Braylon rips Woody Johnson - is he right?

In an Instagram post today, former Jets wide receiver Braylon Edwards had a scathing response to comments made earlier this week by Jets owner Woody Johnson (via NJ.com).

Johnson had spoken about the Jets' current approach to building the roster through the draft and with low-priced free agents, but Edwards implied Johnson was being insincere and said that he's "close to losing the franchise". He traces all this back to the decision not to keep the team together in 2010.

With hindsight, it's easy to point to that moment in Jets history as the point where it all went wrong. The team hasn't reached the postseason since that time. But did they really take the wrong approach with a team that Edwards claims was destined for "the promise land" (sic)?

In the NJ.com article, Connor Hughes provides supporting evidence for Edward's claim:

Edwards' contract expired after the year, and the Jets didn't make much of an effort to re-sign him. They also released veteran offensive lineman Damien Woody, defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, receiver Jerricho Cotchery and defensive end Jason Taylor, among others.

Sounds damning, huh?

But let's analyze those moves. Woody would have been 34 and had torn his Achilles in January. He retired anyway in the summer. Jenkins was coming off his second ACL tear and never played again. Taylor hadn't played well for the Jets and had a contract which was effectively a one-year deal with an always-unlikely-to-be-exercised option for a much higher amount in year two.

Those "others"? Vernon Gholston and Ben Hartsock - two players most Jets fans couldn't wait to get rid of. And Edwards himself? Was beset by knee injuries and off-field issues over the next two years, catching just nine passes - three of which were after a return to the Jets in 2012.

The least defensible move was letting Cotchery leave, but they did initially keep him and it emerged that he'd requested a trade or release earlier in the offseason before they finally let him go in August. Many attributed this to the Jets' ill-fated acquisition of Derrick Mason, but the request pre-dated that move by a few months and has also been attributed by some to Cotchery being less than comfortable with certain aspects of the locker room culture.

Cotchery caught just 33 passes over the next two years as a third or fourth option with the Steelers, although he did score 10 touchdowns in his third year there.

All-in-all, would keeping this collection of players have kept the Jets more competitive for longer? I'm not convinced any of them would have moved the needle.

Now, let's consider what they actually did instead. The Jets didn't have a large amount of cap flexibility but they stretched it to the limit by making several large back-loaded deals. And for what purpose? As best as possible, to keep the team together!

They re-signed David Harris, Antonio Cromartie and Santonio Holmes to big-money deals and the likes of Nick Folk, Eric Smith, Brodney Pool and Wayne Hunter to smaller deals. That all came after they'd already invested mega-money into ensuring they could keep Darrelle Revis several months earlier.

While there was a brief pursuit of Nnamdi Asomugha, they didn't really spend any money on external free agents with Plaxico Burress probably the biggest name. As a cheaper alternative to Edwards, Burress wasn't particularly good, but did contribute eight touchdowns. Arguably, that's the exact type of move a contending team needs to make to remain competitive while still complying with the salary cap.

Let's also not forget that the Jets' cap flexibility was further hamstrung by the "final eight rules" that arose in the final year of the previous CBA. And, I guess, we should also mention that this was probably Mike Tannenbaum's plan, not Woody Johnson's.

Essentially, keeping the 2010 team together was exactly what the Jets tried to do. Due to the cap situation, they were always going to have to choose which guys to keep and, ultimately, it wouldn't be accurate to say they picked the wrong ones.

Of course, several of the guys they did keep didn't pan out either, particularly Holmes and Revis, whose time with the Jets would ultimately be cut short due to injury. The Jets couldn't have known that at the time, but even if you grant us the benefit of this hindsight, the conclusion wouldn't be "they should have kept the 2010 team together" it would have been the opposite of that.

Edwards obviously still harbors some negative feelings towards Johnson and is using Johnson's comments as an on-ramp to get some things off his chest. I don't think his comments are a valid assessment of Johnson's current plan (although it's obviously not "his plan"), but Jets fans will have differing views on the current direction.

I don't think many people are clamoring to keep the 2016 squad together though!

What do you think? Knowing what we know now, how should the Jets have approached that offseason? Is this all sour grapes from Edwards or does Johnson deserve all this vitriol for his part in the Jets' current plight?