Garrett Wilson fires back at Stephen A. Smith over asinine Jets slander

Bad teams get high draft picks. This is not a new concept. In fact, I learned this when I was about five years old. For some reason, though, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith needs this explained to him... very slowly. So let's do him that favor.

The Jets are bad. They've been bad for a while. And thanks to that badness, they hold the No. 2 overall pick in the upcoming draft. Next year, in 2027, another bad team will hold the No. 2 pick.

I'm not sure that Smith understands this, because he decided to give quarterback Dante Moore, the presumptive No. 2 overall draft pick out of Oregon, the genius advice to skip the draft this season to avoid being selected by such a miserable franchise. As if the defending Super Bowl champions will be picking at No. 2 next year.

I guess being the loudest mouth in sports media doesn't equate to common sense or logic. This, coming from a man who, in the same diatribe, once incorrectly stated that Hunter Henry was a Charger and Derrick Johnson was a Chief, after both had left their respective franchises.

People don't forget.

Luckily, the Jets' best player wasn't going to allow this childish rhetoric to poison the airwaves without a fight.

Garrett Wilson is everything Jets fans can ask for in a leader

While plenty of stars allow the Jets' misery to sully any positive mentality, Wilson hasn't. Despite the futility of every season thus far, he still comes to the Jets' defense. That's a sign of someone who is still bought in. That's a sign of a leader.

And he was forced into action when Stephen A. Smith decided to open his mouth:

"I'd go back to college before I play for the Jets. They are a football atrocity. They are awful."

Stephen A. Smith

Wilson responded with a tweet that eviscerated both Smith and ESPN as a whole, referring to the TV host as "sellout." This prompted Smith to deliver an incomprehensible rant in return.

It's not the first time that the media has suggested a star quarterback forgo the draft to evade a poor franchise. They did it with Joe Burrow in Cincinnati. They did it with Baker Mayfield in Cleveland. They did it with Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville. And the list goes on, and on, and on... and on.

It takes either a child who hasn't been around the block yet or, apparently, Stephen A. Smith, not to understand this. It's like Smith has totally forgotten about all those other examples. Or maybe he never knew about them because he's not a football guy.

But the truth of the matter is, there's a reason that it never happens. It's silly. Dante Moore, a young star, was not projected to be anywhere near this spot just a handful of months ago. Who knows if his stock will be this high ever again? He's in a position to guarantee himself millions of dollars for the next half-decade minimum.

Will he be in that position next season? No one knows that. Whenever this argument comes up, you have to remember history. The only time that I can remember a quarterback doing this was Peyton Manning almost 30 years ago.

Granted, he did it to the Jets. But Moore is not the prospect that Manning was. If Moore goes back to college, there is every possibility that he will be a third-round pick next year, slashing his earnings in half.

Todd McShay recently shared a similar sentiment. While he was much more reasonable about it, it was still nonsense. For anyone to even suggest that a young athlete of Moore's stature should forgo a multi-year eight-figure contract for one year of maybe $7 million and a lifetime of regret is irresponsible.

Both Smith and McShay make a lot of money to share their opinions. McShay's are typically well-informed and well-spoken. This was not that. And Smith's points are, quite literally, never well-informed or well-spoken, so it tells you all you need to know that he's the one peddling this garbage.

Woody Johnson is not a good owner. That's a stone-cold fact. And the Jets have been bad for basically my entire life. That can't — and won't — be argued by me.

But the idea that they are so much worse than the other basement dwellers is a disservice to the truth. Anyone who tells me that the Raiders, the Giants, the Browns, or the Cardinals are in a tier above the Jets is either lying or not living in football reality.

Are they worse than the Jets? No, it would be hard to do that. But to say that he's better off tempting fate and risking a selection by any of those franchises in 2027 is just wrong. Rock bottom is rock bottom. And usually, the top few picks are teams stuck at rock bottom.

I hope, for Moore's sake alone, that he has advisors a lot more responsible than ESPN's resident jester. If he doesn't, he might wind up with a lot less money or a situation just as bad. Or both. This was a sentiment Wilson shared in his final response on X (formerly Twitter).

Also, the truth of the matter is, the next great Jets quarterback to return the franchise to glory (if there ever is one) won't be scared off by a past of incompetence. He will want to turn that incompetence into success.

Did LeBron James avoid the Cleveland Cavaliers? Did Sydney Crosby avoid the Pittsburgh Penguins? Did Bill Russell avoid the Boston Celtics? These are all young prodigies drafted into dysfunction, who ultimately conquered expectation.

No. The great ones aren't afraid of pressure. They embrace it. If Dante Moore is a great one — and more importantly, the right one — this won't be an issue.

The great ones don't succumb to fate, they reverse it.

And it's nice to know that there's still one star left in the Jets' corner. No one would blame Wilson for bowing out and asking to be traded. In fact, it'd be closer to the norm.

But he hasn't. Because he's a Jet. And we'll find out in April if Dante Moore is a Jet too.