New York Jets linebacker Jamien Sherwood found himself on the bench at the beginning of the Week 8 contest versus the Cincinnati Bengals.
More specifically, Sherwood was on special teams to start the game.
ESPN’s Rich Cimini posted on social media, “Jamien Sherwood was on the kickoff coverage team to start the game, so he’s not injured. This appears to be a benching. If it is, it’s not often you see a captain get benched.”
Head Coach Aaron Glenn Breaks Silence on Sherwood Benching
ESPN’s Rich Cimini revealed that Sherwood didn’t play on defense the entire first quarter. After the game, he asked Coach Glenn what went into that decision.
“I am going to keep that between me and him and me and the team,” Coach Glenn responded.
Coach Glenn Shows Real Accountability
Accountability is an important thing in the NFL.
If players make mistakes and you, as a coach, don’t hold them accountable, that can send the wrong message to the locker room.
Head coach Aaron Glenn has flexed his muscles on a handful of occasions on accountability issues this season. However, if we are being honest, those earlier decisions were easy.
In Week 1, wide receiver Xavier Gipson fumbles a key kickoff return late against the Pittsburgh Steelers. They cash in a touchdown and win the game by two.
Gipson has been maligned for his mistake-prone nature for much of his NFL career to date. Glenn cutting him should have been an easy decision.
In Week 4, wide receiver Isaiah Williams made two back-breaking mistakes against the Miami Dolphins. He fumbled a second-half kickoff that resulted in a touchdown for the fish. Inexplicably, later in the game, he fair caught a ball at the two-yard line backing up his own team.
Ahead of Week 5, Coach Glenn cut Williams.
Bottom-of-the-roster players made mistakes, and Coach Glenn displayed a zero-tolerance policy for them. Williams was later re-signed to the team after a one-game sabbatical.
Coach Glenn had to make those moves for the sake of accountability, but he didn’t receive much credit in the streets for doing so. The Sherwood benching is different.
From the First Big Move to the First Big Move
This offseason, the Jets hired Aaron Glenn as the head coach and Darren Mougey as the general manager.
The first defining move of their era came at the eve of free agency. They re-signed linebacker Jamien Sherwood to a three-year $45 million contract that included $30 million guaranteed.
That $15 million annual salary placed him inside the top-five highest-paid linebackers in football, per Over The Cap.
Before the season, Sherwood was voted one of six team captains for the Jets by his teammates.
The big dog secured the bag and was thrust into a leadership role. Coach Glenn put Sherwood on a pedestal. Two months later, Coach Glenn removed him from that pedestal and benched him.
That is true accountability by the head man. It’s easy to discipline the players at the tail end of the roster; it’s much more difficult to do that to one of your highest-paid players on the roster.
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