Joe Benigno on Jets’ Shocking Win, Nick Mangold’s Legacy, and Why He’d Trade Quinnen Williams

Joe Benigno on Jets’ Shocking Win, Nick Mangold’s Legacy, and Why He’d Trade Quinnen Williams

Joe, obviously before we get to the shocking jet victory, the the horrible news we all got yesterday morning about Nick Mangold, uh your thoughts on the passing of Nick at a ridiculously young age. Well, one, first of all, look, one of the great Jets of all time. No doubt about it. Uh one of the great centers of all time. I mean, I know he’s up, you know, he’s up for uh he’s been nominated for the Hall of Fame. He should get in, you know. I mean, let’s be honest. I mean, there’s a very limited amount of setters in the Hall of Fame. I was thinking about him the other day. I think it’s Jim Ringo, Mike Webster, Damonte Dawson, Jack Langas, Dwight Stevenson, and Kevin Mai. So, why shouldn’t Nick Mangold be in there? He’s as good as any of those guys in my mind. Um, you know, I think he’s a six was a six-time Pro Bowler and a great guy. I mean, seven Pro Bowls. Yeah. Two all pros, right? And two all pros, which is, you know, a you know, that means you’re the best of the best, right? Um, I don’t think there’s any question. uh put him in and we can all go just like we did for KCO and Revas. We can all go to Canton and even though Nick won’t be with us, we can watch him get into the Hall of Fame. I met him a couple times. Great guy, irregular guy. Um, and I’ll never forget if you mean you, we were there at the draft in 2006. And I’ll never forget this at Radio City back when it was in New York all the time. And you know, the story was Reggie Bush and Vince Young and you know, I think it was Matt Liner and all these guys. And we’re talking you and I, we’ve got to draft Reggie Bush and all of this. The Jets had the fourth pick in the draft. They take the brickshaw Ferguson. Then at the end of the draft, they had another pick in the first round. They take Nick Mangold. It turned out to be probably the best draft in the history of the franchise. We had basically the two rocks of our starting offensive line for 10 years. Probably the greatest left tackle we ever had in the brick. It’s close with Nick because you got to look at Milwaukeu who’s a Hall of Famer, you know. So, you know, two great great centers that we’ve had. But that turned out to be, you know, I think we got Leon Washington in that draft, Brad Smith in that draft. That turned out to be one of the great drafts in the history of doubt. It wasn’t sexy at the time cuz you’re right, it was all about Reggie and Liner and all that, but and in a way watching yesterday’s game let us hope not the same positions exactly that Olu Fashion and Armanu can be those rocks for the next 10 years too cuz they played a hell of a game yesterday. Well, they were the stars of the game. You know, look, obviously Fields was great. Bree was great. By the way, you’re not trading B. Let me just throw Let me get this out here right now. You’re not trading Bree, okay? Okay. These are the kind of guys you’re going to be looking for next year to help you go forward with a young team and hopefully a young quarterback. Hey, Joe, I agree with you 100%. But isn’t this what everybody said about Saquon when it was near the end with the New York Giants? Trade him when he’s at his highest value and get something for him. They didn’t even trade him though. They didn’t trade him. Oh, I know. But I’m saying now people are some people are saying trade Breeze Hall. But I agree with you. No, don’t trade him. I mean, I know Isaiah Davis is a good player and he had he had he had a hundred yards. He had a great game. Huge game, but he’s not Breeze Hall. No, no. And and even and the other kid Allen, I really don’t know about him. He got hurt. He had a big fumble. He’s out probably for the year. Here’s the thing, Teague. Okay, you you keep him. you try to sign him in the off season and if you don’t you franchise them and the running back number is not a you know it’s not like you’re you’re franchising a quarterback or a pass rusher or a left tackle you know what that’s what you do that I that’s that’s what I would do especially because if they trade him what they’re going to get a fourth round pick you’re throwing them away what are you getting you’re basically getting nothing for them I mean come on a fourth round pick especially the way our franchise picks you know what with our fourth round pick. We won’t be taking somebody like Cam Scataboo. And And I want to say something about that, too, because I happen, you know, I