Shortly after the New York Jets fell to 4-12 on the season via last Sunday’s embarrassing 40-14 loss to the Buffalo Bills, Jets cornerback D.J. Reed raised eyebrows when he told Tyler Dunne of Go Long that he was “ready to go to free agency” and “ready to see what’s next for me.”
Some suggested those comments showed Reed and others in the Jets locker room had tapped out on the remainder of the campaign. While speaking with Bridget Reilly of the New York Post on Thursday, Reed sounded like a player ready to put the Jets in his rear-view mirror.
“It was an honest answer, and I don’t have any regrets about it,” Reed said about what he told Dunne.
During his three-year tenure with the Jets, Reed endured three straight losing seasons and had front-row seats for quarterback sagas involving 2021 first-round draft pick Zach Wilson and Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers’ two-year stint with Gang Green has included the Hall of Famer essentially missing an entire season with a torn Achilles. It seems the 41-year-old Rodgers and other veteran Jets players will be shown the door during the upcoming offseason.
Along with (probably) having a new QB1, the Jets will soon hire a new general manager and head coach. Meanwhile, star wide receiver Garrett Wilson reportedly could ask for a trade to escape an organization responsible for the longest active playoff drought in the four major North American sports leagues at 14 years and running.
“Obviously, in this league, it’s about winning,” Reed added during his comments. “But, you could go to a good organization, you think is a good organization, and the year you go there, they’re not winning. I think it’s deeper than just winning. I think it’s just being in a stable organization that has a winning culture and just being in a good environment, a healthy environment. I think that’s the most important thing for me is just to have a good mental space. I know if I have that, I’ll be able to dominate whoever is in front of me.”
Rodgers and Wilson recently touched upon the Jets’ culture, which didn’t improve during Reed’s time with the franchise. At this point, the team’s next regime may feel that a complete rebuild is needed to move on from the Rodgers experiment, which will become one of the biggest failures in Jets history.
