New York Jets Owner Says ‘Thinking is Overrated’ After Adams Trade

The New York Jets owner isn’t allowing a 2-4 start to the season keep him from trying to upgrade the team for a postseason run.

Nov 12, 2023; Paradise, Nevada, USA; New York Jets owner Woody Johnson in attendance at Allegiant Stadium. / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

While the New York Jets finalized the trade to bring wide receiver Davante Adams to the Big Apple, team owner Woody Johnson was in Atlanta for the quarterly NFL owners meeting.

While those meetings can sometimes accelerate discussions on trades, it appears the deal with Adams was practically done on Monday night.

In addition to the Adams deal, the Jets are allowing holdout Haason Reddick’s new agent, Drew Rosenhaus, a short window of time to shop his client to other teams. Rosenhaus was at Monday’s Jets-Bills game and spoke with team ownership and general manager Joe Douglas.

But, for the past eight days, Johnson has been clearly steering the ship. And he’s not thinking about the consequences, even after a 2-4 start.

“You know, thinking is overrated,” he said to reporters at the meeting in comments captured on video by The Athletic’s Dianna Russini. “You have to look forward. We have to look forward to the games we’re going to play each and every week and try to win all of them … you just have to go with your instinct and what’s the best thing to build a team.”

Woody Johnson on all things Jets. pic.twitter.com/ycLMDKxNhI

— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) October 15, 2024

He was also asked if he felt the season was salvageable.

"Salvageable?” he said. “We're gonna kick ... you can add the words after that. We're going to do really well."

Johnson’s instincts have been all over the last eight days.

Last Tuesday he fired head coach Robert Saleh after a 2-3 start and an embarrassing loss in London. Johnson said the move was necessary to give what he considered the most talented team he’s ever had in his 25 years of ownership a chance to turn things around.

Ironically, the one thing most Jets fans wanted Saleh to do was something he was reportedly ready to do minutes before he was fired — demote offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. With two awful offensive performances, Johnson said he knew a change was needed and Saleh had finally come around.

Johnson elevated defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich to interim head coach and he executed the move, promoting Jeff Downing to play-caller.

Johnson, meanwhile, also made an impassioned plea to Reddick to report and end his holdout. He made news hours later when his former agency, CAA, dropped him as a client. The agency reportedly dropped him because he wasn’t taking their advice. The Pro Bowl pass rusher has already surrendered more than $9 million in salary and fines.

It turns out that Reddick reportedly vetoed a one-year deal that would have cured his losses and allowed him to hit free agency after this year early in the season. Reddick hired Rosenhaus on Monday.