I happen I was putting the Giant game on in the in the commercials of the Jet game, and unfortunately, I happened to see the play where Scataboo got hurt. That was terrible, and you could tell immediately his ankle was going the the wrong way. And and look, I’m not a Giant fan, but what a hit. What a terrible I mean, you know, the kid had so him and Dart together, so much juice. And to see the kid go out like that, that is that’s just horrible. Really really horrible. Horrific. Horrific. A couple of things early in this game. Yep. Fourth and one from their own 37 yd line. Your thoughts on going for it and then subsequently the toss to Bree Hall that got completely smooshed. Loved going for it. The play was horrible. Now what I’m hearing is that Fields audible out of the play. Now I think it might have been a quarterback sneakers. Should have been of course. And remember later on in the game he did a quarterback stink and got the first down. Um now the love the idea being aggressive. We’re 0 and 0 and seven. I was all for it but the play call was horrible. Yeah I think I think the aggressiveness showed its head later. Uh the the with the point conversion the two-point conversion first but also the other fourth down that was pass all the way. Now it was a great job by Justin Fields of buying time and finding his tight end and and then the going for it on fourth down. I mean, how about the first touchdown? Te was on fourth down. It was fourth and two and Fields made the throw to Johnson with a guy right in his face. Yeah. Put it right on the money, right? There was zero. It was a zero blitz that for whatever reason the quarterback or the safety slowed up before he got to Justin Fields for whatever reason. And that half a second allowed him to throw that it was a floater because he got tipped into Johnson’s hands. But, you know, as I thought about it early on in my mind, I’m saying why is like, dude, you don’t need to be this aggressive. But then I realized, what the hell do you have to lose, right? You’re 0 and seven. If you’re Aaron Glenn at 0 and seven, take every chance that you possibly can because you don’t know how it’s going to spark your team. And and by the way, that’s what happened. It started to spark the team to do really good stuff, at least offensively. And and I want to say this too, another thing that you know, uh, not not the game per se, what Woody Johnson said, if you there’s no question that this lit a fire not only on the fields, but under the team. I I don’t think there’s any question about it. And I don’t think that that’s what his intent was, you know. No, no. I I mean, obviously, but it’s it’s it worked. Whatever it was, he wound up working in his football. It greatly affected Justin Fields. I mean, you see him in that post game admitting he was crying during the week and he didn’t put it on Woody. But look, Woody Johnson is so odd because I get it. Justin Fields wasn’t playing well. Like, we all we all criticized him. But it’s something different when the owner of the team comes out in the clunky way that he speaks where he’s like, “His rating is bad.” Like, even the way he talk, it just doesn’t make that much sense. Can’t complete it. It just it was it was something he shouldn’t have said. But hey, if it somehow sparked Justin Fields to play his best football, God bless him. No question about it. And I got to tell you, uh, the two plays on the the two two-point conversions, which turned out to be huge in this game. And I got to tell you, both times I was disagreeing with doing it, okay? Both times, you know, cuz the first time they were down nine. And I’m like, wait a minute, you’re down. So if you don’t get this, you’re still down two scores. On that one, Fields made an unbelievable play. They got They were gonna pass it. He got away from the pressure. He gets outside and he runs it in for two. And then on the second one at that point now it’s 38-30 and I’m saying to myself, wait a minute. Well, you got to kick the What are you going for two now? You got to kick the extra point. And what a play he makes. I mean, he makes the throw as he’s going down. Davis catches the ball. Initially, they’re saying it’s an incomplete pass. You saw the replay. You saw he caught it. Yeah. And barely was the football on the goal line. And obviously pro, you know, maybe the biggest play of the game that that play. No, it definitely was because it it created the opportunity to win the game when you move move the ball down the field and score again on what was a ridiculous play by Bree Hall. Now, there