On Thursday night at the NFL Honors award show in Las Vegas, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson delivered what could only considered an ultimatum for the Jets coaching staff, followed by what appeared to be a scathing indictment of quarterback Zach Wilson.

First, when asked about the state of the team, Johnson made it clear that there is no room for error in 2024 for a regime that has been responsible for very little success.

“The discussions I've had in the last couple of months, they've seen me about as mad as I can be with what was going on, with the offense particularly,” Johnson said, per Rich Cimini of ESPN. “We have all this talent and we have to deploy talent properly. So I think they all got the message. This is it. This is the time to go. We've got to produce this year.”

In three years with Robert Saleh serving as the head coach, the Jets are 18-33. In five seasons under general manager Joe Douglas, New York has gone 27-60. But in fairness to both Saleh and Douglas, this season was the first one in which there were realistic expectations that the Jets could break what is currently the longest playoff drought in professional sports.

With the offseason addition of Aaron Rodgers, the expectation was that the Jets would not only contend for a postseason berth, but potentially, their first Super Bowl appearance since Joe Namath guaranteed a Jets victory in Super Bowl III. Unfortunately, Rodgers lasted all of one series in the Jets opening game of the 2023 season before rupturing his achilles tendon. New York was forced to turn to Zach Wilson, the often-criticized/mostly disappointing #2 overall pick in the 2021 Draft. Needless to say, seeing so much of Zach Wilson in 2023 was not something Woody Johnson planned for.

“You need a backup quarterback,” Johnson told reporters. “We didn't have one last year.”

Now I'm not going to sit here and try to defend Zach Wilson. He hasn't shown anything that suggests he should be a starting quarterback in the NFL. But look at Wilson's numbers from last year — 4-7 record, 2,271 passing yards, 8 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, two game-winning drives — and tell me that Woody Johnson isn't being at least a little unreasonable when he says the Jets didn't have a backup quarterback. I would go as far as saying it was more problematic that the Jets opted to back up Wilson with a Tim Boyle/Trevor Siemian duo that produced numbers even more uninspiring than those of Wilson.

Johnson is justified in expecting a postseason appearance in 2024. That's the entire reason you trade for Aaron Rodgers. But the criticism of Wilson, who the Jets have informed they will trade this offseason, feels just a little unwarranted.