Leon was a great Jet but he fucked himself, he and his wife. The Jets were prepared to offer him a decent long term contract after he broke his fibula and missed half the 2009 season but he wanted more and his wife wanted superstar money. The Jets had no idea if he'd ever be the same player so after he signed his tender they traded him. It was HIS fault he was no longer a Jet, not the Jets, not Joe McKnight. He got greedy when he had no leverage and he paid for it. _
Actually, I am kind of pissed he's gone. I had such high hopes that this year he would turn things around, too bad. Gave up on the kid too soon... APRIL FOOLS....
This is one of those things where teams like the Pats get the benefit of the doubt and the Jets get criticized for. Good teams get rid of guys before they decline and we did that. Its criminal we got rid of Woodhead over McKnight though. I really questioned that move.
players should always try to get as much as they can. he recovered and was still a productive player after the injury while McKnight was awful. Had a few nice returns but that was countered w/ all his fumbles and never did anything on offense.
It was never McKnight for Woodhead. At that time and the way the roster was built, it was Clowney for Woodhead. That was the player that took that last roster spot and why Woodhead was waived. Woodhead was not making the team as a RB that year. They were trying to switch him back and forth between WR and RB even though he was truly a RB. But he wasn't cracking the RB rotation and he didn't become a star until he met Tom Brady. In retrospect it looks like we should have kept Woodhead and dumped McKnight, but at that time it was the correct move for the Jets. Just didn't work out and Danny went on to flourish as a Pat. Maybe he never become what he was had he stayed a Jet. _
At the end of the day Woodhead was an average player so its not the biggest bad decision in the world. Jets fans overemphasize the decision to let him go probably because he ended up in NE or whatever... But it just reflected Rex's/Schottenheimer's incompetence with offense. Instead of seeing a players strengths and using them to their advantage (good hands, savvy) they saw everything he wasn't. Tom Brady said about Woodhead something like "You can always know where he'll be and can trust him out there" to me that's high praise and something very undervalued in football. It's a classic example of taking the "money ball" approach to the game (or not- in the Jets case). The Jets saw a smaller, short, low ceiling player and over judged on that vs. seeing a player with great attributes like the ability to be very productive in a small role that played to his strengths.
I also think he wasn't all the way back from his knee injury at the time we let him go. He did not have the same speed he had before his knee was shredded, but he did get most of it back. Jet fans liked the Little Engine That Could story but he wasn't cracking a RB rotation of LT, Greene, Richardson, Conner and new draftee McKnight especially with Brad Smith running the WC. We needed WRs early that season because Tone was on his 4 game suspension. It just didn't work out here and Brady was perfect for him. _
he was our nickel guy for many years, also started when Revis was hurt in 2010 and we only lost one game in that stretch(by 1 point). not every player has to turn into a star to contribute.
