IRVING, Tex. — Woody Johnson says he is depressed over the Jets’ dismal
season and can’t take the losing anymore. He sounds ready to blow up
the coaching staff and front office and start over.
Johnson, in his 15th season owning the Jets, offered no guarantee
Wednesday that either Rex Ryan, his longtime coach, or John Idzik, his
embattled general manager, will be back in 2015. Ryan has been
considered a goner since early in his sixth season and the heat has been
turned way up the last six weeks on Idzik, even though he’s in just his
second year.
“I’m in the business — I got to win games,” Johnson told the Daily News
at the NFL meetings. “I’m a fan, I represent the fans. We’re both
frustrated by this. Ultimately, I am going to have to look for something
that I believe is going to right the ship, whether it’s the current
way, the way we are doing it now with the people we have now or going
down a different pathway. I’m looking at everything. I’m analyzing
what’s happened and why it’s happened.”
Black Monday is just 17 days away, but Johnson insisted Wednesday he
has not yet made up his mind what to do about Ryan and Idzik. A source
said Johnson has not yet indicated his plans.
Even so, Johnson’s words strongly indicate big changes are coming as a
result of the Jets winning just two of their first 13 games. Before
Johnson spoke to the Daily News, Idzik, who was also at the meetings,
did not want to comment on his or Ryan’s future.
Johnson has always loved Ryan. He made retaining him a job condition
when he was searching for a new general manager after he fired Mike
Tannenbaum following the 2012 season. Then, after the Jets won three of
their last four games to finish 8-8 last year, Johnson extended Ryan’s
contract with one more guaranteed year through 2015. But he has now
missed the playoffs four years in a row.
So, will it be tough to fire a coach who he is so fond of?
“It’s not a question of fondness,” Johnson said. “I’ve always thought
he’s a very good coach. He’s an excellent coach, excellent teacher. The
fans are going to want to see something different. They’re not going to
let us get along and I don’t want to do exactly the same thing. So it’s
going to be either the way we coach or the way we approach it. It could
be with the same people. It might be with different people. That’s the
case each and every year.”
While two years is not very long to give a general manager to get his
program in place, Johnson said, “I can’t really comment whether it is
short or long. I’m a fan, I represent the fans, we’re both frustrated by
this.”
When it was suggested that nobody’s job is secure, he said, “This is a
results-oriented business. You try to put a package together to help you
right the ship.” He added, “We evaluate everybody. Everybody in
football is evaluated. It’s going to happen at the end of the year,
that’s the way we normally do it. That’s the way most teams do it.”
There’s no way Johnson can sell Jets fans on bringing back Ryan and
Idzik in tandem, or perhaps either one of them. It would be hard to keep
Ryan and fire Idzik and then expect another GM to inherit the coach.
And Jets fans have turned so decisively on Idzik that it might be
impossible to bring him back and then trust him to hire his own coach
and continue to make personnel decisions.
Johnson said the Jets’ 2-11 season has caught him by surprise.
“Oh my God,” he said. “I would never have imagined. I thought we were going to be actually very good. That’s how much I know.”
As much as this season has disgusted Jets fans, they can at least be
comforted knowing Johnson is suffering right along with them and is
aware changes need to be made.
“It’s hard to lose. This is the hardest year I’ve had in terms of
losses,” he said. “You live and die with it. It’s been extremely
painful. For me, I go out and see fans every week. I know they are loyal
Jets fans. But it’s hard every week to be disappointed with the thing
you love, which is your team, is frustrating. They love their team, but
they don’t like seeing it go through this kind of agony.”
So, what’s going to happen the Monday morning after the Jets finish their season in Miami? Is it the end of Ryan and/or Idzik?
“It’s safe to say you got to do things differently that you did to get
you to this point,” he said. “The thing about football is that after
every season, everybody is up for grabs. You take a look at everything.
You’re trying to get to the Super Bowl. It doesn’t sound like I should
even be saying that at this point. But that’s what my goal is. That’s
what the fans want. They want to have a clear direction in terms of how
they get to where they want to go. I have to give them confidence they
are going to have a chance to get where they want to go.”
Idzik has been on the job 23 months. Johnson could not have imagined
having to consider a change so quickly. “There’s been a lot of pressure
on John,” he said. “This is a team sport. There are a lot of people
involved.”
Does he have any regrets hiring somebody who made his reputation in the
NFL handling the salary cap and not running a draft or pro personnel?
“No,” Johnson said.
But he could soon be looking for a new coach and general manager.
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