The results from Tuesday’s presidential election will shape this nation for at least the next four years. It could also shape the future of New York Jets football, too.
Jets employees are preparing for team owner Woody Johnson to again take a political post with the Donald Trump administration, sources say. Nothing has been explicitly stated to the team regarding Johnson’s next move, but a team source said “everyone is assuming” a Johnson appointment of some sort will take place.
League sources tell CBS Sports it will greatly benefit the Jets and their offseason plans to know as early as possible whether their boss will actually be their boss for the next few years. In a matter of a couple months, the Jets could be in search of both a new head coach and general manager, not to mention what will happen with Aaron Rodgers and his future.
“The first question a candidate is going to ask is, ‘who’s the boss?'” a source said.
Johnson served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom during the first Trump administration, ceding the Jets operations to his brother, Christopher. In January 2017, Trump announced his plan for Johnson to take the post. The senate confirmed Johnson in August. He attended one Jets preseason game and then went across the pond for the next 3 1/2 years.
Christopher helmed the team in those years, hiring Joe Douglas as general manager and Robert Saleh as head coach. A source said Woody Johnson was not involved “much at all” on the Douglas hiring in June 2019, which was well into the heart of his ambassadorship. Saleh was hired in January 2021, just days before Johnson would leave his post. A source says Johnson was “aware of the direction the Robert hiring was going because he was returning.”
Woody Johnson fired Saleh five games into his fourth season as head coach. Saleh had a career record of 20-36 with the Jets. Douglas has an executive record of 30-62 heading into this week’s game against the Cardinals. Asked earlier this week about his future while on an expiring contract, Douglas said “whatever happens, happens.”
Jets employees have assumed Johnson would head back to London but have not been told that. A source wondered if the opportunity will be given to Johnson, who a day before the election stumped for Trump on Fox News, or if Johnson will hope for a different post that could be stateside.
In any of those scenarios, Woody Johnson would be relinquishing control of the franchise to Christopher, who has been around the team more these days than he was before his brother took the ambassadorship eight years ago.
“It’ll be like riding a bike,” a source said of Christopher, who currently serves on a media committee for the league.
If the 3-6 Jets under Douglas and interim coach Jeff Ulbrich turn things around in the second half of the season, there may not be a need for change. But in the event the Jets don’t defy the odds, searches can be underway as early as January.
The regular season ends on Jan. 5. The Jets can interview outside coaching candidates who are not currently employed by a team whenever they please. Requests for candidates (coach or GM) employed by other teams can be made the Monday after the end of the regular season, and interviews could start that week. Even if Ulbrich earns the permanent job, the Jets will still be required by league rules to do a search.
It could behoove both Woody and Christopher to appear at the December league meetings in Texas. The NFL will again hold its accelerator program for executives of diverse backgrounds. And the league also holds its labor seminar that week, so potential GM candidates who are not diverse will also be in the building. Those few days make for fertile ground for teams looking to get a head start on executive interviews.
And then there’s the Rodgers question.
At the end of this season Rodgers will be 41. He has one year left on his contract that includes a $35 million option bonus that doesn’t have to be picked up until just before the start of the 2025 season. “That’s by design,” one source said, alluding to the fact the Jets wanted to keep control of their future.
Rodgers, who has said in the past he hopes to play beyond 2024, may not care who runs the team on a day-to-day basis. But who runs the team could make a head coach hire that leaves Rodgers wanting out.
Will Rodgers want to play for a first-time head coach? Will he be interested in learning a new offensive system? Will the next coach want Rodgers?
“The coach hire has to be independent [of Rodgers,]” a source said.
In Green Bay, Rodgers took his time in the offseason making decisions about his next move. The Jets could give him a reasonable amount of time after the season to determine his next steps.
Both sides could agree to a return in 2025. The Jets could cut Rodgers and save nearly $10 million against the cap for 2025. If he wishes to continue playing but not with the Jets, the two sides could work on a trade, though Rodgers has control via his no-trade clause. Or he could choose to retire.
Plenty of other personnel decisions ahead of free agency’s start in mid-March will flow from what happens with the quarterback, which is why the Jets will need to know about their immediate future as immediately as possible.
There is little historical precedent for the position Woody Johnson is in. Grover Cleveland is the only other president to serve two non-consecutive terms in American history. He had two different cabinets while in office, though he did make his Secretary of State from his first four years, Thomas Bayard, the Ambassador to Great Britain in his next four years.
But the NFL formed in 1920, and Cleveland’s second administration ended in 1897. So there were no NFL owners as political appointees in either one of Cleveland’s administrations.