are some guys down the sideline running down the side. Oh, no. You talking about the touchdown pass? Yeah, the touchdown pass. There are some guys who were just right back like gamers. He just figured out as it goes along. As soon as he tucked that ball, I was like, “All right, whatever. just maybe reverse field, whatever, figure something out. But that throw was kind of it was QBesque for a guy who doesn’t play quarterback. He pumped it, faked it, made the, you know, just popped it up to Rudolph Rudolph. I keep going Mason Taylor who had a, you know, just a a really tremendous game. He caught a big third down as well. How about the receivers in this game? Tyler Johnson and Isaiah Williams. Both of these guys were huge in this game. Williams caught some big passes. He even had that reverse for about 25 yards. How about the fourth down play to Rucker of all people like 25 yards. This is why you get encourage from Justin Fields because quarterbacks obviously are not supposed to make mistakes. Just leave defeat team down the field, score points. But he was making those guys better. Like the throws were making those guys in position to go make plays for themselves. And you got to credit Justin Fields for that. We were talking a bit earlier and I think the biggest difference, Joe, is that Tanner Ingstrand finally stopped trying to be ultra conservative with Justin Fields. When I went back and watched the game from Carolina, every throw was like a twostep or a three-step drop. In this game, he’s taken fivestep drops. He’s got a sevenstep drop. And it’s he’s just safer, right? He’s just away from from pressure. That immediate pressure that comes just from the line push he would feel in the previous weeks. this week he felt like he was a like a Pro Bowl quarterback. The way he offensive line, the offensive line, Evan alluded to it earlier was phenomenal. I mean, they didn’t touch fields in this game. They ran for 254 yards. I mean, you you can’t if this is the what the offensive line is going to is going to be as we go forward. I mean, you know, because I thought they were the as much as all those guys were great. You know, Fields was great, Davis was great, Bree was great. No doubt about it. I to me the stars of the game. What are the offensive line? Absolutely. And they’re essentially both rookies. I mean, Fashion is a second year player, but remember, he didn’t even start right away last year. And Tipman is only what his second year, third year. Yeah, third year, I think. So, they’re incredibly young. And hopefully that’s what this team is building towards having the rock solid offensive line that we saw during the man gold to brick era. Yeah. Yeah. No question about it. Now the defense stunk and I and I and let me say a couple things about this defense and I and finally look cuz I know everybody look not for a minute and I got to tell you this too guys. Did I ever think they’re winning this game? No. Because with a minute and 50 seconds left they got three timeouts. So all they need is a field goal to win the game. And I’m like there’s no way they’re going to stop them. And they did. So, credit to them. But a couple plays in this game. How about this? And I thought we were dead with this play. And they scored a touchdown, too, after this. Third and 12. And they let Joe Flacko run for 13 yards. And Michael Clemens misses him on the play, right? I don’t know how he’s still on a team. He misses him. I thought they were dead after that play. And here’s another guy. You know, we always talk about how overrated Source is. I mean, let’s be honest about it. Quinnon Williams. this guy. I mean, the neutral zone infraction on third and four. On third and four, he gives him a first down. Does he do anything? He had one one uh assisted tackle yesterday. You know, when do I see Quinnon Williams gets delirious about this guy? When do I see Quinnon Williams make a play like I saw Dexter Lawrence make a few weeks ago against the Chargers when he bats the ball in the air, catches the ball, and runs for like 3540 yards? When am I going to see that? When am I gonna see Quinn Williams have like a three or four sack game? I don’t see it ever. I’m curious now because Diana Rousini put out what she’s hearing about it before the NFL trade deadline. Yeah. And she mentioned Jets are going to get a lot of calls on Quinnon Williams. Would you trade him? Uh I would think about it because I think he might get you a number one draft choice. Certainly a number two. Yeah, he’s certainly getting a return unlike Bree Hall. Right. I’m not trading