of Jets staffers, and that the two teenagers have brought male and female friends into the locker room where the sons, along with both of their parents, criticize players. The piece also recounted a scene on Halloween when Brick Johnson thwarted Rodgers’s plan to give the game ball to the interim coach and instead presented it to a wide receiver, before his father stepped in to give the ball to the coach.
“I answer to a teenager,” said former general manager Joe Douglas, who was fired in November, the outlet reported.
A Jets spokesperson told The Athletic that Brick and Jack Johnson’s thoughts are used “as a reference point,” but do not make decisions.
“It’s really sad that an adult would use a misleading anecdote about teenagers to make their father look bad,” the spokesperson said about the Madden story. “It’s ridiculous, quite honestly, the idea that this was used to influence the opinion of experienced executives.”
The Jets have won just four games this season, and only two since firing head coach Robert Saleh in early October. Rodgers has publicly supported Saleh before and after the firing. A week before making the coaching decision, Johnson had also wanted to bench the veteran quarterback, The Athletic reported.
It’s possible Brick and Jack Johnson could have a smaller influence on the team if their father is tapped for another ambassadorship by Donald Trump. Woody Johnson served as the scandal-prone ambassador to the U.K. during Trump’s first term, and people within the Jets organization reportedly think another post is coming, though the president-elect picked a different person to head to London, and has yet to announce a spot for the team owner in his second administration.
During the ambassadorship, Woody Johnson’s brother Chris took over the team. Rodgers has said that he has a closer relationship with Chris Johnson than with Woody.
Whether Brick Johnson or someone else within the Jets does decide to release Rodgers, it could be an expensive decision. If the team cuts Rodgers, it absorbs $49 million in dead cap. He has one year left on his deal and a no-trade clause, but has remained noncommittal about his future in the NFL.
