Jets' Week 1 loss suggests Woody Johnson might've been right all along

Ok, hear me out. I am the last person to give Woody Johnson any props. The New York Jets have a curse, and that curse is the very man who owns the team.

The Jets' history wasn't fun previously, but the franchise didn't quite become America's punching bag until Woody took the baton from the late Mr. Leon Hess.

It is Woody Johnson, more so than any human to ever take a step anywhere near a New York Jets facility, who is responsible for the pain and suffering of hundreds of thousands of Jets fans all over the globe.

All of that being said, he may have gotten one thing right. It pains me to type that sentence — I almost reflexively just held down backspace. But amidst all of the insanity that was his management of the franchise last season, one of his most peculiar moves appears not so peculiar after Sunday.

Anyone who watched the secondary, and more specifically the safeties, knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Woody Johnson may have been right about benching Tony Adams

It's Week 1, it's too soon to overreact (although it's the most popular time to), but Tony Adams was a liability in the secondary. I don't want to be too hard on him — he's a homegrown product who's been an admirable teammate all three seasons he has spent with the franchise.

And it was madness last season when Johnson decided he should have some say in coaching decisions, and successfully pushed to bench the young, developing safety. But while that was wildly irresponsible behavior by Johnson, Adams was also abysmal in Week 1.

Brandon Stephens is already making a case for rookie Azareye'h Thomas to replace him. Tony Adams might be in a race with Stephens for who can get benched in favor of a rookie first, with first-year safety Malachi Moore waiting in the wings.

If Stephens is going to struggle the way he did, there can't be another defensive back getting beaten even worse. Glenn wasn't all too worried about Stephens, at least not enough to bench him. It'll be interesting to see how long a leash he maintains with Adams.

All you had to do was watch the game and see white jerseys running in circles around Adams to understand how much he struggled, but the metrics back it up as well.

Pro Football Focus rated him as the worst Jets player on the entire team, giving him a 39.4 grade. He gets caught flat-footed in open space far too often, misses tackles when he does get to his guy, and even struggles at times when he has to cover.

All of this is a far cry from where he was almost exactly a year ago today, when he had a sack, a forced incompletion, only allowed 14 receiving yards, and was given a 71.9 coverage grade from PFF on opening night. That's not to say he was perfect last year — tackling has always been an issue — but it felt substantially more pronounced on Sunday.

It's still too early to jump the gun on major depth chart moves, but it's fair to say that Malachi Moore is talented and more than happy to relieve Adams of his duties.

What's crazy is I thought Woody Johnson's most obscenely offensive move last year was sticking his nose into the coaching business and insisting on the benching of Tony Adams. Now, Woody looks like he should be the owner, general manager, and head coach.

Ok... maybe not. Maybe he should still stick to soccer. But he might have gotten this one right at least.

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