Tom Brady Takes Jab At Jets For Releasing RB Danny Woodhead

[Deb]

Give Tom Brady a chance to rib the Jets, and he is likely to take it.

The Jets cut running back Danny Woodhead in 2010. The Patriots picked him up and he has been a playmaker for them ever since. Woodhead had a pair of touchdowns during Sunday’s victory over the Bills. So on his WEEI-FM radio show Monday, Brady took an opportunity to remind people that the Jets once cut Woodhead.

"He’s been that way since the day he got here," Brady said. "I remember his first game against—we played Buffalo at home. I think it was the third game of the season. He had a similar-type run play for a touchdown. We kind of joked on the sideline—(former offensive coordinator) Billy (O’Brien) and I, we kind of said, 'The legend is born.' We saw him that week in practice, what he was capable of doing, and said, 'Why did the Jets release this guy?' They had him playing receiver and he was a running back in college.

"He’s just come in and done such a great job. He’s the ultimate team player and teammate—dependable, consistent, you always know the level of play you’re getting from Danny."

Source: Sporting News

[SOS4Prez]

Probably because they didn't know how to properly utilize him. A common Jets problem.

[tjw61]

Why did New York Jets cut Danny Woodhead? Rex Ryan's ego

By Jason Smith NFL.com
Fantasy Analyst
Published: Nov. 13, 2012 at 03:11 p.m.
Updated: Nov. 13, 2012 at 03:20 p.m.

I can answer Tom Brady. I can answer him in spades. I can talk rings around him with my answer. I can give it to him backward, forward, in different tongues and even in hieroglyphics.

I can tell Brady why the New York Jets let go of Danny Woodhead. And my answer will shed light on one of the 3-6 Jets' biggest problems.

Playing Danny Woodhead would have been Rex Ryan admitting a mistake, and Rex doesn't like to do that. It's why the Jets are where they are.

In the 2010 NFL Draft, Ryan was coming off a surprise AFC Championship Game appearance. He had a grand plan and the momentum to fortify the roster with players he wanted out of the draft. The Jets dealt Leon Washington to the Seattle Seahawks and traded up to draft running back Joe McKnight in the fourth round, expecting the USC product to be one of those sleeper picks that make coaches and general managers look smart in retrospect. McKnight was going to be a game breaker, both on special teams and out of the backfield. It was a role Woodhead could have excelled in, as he had been involved with the team for two years at that point, having been signed three different times.

New York went into the summer of 2010 with a running back cadre of Shonn Greene, LaDainian Tomlinson, McKnight and Woodhead. McKnight was more famous for vomiting during his first minicamp than for anything he did on the field. He wasn't in shape and he couldn't hold on to the football, fumbling three times in the preseason. He was inactive the first month of the regular season. When he made his debut, it wasn't just at running back, but also at defensive back -- something that cropped up again this season.

In the meantime, Woodhead was waived, picked up by New England and has since become an invaluable weapon at Brady's disposal.

So tell me if this makes sense: A fourth-round pick shows up out of shape, struggles with ball security and changes positions before he's been with the team four months, yet the team keeps going forward with him. Normally, this kind of player would be waived in a millisecond. To McKnight's credit, has become a terrific kick returner. But you can get a kick returner in plenty of places.

Why did things unfurl the way they did? Because keeping Woodhead (a player Ryan inherited) would have meant drafting McKnight was a mistake, and Ryan never cops to personnel mistakes. He's loyal to a fault, but is it out of his responsibility to his players, or his ego?

How many times did we see him drool over John Conner -- a Rex Special -- on HBO's Hard Knocks? Conner never proved he was ready for a big role with the Jets, who stubbornly stuck with him for over two years before finally admitting they needed to go in another direction. Now Gang Green's stuck with journeyman Lex Hilliard.

Ryan said he knew he was going to draft Quinton Coples in April's first round after testing him in drills for five minutes during his pro day, despite the questions about his motor. Coples has been underwhelming so far. Ryan wanted to sign Plaxico Burress after seeing a tape of his best plays before going to prison. Really? That's how easy it is to make those calls? That's like proposing to a woman after seeing her profile on a dating website.

I'm not blaming him for continuing to stick with Mark Sanchez. At this point, you have to play out the season and get a do-over at the position. But Ryan has been a Sanchez backer because Sanchez was his hand-picked quarterback in the 2009 draft, not because of his work on Sundays. Yes, all NFL head coaches live and die by the guys they bring in to be franchise signal-callers. But Rex, having been to two straight AFC title games, had the rare cache to say, "Know what? My guy isn't working. Let's move on." And his job wouldn't have been in jeopardy. So it's ego. No one wants to be told they're wrong, especially after repeated swings and misses in the draft. The earlier you admit a mistake, the easier it is to recover from it. But never doing so? Good luck.

When Ryan said before this season that this could be his best team yet, I thought at the time that it was just something he liked to say. But now? I think he felt he had to say it to back up all his hand-picked personnel. It's ego that prevents you from seeing the faults on your team. It's clear the Jets -- and Ryan -- overvalue their players more than anyone else in the league.

I constantly say this in the NFL.com newsroom: If the Jets waive Mark Sanchez tomorrow, and money isn't a factor, which team picks him up to be a starter? [Insert cricket sound effect here.]

This doesn't mean Ryan is a bad coach. It means he, and GM Mike Tannenbaum, are bad talent evaluators. So that task should fall to someone else. Rex is a great coach, but to borrow a little bit from Bill Parcells, sometimes the cook doesn't buy the right groceries.