“Gregg Williams should be fired this morning. I would’ve fired him last night. I want him out of there.”
Boomer Esiason was either about 12 hours late or six hours early, depending on whether you agree with his former or latter stance on the man who is now, officially, the Jets’ former defensive coordinator.
That quote was said around 6:15 a.m. as Boomer & Gio were discussing the day that was in New York football, and while Boomer’s idea turned into a premonition hours later, he had a very good reason why it should have come sooner.
“I’m coming at you as an ex-player who has been in that locker room. The players want to win; they are out there working, busting their ass for that coaching staff,” Boomer said. “I’ve been on losing teams, maybe not this bad, but close, and it sucks! It sucks going to work every day and hearing your coach pontificate about how you’re getting better and how we can win games…once you hear Marcus Maye say what he said, he is now calling out his defensive coordinator, and I don’t give Gregg Williams any slack here.”
What Maye said, continuously as Gio noted, was that the Jets “should have been in a better play call” on the final play of Sunday’s loss, when the Raiders exploited Cover-0 coverage and a man-to-man matchup between rookies Henry Ruggs and Lamar Jackson to score the game-winning touchdown.
Those on the #TankForTrevor train were surely happy with the result, and maybe all is well that ends well – but Boomer was clear that it had to end, the “it” being Williams’ employment, ASAP.
“It may be for the greater good – they may end up with Trevor Lawrence, and there may be people out there happy about it. And, at the end of the day, if it happens, we may look back at this as the turning point,” Boomer said, “but as a former player, as a guy who knows they’re busting their ass, those players wake up this morning and say ‘WTF’ about it.”
Gio then threw some fuel on the fire – or maybe some water – that is the “did Williams tank it?” thought.
“I cannot picture a reason why Gregg Williams, who in no way is going to be here next season, would throw the game for the organization,” Gio said. “Unless you’re telling me Joe Douglas will be so happy that he called this awful defense that he’s going to keep him around as a prize? To me, it’s incompetence more than anything else.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Gregg Williams is working for the Raiders next year, honestly, because he basically handed the blueprint on how to win the game to Jon Gruden,” Boomer replied. “They missed Nelson Agholor on the play before, and like Derek Carr said, he couldn’t believe what he saw when he got to the line of scrimmage.”
With all that said, Gio asked Boomer point blank if he thought Williams blew it on purpose.
“If you’re asking my opinion as to whether or not he blew that game on purpose, I’m going to tell you yes,” Boomer stated. “I hope there’s no internal understanding that this is how it has to be, or that there’s such disdain for the head coach that he wants them to be winless so it goes on Adam Gase’s record – but I wouldn’t be surprised if he texted Joe Douglas after the game and said, ‘Merry Christmas.’”
And that’s just not something the Jets deserved.
“The players now are going to be inundated through the media, and social media, and all across the NFL landscape, with people saying your coach threw that game and gave it to the Raiders,” Boomer implored.
When Gio pressed again that it could just be incompetence on Williams’ part – “his reputation is that he’s been entirely too overaggressive and stupid his entire career, so what happens if they sack Carr? Would he have been pissed? I know it’s idiotic, but he’s idiotic,” Gio said – Boomer doubled down.
I can understand it if you had a shutdown corner out there – you’re playing man coverage with an undrafted rookie free agent?” Boomer spouted incredulously. “Derek Carr couldn’t believe what he saw, and neither could anyone I work with (on CBS’ The NFL Today). All I can tell you is that if it’s me, his ass is out on the street this morning, because he just threw my entire team under the bus.”
The conversation continued from there (and went for much of the show), including Boomer’s repeated insinuation that Adam Gase is not controlling the team and comparing Gang Green’s dysfunction to what’s going on with the Giants…and you can listen to this part below, starting at around the 12-minute mark!
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