Zach, how are you, man? I'm good. I'm tired. Been a long, long week, I would say.
I would say. Now, what is, Devante Adams being a New York Jet, not so surprising. What is the most surprising thing that has taken place so far with the Jets this year? It has to be the firing that got going last week of Salah, right?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Especially because of the timing of it and, you know, for it to happen after five games, when they could have done it in the offseason, and just all the factors that went into it. And then, when you take that and you juxtapose it with the fact that they just made a blockbuster trade a week later, that's not usually the typical behavior for a team that just fired their coach. This is a team that weirdly fired its coach because they're all in, at least in the mind of owner Woody Johnson. So, it's been a very interesting week because there's so much chaos going on around this team. They've lost three games in a row. They just made this all-in move. And right now, they don't really look like Super Bowl contenders.
They look more like a team that's fighting to make the playoffs more than anything. Well, Zach, before we get into the trade that took place today, sticking to last week, Aaron Rodgers made it very clear, tried to make it very clear, I don't have as much power as people think and, you know, think about the humanity of Salah and his family and what have you. Correct me if I'm wrong. This man has more power and influence than anybody in the organization right now, not named Woody.
Or am I crazy? No, I mean, he definitely has significant influence, but I don't think he is the reason why Robert Salah got fired. You know, I think that the part that people leave out is that I think Robert Salah getting fired when that happened, everybody would have thought that Aaron Rodgers was the one that pulled the strings, especially with all the hackers stuff. And I think Rodgers is smart enough to know that he doesn't want everybody thinking that he's running things. So, that's a big reason why I think it was really Woody Johnson woke up Tuesday morning or went to bed on Monday night and decided he wanted to make a change. And I think that's what happened. And I think Rodgers was kind of surprised by it.
And then hackers got demoted anyway. So, at the end of the day, you know, the thing that Rodgers probably didn't want happened. So, I think he definitely has influence.
Like, Devante Adams isn't here if they don't have that friendship, probably. But, you know, ultimately, I don't think he fired Robert Salah. If he wanted him to stay, wouldn't he be able to maybe keep morale? Was Woody that unhinged? I think it was entirely Woody's call. Yeah, I don't know that Rodgers could have swung his opinion. I mean, I don't know if he gave Aaron a chance to or not. Like, that's something that only Aaron and Woody know and they're probably not going to reveal.
But I don't get the sense that he could have changed his mind. Zach Rosenblatt is joining us from the Athletic Joins All Things Covers All Things New York. Jets, you talk about the trade of Devante Adams. Obviously, you got him, Garrett, Allen Lazard.
He has weapons. Cobb was here last year. But, obviously, Aaron Rodgers was hurt. What does this mean for this offense moving forward? Yeah, you know, this is an offense that had a lot of the same questions that they had the last couple of years. They've had a hard time finishing in the red zone. And they've had some difficulty with creativity when the Hackett was still calling the plays.
Now that Downing's in there, they got a little more creative in this last game. So, ultimately, you know, hypothetically, this should make this a higher scoring offense. It should make it so they close out those drives in the red zone. And for the sake of Garrett Wilson, it should open things up for him. You know, he's gone against the number one corner every week. Teams have doubled him. And you're not going to really be able to do that when you have Devante Adams on the opposite side of the field. What does this mean when it comes down to the New York Jets? This is the worst start that Aaron Rodgers has ever had in his career. He's never been worse than three and three.
Now, he's two and four. Do you think they'll be able to catch up to the Buffalo Bills? You know, until they prove they have the ability to do that, I don't believe they will. But, you know, they have their talent on this roster. But just over and over again, it's the same mistake shooting themselves in the foot. A lot of these penalties, a lot of these drops, a lot of these miscommunications that just happen over and over again.
And they've happened throughout the solid era. And, you know, I think this game against the Steelers is going to be kind of like a game to save their season or to make it where it could be a long winding road the rest of the way. So I think a lot is on the line on Sunday night.
No doubt about that. There was a lot on the line last night. Do you think the loss sped up the trade or was this already in the works? We know it was in the works.
