Jets Owner Woody Johnson’s Teenage Sons Have Growing Influence on Team’s Decisions

With the New York Jets at 4–10 and playing just for fun over the next three weeks, it's time for the "now they tell us" pieces chronicling the dysfunction that contributed to all those unrealized expectations.

Zack Rosenblatt, Dianna Russini and Michael Silver are out with quite a read on The Athletic that goes in-depth on owner Woody Johnson's unusual managerial style. It sounds as though Johnson has been doing his own research and giving a lot of credence to his sons' opinions, something that has added to the internal strife.

When Johnson left for the U.K. in 2017, his sons, Brick and Jack, were 11 and 9, respectively. When he returned, they were teenagers. Last year, Johnson started including his sons in some meetings at the team facility. For some Jets employees, the sons’ increasing involvement clarified their father’s propensity for sharing posts from X and articles from various outlets, including a blog called “Jets X-Factor,” with the organization’s top decision-makers.

“When we’re discussing things, you’ll hear Woody cite something that Brick or Jack read online that’s being weighed equally against whatever opinion someone else in the department has,” said one Jets executive.

“I answer to a teenager,” [former general manager Joe] Douglas quipped to people close to him before the season in an acknowledgment of the perceived power dynamic.

Now, there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. NFL teams are enormous brands and organizations and they can be run in a thousand different ways while still finding success. Anyone reading the piece from home can understand the drive to want to do things one's own way and the whole point of owning a team is exercising control and following a vision. If the Jets were 10–4 instead of 4–10 we might all be reading a different piece this morning, one that paints Gang Green as the new Moneyball with the Johnson children sharing the Jonah Hill role.

But that's not the case. So an anecdote about the pursuit of then-Denver Bronco Jerry Jeudy last offseason derailed by video game ratings lands differently. Douglas was reportedly deep into negotiations that would have brought the standout wide receiver to Aaron Rodgers's arsenal before things broke down for an unusual reason.

Douglas told the Broncos that Johnson didn’t want to make the trade because the owner felt Jeudy’s player rating in “Madden NFL,” the popular video game, wasn’t high enough, according to multiple league sources. The Broncos ultimately traded the receiver to the Cleveland Browns. Last Sunday, Jeudy crossed the 1,000-yard receiving mark for the first time in his career.

Again, the Jets did end up with Davante Adams after an in-season move and along with Garret Wilson, that comprises a pretty solid receiving corps. But time and games were lost in comparison to having Jeudy from Day 1.

The original piece is full of other examples of the weirdness taking place at the top of the Jets' organizational chart. Which at this point, seems a bit opaque—if not in principle, then certainly in practice.