The owner is apparently making playing time decisions.
The Jets made a change at the safety position in their Week 11 game against the Indianapolis Colts. Tony Adams, who had started most of the season, was sent to the bench. Jalen Mills and Chuck Clark started for the Jets at the back of the defense.
The Athletic and ESPN have both confirmed the decision to bench Adams came directly from owner Woody Johnson.
Woody Johnson is the owner of the Jets. He is also widely recognized along the likes of Tom Landry, Bill Belichick, and Chuck Noll as one of the most brilliant defensive minds in the history of the sport.
Unfortunately for the Jets, the plan of the defensive maestro who owns the team did not work exactly as planned as Anthony Richardson was 4 for 5 throwing against Clark and Mills for 64 yards.
The benching of Adams is one of the least explosive stories to come out about Johnson’s heavy handed approach to running the team over the last few days. The Athletic published an expose which reported Johnson’s involvement included everything from dictating personnel moves during the offseason to calling for Aaron Rodgers’ benching after the Jets fell to 2-2 with a loss to the Broncos.
The Adams thing really stands out to me for a couple of reasons, though.
The first is it has been reported by multiple news outlets, suggesting it is almost certainly true.
Beyond that, the low profile nature of the move is exactly why it seems notable to me. Maybe you can argue an owner is likely to be involved in high level decisions regarding their team from big name signings to the way star players are handled.
What kind of owner overrules his coaching staff on something as granular as a starting safety? It speaks volumes about the extent to which Johnson has inserted himself into decisions which he has no qualifications to make.
At least we know whom deserves the bulk of the blame for the team’s current condition.