As the Jets search for a new General Manager, an important dynamic hovers over the franchise.
Christopher Johnson has managed the team in the absence of his brother, Woody, who serves as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom. At some point, Woody Johnson won’t be serving in that role. Thus, at some point, Woody will be back.
So what happens when Woody comes home, whenever that may be?
Unless he’s comfortable with assuming an Owner Emeritus role and letting Christopher continue to run the team, Woody may decide sooner or later (or sooner than later) that he’s not comfortable with the personalities who are managing the team, whoever they may be at the time. The personalities managing the team likewise may not be comfortable with him.
Of course, it also could work out just fine, too. But it definitely will rearrange the franchise’s furniture, and not everyone may be thrilled with the new positioning of the couch and chairs.
The best way to ensure that Woody won’t make wholesale changes (if he returns within the next year or two) would be for the new power structure, however it ends up, to win as many games as possible. And through all the recent dysfunction, that could happen. The hay that will become the 2019 roster essentially is in the barn, and the development of second-year quarterback Sam Darnold will be much more relevant to the team’s fortunes than the churning of the bottom of the 90-man roster through Labor Day weekend and, at that point, the refinement to 53 (35-40 of them will be obvious).
If coach Adam Gase can hit the ground sprinting with Darnold and Le'Veon Bell fueling the offense and a defense that will experience a major kick in the ass from coordinator Gregg Williams, the Jets could thrive quickly. And that would go a long way toward making both/either Johnson far more inclined to stay the course — even if Woody ends up being far less enamored personally with Adam Gase than Woody was with Rex Ryan.
