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Adam Gase ‘just decided not to’ play CB Trumaine Johnson as Odell Beckham goes off

ryan young
Staff writer

The New York Jets struggled on Monday night, falling to the Cleveland Browns 23-3 at home for their second loss of the year.

The Jets had no answer for Odell Beckham Jr., either.

Beckham had six receptions for 161 yards in the win, including a career-long 89-yard touchdown grab. He even had an insane one-handed catch early in the game that set up a Browns field goal on their opening drive.

New York simply couldn’t stop him.

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And, for some reason, the Jets’ player who is supposed to be able to stop weapons like Beckham was on the sidelines.

Jets cornerback Trumaine Johnson — who signed a massive 5-year, $72 million deal with the team last year — did not see the field once on Monday night at MetLife Stadium, though he was dressed on the sidelines.

His reasoning?

“We just decided not to play him,” head coach Adam Gase said after the game.

Johnson didn’t have a great outing last week in their loss to the Bills, allowing seven receptions for 110 yards, so it’s possible that Gase decided to sit him to send a message. While that’s Gase’s prerogative as the head coach, he’s sitting a lot of money on the sidelines just because he didn’t want to play the 29-year-old — who had 40 total tackles and four interceptions last season.

Now, the Jets had plenty of other issues on Monday night. Backup quarterback Trevor Siemian — who was playing in place of Sam Darnold, who is battling mono — went down with an ugly ankle injury in the first half, and was replaced by Luke Falk. The team finished the first half with negative 13 passing yards, and really struggled to put anything together offensively.

While Johnson’s appearance may have helped slow Beckham and the Browns, it’s probably a stretch to say he could have changed the outcome of the game.

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