Bree Hall, but I I would look I’m not getting what we should be getting from Quinnon Williams as far as I’m concerned. I think he’s extremely overrated. Um, like I said, I mean, can I see him make a play like Dexter Lawrence? I mean, give me a break. I never see that. Never. So, yeah, I I think you get no no worse than a second round pick fan. Yeah. I mean, Dexter Lawrence has that has that reputation and his previous years have been fantastic, but he hasn’t made a ton of plays like that. No. A lot this year. But it’s in his it’s in his wheelhouse, that’s for sure. The I mean the the the other thing Joe that is half those defensive backs I didn’t know who they were. I was like who is this guy? You know what give those guys credit. Okay I know they had the kid uh what’s his name? Thomas got on that touchdown to Higgins. Right. U but they pretty much you know they kept the chase pretty he caught a lot of passes but they kept him in check. He didn’t kill him in this game. Right. Ben don’t break. Right. Right. Right. So they made some you know his kids made some plays. You know the kid from uh but they still gave up a ton of points. Well, they’re not any good. They got no pass. Where’s the pressure? We had one sack by Paul McDonald, which was pretty big late in the game, but they Where were they? They didn’t get near Joe Flacco, and there was no blitzing at all. Did they blitz? And they couldn’t and they couldn’t stop the run. I mean, P R and Chase Brown all day. They rush for 184 yards in this game. The You mentioned something we don’t see from Quinnon Williams. I’ll tell you something else we don’t see as as a whole from this defense is force a freaking turnover. We saw the one turnover a few weeks ago. And the play here’s I never thought they were going to win. I’m completely with you. Even on fourth and nine from their own 45. I’m like, they’re going to convert a kick a field goal. We’re going to lose. We’re going to see a pass interference or an illegal contact. Yes, definitely. But the the play that really killed me was about three plays earlier. The rookie AZ Thomas, as uh he’s affectionately called, knocked the ball up and came within like a centimeter. He was out of bounds though. That was the problem. Definitely did not reestablish. never reestablished but actually caught the ball back in the field of play. If he had reestablished, it’s an interception, right? And they just they never they never force him. Well, they didn’t turn the ball over either. But look, they got one turnover all year. They don’t have it. How about this? The starting quarterback Fields has not thrown an interception all year and the defense has not gotten an interception all year. How about that? That’s almost impossible to, right? I mean I mean, you’re halfway through the season almost. Tell me about it. You know, and I know he only play he he he missed that one game against Tampa, but you know what? You look at this team, you start to look at this season that we’ve had. I mean, they could easily, let’s be real, they could easily have four wins here. I mean, you go back to the Pittsburgh game, the Denver game. Denver mailed that game in. They should have won that game. Denver’s a really good team, but they didn’t you, like I said, they mailed the game in in London. Let’s be honest about it. They should have won that game. Um, you know, they had Tampa, if they could have made a stop against Tampa, they would have won that game. I mean, so many of these games, the only two games they really got killed was Dallas and Buffalo. Yeah. You know, even last week against the Crummy Panthers, who, by the way, Buffalo annihilated. I mean, come on. You know, so I look, let’s here’s my feeling going forward. You got nine games left. There’s a lot of football to be played. Let me see them win games. I want to see how about I don’t think this is unrealistic cuz they’re still going to get a high draft choice. go five and four over the last nine. You got games you can win. You got Cleveland, you got the Saints, you got Atlanta at home, you got Miami. I know Miami waxed Atlanta yesterday, but you know, you got Miami. You know, you got games you can win. So, I I want to see this going forward. I want to see some wins. And you’re still going to get a high draft choice no matter what. You’re not winning more than four or five games if you’re winning that many. You’re still going to get a get to get your quarterback in the first round. Let Let’s see. Let me see if we got a football team or not. Now, speaking of, let’s see if we got a head coach. Well, that’s