Trumaine Johnson is in Year Two of a five-year, $72.5MM deal. And the Jets do not believe that he loves the sport of football, sources tell Manish Mehta of the Daily News. This is, perhaps, an indication that a divorce could be just around the corner, even though it would be costly for Gang Green. 
Johnson, for his part, says he’s still committed to being the best player he can be.
“Of course I love football,” Johnson said. “I’ve been doing it all my life. I’m passionate about it. It’s my life. It’s not a job to me. I love what I do.”
For what it’s worth, Johnson showed more passion in his response than head coach Adam Gase did when explaining why he benched Johnson for the bulk of Monday night’s loss to the Browns.
“We just decided not to play him,” said Gase.
Johnson, a breakout star with the Rams, has also been held back by injuries during his Jets tenure. Johnson missed five games last year due to a lingering quad injury and some Jets officials feel that he could have played through the injury, Mehta hears. It’s also worth noting that Johnson missed another game due to a suspension for tardiness.
Johnson, 29, is signed through 2022. Releasing him now would saddle the Jets with $24MM in dead money, with no cap benefit. The Jets could consider cutting ties with Johnson after this season, prior to his $11MM base salary becoming fully guaranteed on the third day of the league year. That move would save the Jets $3MM against the cap, but would still leave them with $12MM in dead money.
Sometimes these players are told by others which teams they can go to and get the big payday, and then they can just loaf like it’s semi-retirement. I don’t know if this is what’s going on here, but you don’t want to become a team with that reputation. It’s a tough rut to climb out of…
When you hire a coach who already proved beyond any doubt that he is 100% incapable of being a coach in the league this is exactly what happens. The Jets need to fire every single person in the front office from the owner straight down to the water boy.
Fire the owner? Huh. Good luck with that.
I guess the assistant water boy is gonna fire the owner.
Corey Lewandowski tried to fire Jeff Sessions at the best of the President, so there’s some sort of precedence.
Cricket
I’m not defending or condemning it but getting killed every week isn’t easy on a players drive to play their best.
For 22 million a year, kill me.
Right!? His pay is relative to his net worth, but $22M / year is a lot of money to “mail it in.”
And what about personal pride?
he makes the money whether he mails it in or not so the money isnt really a motivator anymore
I know Gase is the HC… but wasn’t Williams given full control of that defense. Shouldn’t reporters be talking to him?
Eh, it’s the Jets. What does anyone expect?
Shouldn’t this be something that is taken care of in-house? You would think one of the defensive leaders would step up and “motivate” the guy. Perhaps the Jets have simply collected 53 players instead of building a team…