Devante was already at the facility this morning. What are your thoughts on the timeline of it? Yeah, you know, from what I heard before the game yesterday, they were pretty much in agreement already. And I think they're probably just sorting some things out. And I always thought that the wildcard would have been if Woody just decided he didn't want to make the trade because of a loss or something. But ultimately, that's not what transpired. And, you know, this was Woody just deciding he wanted to be all in on trying to win this year. And so he went and got the guy and they're going to pay him.
They're paying the full deal. And that's kind of, you know, how it played out. You know, it's very interesting timing, obviously, because of the loss.
But I think ultimately, this was going to happen. We saw last night after the loss, Aaron Rodgers had no problem sharing with the world that Mike Williams is out there running the wrong route. What does this mean for Mike Williams? He's making 10 million dollars a year. Is he going to stick around as wide receiver number 10 or is he going to get moved? Does anybody want him?
Yeah, I mean, I think that the latter part of the question is the interesting part. I know a lot of people have mentioned him being floated in trades. I think when he's completely healthy, he is a talented receiver.
He hasn't looked quite like himself coming off an ACL. But, you know, if there's a team that needs a wide receiver out there, I could see it happening. But ultimately, you know, they're paying him the money you said, and he's on the roster and they've had some injury bad luck over the years. And I don't think it's the worst thing to keep him around if they feel like he can contribute. But yeah, you know, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he wound up getting traded at some point between now and the deadline.
I can't get a good read on if he has a market, but I do think that is something that could happen. What do you think is the most likeliest of scenarios with this New York Jets team as we move towards January? Most likely, you know, I think this is a team that can stay competitive through the end of the year and it's going to come down to maybe the last few weeks of the season and some of these losses they've had early could come back to bite them.
And so I, you know, I see this as a team that's fighting to win nine games to sneak into the playoffs, and you could totally see them winning eight games too. But if Devontae comes in and the offense starts going off, then maybe their ceiling's higher. We know everything is kind of year to year when it comes down to Aaron Rodgers.
For the time that you've now covered him from arrival to the rehab and even being on TV and radio and getting paid to talk and telling everybody else things a distraction. If they don't win the big one, do you think he's going to come back next year to try to prove folks? Is he going to go back into a mountain and try to figure it out? What happens at the end of the year if they don't win a championship? I mean, I think Super Bowl or bus was never a realistic like expectation. But I do think if they miss the playoffs, I think a lot of people are not going to be here anymore, and that might include him. But if they make the playoffs and they're competitive, I absolutely think he'll come back. I think the intention for him has always been to come back next year. But he's getting beat up pretty good.
He is 40. He's coming off an injury dealing with an ankle thing. So I think how this the rest of the season plays out is probably going to dictate what happens next year. So there's a real possibility the New York Jets kind of slip very quickly back into purgatory, no?
Yeah. I mean, they've lived there for a long time, so it's familiar territory. But yeah, they're in a weird spot because whether it's Rogers or there or not, they don't have a lot of flexibility going into the next offseason. So it's going to be an interesting offseason. Any thoughts on what might take place with the head coaching position? Jeff Ulbrich, he got the job right now. Are they going to kind of just see what happens the rest of this year? Is there outside consideration? We heard Bill Belichick killing the owner for killing the coach.
Yeah. I mean, I think they're going to give Ulbrich every chance to win this job. If he gets into the playoffs, which the Jets haven't done in 13 years, I think he'll get the job.
But if they don't, then he'll get a shot at it. But I think there's a lot of candidates out there that will intrigue Woody Johnson. You have big names like, you know, Mike Frable. You have like the young up-and-coming guys like a Ben Johnson. Like, there are options out there. I don't know how appealing this job would necessarily be to those candidates.
But I think ultimately Ulbrich will get the job if they get to the playoffs. Okay. So many questions with the New York Jets. When you write the articles, are you writing them as information or are you putting together like a novel? Because this is what the Jets feed you every day. I mean, I definitely keep track of everything going on in case I do write a novel down the line because there's a lot of chaos, that's for sure.
There's so much, so much drama and it is only October 15th. Hey, Zach Rosenblatt is here with us. Where can people follow you? Keep up with your work, the news, everything that you do with The Athletic. Yeah, you can find me at The Athletic. All my stuff will be on the Jets page and I'm on Twitter at ZachBlabs, Z-A-C-K-B-L-A-T-T. Hey, Zach, as the world turns and that's the world of the New York Jets, thank you for the time, man. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me.