the encourage. That’s why winning is so important. You just nailed it. We can talk about picks all day, right? We need to see success and improvement to know that there is a head coach here. One thing that they’ve done the last Let me just say one thing. I because I don’t and I’ve said this before. I don’t give a damn who the coach is. I just want to have the I want to have a winning, you know, a real legitimate NFL head coach. I don’t care who the quarterback is. I just want to win. I don’t give a damn if it’s Justin Fields, if it’s Sally Fields. I don’t care. You know what I mean? I want to win. That’s all that matters. So, you know, nine games, a lot of football to be played. Let me see this team stack a couple wins here. But also, like I we all want to win. If they finish one and 16 and fired this coach, their chances of winning are not good because all of a sudden they’d be looking for a head coach and no one would want this job. So, we are better off. For any jet who actually cares about winning, which I think most of us, they got to win with Glenn. It would have to get really really bad for him to get fired. I I agree. And I I don’t see that in the cards, him not being the head. Where would he put his rear end out for Glenn? I mean, when he criticized Fields, he didn’t criticize Glenn. So, you’re right. You know, he wants him to be the guy. But we’re also seeing I know it was tough to like admit it a few weeks ago cuz they kept losing. We’re also seeing improvement, especially in terms of penalties. I know the Quinnon Williams one was a disaster, but dude, they committed four penalties this week. They committed like three last week. They have clearly cut down on that, and we got to give the coach credit for that. Yeah. No, they’ve cut down on the penalties. There’s no doubt about it. I I I would agree with that. They’re not making those dumb mistakes they were making before. But they got to, you know, you got to get the turnovers. You got to They just don’t force any turnovers at all. I was very surprised to to hear that they are and I don’t know if they got any uh yesterday or not. They got beat by Houston that the ners defense didn’t have any interceptions either. Did you know that? That’s crazy. I did not know that. I didn’t that there were there Spiro Dishas yesterday was saying there was only two teams in the league. the Jets and San Francisco and I don’t know if they got any yesterday. They have forced seven turnovers and even if they’re all fumbles is that San Francisco. San Francisco at least they’re forcing them. Right. Right. Uh they did get one interception yesterday. So they they’re off the snide. So the Jets are the only team. Yeah. Well, I mean I don’t even give fumble interception. I don’t give a just force a turnover. Oh my god. How about taking How about I see Can I see one time and I’m sure look we’re going to get the buy this week and I think they’re actually the favorite against the buy for a change. And I think I think this is a big deal too. I want to see Aaron Glenn cuz we never win after the buy. You know this. I want to see Aaron Glenn, this is a big deal for the coach have his team prepared and ready to play football coming out of that buy when they play the Cleveland Browns who starting a rookie quarterback. You know, I know they got a solid defense. They got killed by the Patriots yesterday. I want to see I want to see this team ready to play football coming out of the buy. That’s a big reflection on the head coach. Absolutely. And it’s a game they should win. They’re going to be favorites at home against beat him. Right. Right. Obviously, none of us are there yet. I was laying out a fantasy earlier in the show like Woody Johnson somehow inspires Justin Fields and he becomes our franchise quarterback after all that. What a story it would be, though not likely. What do you need to see from Justin Fields over these final bunch of weeks to say, you know what, screw drafting a quarterback. We have our quarterback. Well, I got to see more games like yesterday. I mean I mean, you know, let let me see more like yesterday. I mean, I I you know, I don’t want to see him now revert back to, you know, being a disaster again going forward. I still would draft a quarterback, though. I I still would. I mean, remember, they only got him on a two-year deal anyway, right? He’s there for two years. They gave him 30 million guaranteed. Um, so I still am drafting a quarterback because, you know, no matter what he does, the rest of I do want to bring up something Met related because I