Most leaders use information and data from a wide variety of sources to drive their decision-making process. For Jets owner Woody Johnson, that apparently includes video games and his teenage sons.
It came out after the firing of general manager Joe Douglas that Johnson vetoed the Jets’ acquisition of Broncos wide receiver Jerry Jeudy in exchange for Allen Lazard and a Day 2 pick. A month later, the reason for Johnson’s resistance was revealed, via The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt, Dianna Russini and Michael Silver: Jeudy’s rating in EA Sports’ popular “Madden NFL” video game series.
Jeudy started the season with an 83 rating in “Madden 24” and dropped to an 81 by the end of the season, when the trade was being negotiated. (Lazard, meanwhile, began the season at 78 and finished at 76.)
In terms of real-life football, Jeudy was clearly the more productive receiver last year with 54 receptions on 87 targets for 758 yards (3.4 receptions and 47.4 yards per game). Lazard reeled in just 23 of his 49 targets for 311 yards (1.6 receptions and 22.2 yards per game). Lazard has been more effective this year, catching 31 of his 49 targets for 430 yards and five touchdowns, but Jeudy has been even better after being traded to the Brown with career-highs of 70 receptions and 1,052 yards.
This isn’t the only time that a video game has influenced Johnson’s personnel desires. He also “pushed back on signing free-agent guard John Simpson due to a lackluster ‘awareness’ rating in Madden,” per The Athletic. Douglas signed Simpson to a two-year, $18M deal anyway, and the veteran lineman has quietly earned the eighth-highest grade among NFL guards from Pro Football Focus (subscription required) with a $12M valuation from OverTheCap for his play this year.
Jets executives have pointed to Johnson’s “Madden” obsession as evidence of disproportionate influence from his sons, Brick and Jack. They began sitting in on team meetings last year and frequently share posts and articles from social media with their father that are weighed against the advice of the Jets’ decision-makers. “I answer to teenagers,” said Douglas before the season.
Johnson’s have even violated the traditional sanctity of the Jets’ locker room, bringing friends and openly airing their criticism of the team. Brick Johnson even pre-empted Aaron Rodgers after the Jets’ Halloween win, their first after firing Robert Saleh four weeks prior. Rodgers intended to give a customary game ball to Jeff Ulbrich for his first victory as a head coach. Instead, Brick Johnson jumped into give a game ball to Garrett Wilson — complete with a profanity-laden exclamation for social media — and Woody Johnson took Rodgers’ ball to give to Ulbrich himself. One player called it “the most awkward, cringe-worthy, brutal experience.”
