Former Jets Pro Bowler Gives A Message That Every Fan Should Hear
Ross Johnston reacts to what former Jets OL Damien Woody had to say about the teams fanbase.
Video Transcript
Tanking versus trying to win games, a battle that Jets fans have had with their team for quite some time now, and former Jets offensive lineman Damien Woody references it in his tweet here saying, "I've been seeing tanking amongst some of the Jets fan base and it's the dumbest thing I've seen.
Establishing a winning culture, especially with a young roster, is far more important than the perpetual cycle this organization has been in."
And I'm not gonna lie, I fully agree with him.
I think the Jets need to be trying to win this year.
Whatever that looks like, whatever the final record may be, obviously don't expect them to be a playoff team, but if they can muster five to seven wins somehow, that's what they need to be shooting for.
I know twenty twenty-six hasn't happened yet, and I know that's the most important thing we have coming up is this season.
But let's go ahead and take a look at next season real quick.
The Jets have three first-round picks.
They have their own, they have one from the Colts, and they have one from the Green Bay Packers.
So three players, three first-round players will be added to this team next year as of right now, barring another set of trades.
The Jets also, and this is subject to change, according to Spotrac, are projected to have the fifth highest cap space in the league in twenty twenty-seven.
That is great for free agency.
You can add some big-name pieces with that cap space.
Now, it's no secret the Jets biggest issue on their team going ahead in the future is finding the long-term solution at quarterback.
And right now, using Geno Smith as a band-aid, you know, it will work for twenty twenty-six, I think, at least hopefully it should.
Hopefully he should be a serviceable quarterback, but he is not the long-term solution.
We all know that.
They need to find somebody going forward.
Cade Klubnick is on the roster serving as the backup right now.
Could he be that guy?
Potentially.
Could they get somebody next year in the draft?
Potentially.
But the cycle the Jets have been in for too long at the quarterback position has not been good.
Last year was Justin Fields.
Two years ago was Aaron Rodgers.
Before that, Zach Wilson.
We've seen guys like Tim Boyle and Trevor Siemian suit up for the Jets, which was awful, to say the least.
Quite frankly too, I don't really care if it's Cade Klubnick or if it's someone in the future who is a college football quarterback right now.
The Jets just need to find somebody at that position.
And the great thing about next year's draft, if they choose to try to find that guy, is that they still have two more picks in the first round to add dudes to their team.
I know Jets fans understand that this organization tends to mess things up.
They F things up at a perpetually high level.
But there is a real chance with how they have set themselves up through the work of Darren Mooji, their general manager, to be very successful in the next year or two.
I'm not telling you to expect the Jets to be a playoff team this year.
Obviously, you shouldn't.
Look at the roster.
They still have a lot of work to, to do.
Coaching staff, I think, you know, is still fairly unproven, besides Aaron Glenn, who all he's proven is that he can't really do much right now.
But I, I honestly think that he could be the answer as well.
And the second biggest key to this, which I know is gonna worry fans, is going to be Woody Johnson.
Can he give these guys, this current regime of Glenn and Mooji, can he give them the time that they need to try to right this ship?
He didn't really-- He hasn't really done it for certain guys.
I think he needs to do it for these two.
But all this to say, I'm not telling you how you should think as a fan.
All I'm saying is I see some reason for great optimism in the next year or two, given the cap space that the Jets have going into twenty twenty-seven, the draft picks they have, and just what they've built on their team up to this point.
They got some really good players at key positions.
They just need to add more, and that's okay.
They can, and I hopefully think they will.