found this out in the last hour and I’m annoyed about it and I’m assuming you’re going to be annoyed about it. Pete, it’s not about Pete a lot. It’s actually about a coach. And I know coaching doesn’t make us nuts, but Anton Richardson is not coming back. How could he not? They How could this guy I mean, they were like unbelievable stealing bases last year. Yes. I mean, they I don’t think that they were thrown out by a catcher. I don’t know how long. He got a bunch of times and Lindor specifically got picked off by pitchers, right? Yes. Or picked off by a catcher didn’t throw a guy out at second base for like five months. It was ridiculous. I mean, what did they have 35 in a row or something like that? It was crazy. Yeah. It really It really is. It’s so wrong. You know, it’s amazing how Jeremy Hefner, we looked at him like he was Dave Duncan or Leo Mazone for a while, right? This great pitching coach. What the hell happened? What happened to the great pitching lab? Well, you don’t want to I don’t want to get started on the general man on the whatever the president of baseball operation. I don’t know if I blame Sterns or Cohen for this, but according to Jeff Pass in terms of why Anton Richardson is not back is they could not agree on a new contract, which is like how much could a coach be making? Is he even making he’s not making more than, you know, a couple hundred thousand? I know. That’s why I read that. I’m like, that’s maybe that’s to save face. safe face. They got rid of all the other coaches. They could have just gotten rid of him. Instead, it sounds like they couldn’t agree on money. And that sounds like a horrible decision considering what he turned Juan Sodto as a base dealer into. And everybody on this team stealing bases. I mean, it was you just didn’t throw anybody out. It was amazing how they stole bases. Now, a lot of course the new rule with only two throw overs to first helps it, but they were just, you know, dominant stealing bases. Stealing on breaking balls. That helps. Yeah. Well, it’s about being smart. It’s about reading the pitches and knowing when to go. Yeah. No, I that didn’t make any sense to me at all. You know, blame the coaching staff. Of course. Of course. Joe, good talking to you, man. We always appreciate it. All right, guys. All the love. I guess I won’t talk to you next week. No game. So, we’ll talk to you in a couple weeks. Talk to you in a few. Thank you. The great Joe Beningo after a Jet victory for the very first time. For the very first time this year, we get to talk to Joe after a win as they do shockingly defeat the Cincinnati Bengals. And they head into the buy with one victory. And shockingly, for the first time all year, Jet fans feel somewhat decent about ourselves.

The legendary Joe Benigno joins Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber on WFAN to react to the emotional weekend for Jets fans — from the heartbreaking passing of Nick Mangold to the team’s shocking comeback win over the Bengals. Joe calls Mangold one of the greatest Jets ever and says he belongs in the Hall of Fame, then breaks down Justin Fields’ breakout, Aaron Glenn’s gutsy coaching, and why Breece Hall should never be traded.

Plus, Joe sounds off on Quinnen Williams, the Jets defense, and the team’s future — and even finds time to rant about the Mets’ coaching staff changes. Classic Joe Benigno from start to finish.

00:00 – Joe Benigno remembers Nick Mangold and his Hall of Fame-worthy career
01:00 – Revisiting the legendary 2006 Jets draft: D’Brickashaw Ferguson & Mangold
02:30 – Joe says Breece Hall is untouchable: “Don’t even think about trading him!”
04:00 – Joe reacts to Cam Skattebo’s injury in the Giants game
05:00 – The Jets’ bold 4th-down calls and Justin Fields’ clutch play
06:00 – Woody Johnson’s controversial comments and how they lit a fire under the Jets
07:00 – Breaking down Fields’ two-point conversions and late-game heroics
08:00 – Offensive line dominance: Fashanu & Tippmann are the new Brick & Mangold
10:00 – Joe criticizes Quinnen Williams and questions his star status
12:00 – Would Joe trade Quinnen Williams before the deadline?
13:30 – Jets’ defense issues: no pressure, no turnovers, no identity
15:00 – Joe lays out a realistic second-half goal: “Go 5–4 and show me you’re building something”
17:00 – On Aaron Glenn’s job security and what Jets fans should want
19:00 – What Justin Fields must prove to be the Jets’ long-term QB
20:00 – Joe rants about the Mets’ coaching staff and losing Anton Richardson

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