On Monday New York Jets owner Woody Johnson addressed the media.\u00a0 Here is the transcript courtesy of the Jets.<\/p>\n
On why he is smiling\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m just happy. Happy to see our guys here. I welcome them all back. Most of them are in pretty good shape, which is good. It\u2019s great to be back to football.<\/p>\n On how he felt the Jets fared in free agency\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n I think great. We would like to have signed up for this in March, what the outcome was. Nobody knew we could do it. Mike (Tannenbaum) and his department did an incredible job. A lot of late nights and no sleep and all this, but this is what he lives for. He did an excellent job getting our players back, getting receivers. Of course we got Plaxico Burress, which is an exciting addition to our team. I think he\u2019ll make Santonio (Holmes) better, he\u2019ll make them all better.<\/p>\n On whether he believes his meeting with Tannenbaum and Burress in 2009 had an impact on Burress\u2019 decision\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t know. You\u2019d have to ask Plaxico about that. I remember him walking down a hall in Hempstead, he was going down to see (Bill) Parcells. (Prior to Burress being drafted) we had him in for a day, to take a look at him, and how impressed I was then, with who he was and what he looked like in his college career. Amazing guy. We probably would\u2019ve drafted him. He went before we had a chance. He went at number eight or nine, right in there. Just a remarkable athlete and we just couldn\u2019t be happier to have him.<\/p>\n On whether he is happy with Jets free agent signings, despite not signing CB Nnamdi Asomugha\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m delighted the way it actually worked out, because we got Eric Smith back, we got Plax. We got a lot of good players, a lot of our players. I\u2019m happy. And we\u2019re not done.<\/p>\n On what else the Jets may do\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n You know Mike (Tannenbaum). He\u2019s always working. He\u2019s always going to be looking for talent to the extent where we have any money left, and we\u2019re still counting to see if we\u2019ve got anything. We\u2019re trying to improve the team. That\u2019s our job. We want to go all the way.<\/p>\n On whether he would agree with Rex Ryan\u2019s statement that this is the best team they\u2019ve had in Ryan\u2019s three seasons\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n I would never disagree with Rex, number one. I think, if you take a look overall. We lost Brad (Smith), which made a lot of people unhappy, because Brad was a great member of the team. But I\u2019m happy for him, because I think he\u2019s got something that he wants. He wants a bigger role, and I think that\u2019s what he was promised. So, I\u2019m happy for him, because this is what he was looking for, but yes, I think the team is better.<\/p>\n On whether he is disappointed the Jets could not sign Asomugha\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ll tell you I\u2019m not disappointed. I\u2019m really not disappointed, because I think if you take a look at what we got, I\u2019m happy. Look at what Cro (CB Antonio Cromartie) did his first four games and then we held our own. Cro is delighted to be back here, I\u2019ve never seen a happier guy, with no sleep last night. I think where we ended up is fabulous, and we\u2019re going to be good.<\/p>\n On whether it is an awkward situation because the Jets pursued Asomugha\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n That hasn\u2019t even come up. I didn\u2019t detect any feelings of being distraught or anything else. He was just so happy to be here, and we reciprocated. We are very happy he\u2019s here, because we know how good he is now and how good he will be.<\/p>\n On the decision to sign Burress\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, we had a meeting about two years ago, before he was sentenced or anything else. We were real interested in him then, during that period of time, because we didn\u2019t know what the outcome of the court system was or anything else. So, we talked to him. We\u2019ve known him for a long time. I met him during that draft when Parcells was our general manager, so that year I got a chance to meet him. Just being honest, we might have drafted him, he went, I think, number eight in the draft that year. I\u2019ve always been impressed with him.<\/p>\n On whether he believes the Jets big splashes in free agency make them the AFC\u2019s version of the \u201cDream Team\u201d\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t know. We\u2019re not doing it to make a splash really, we\u2019re doing it to improve the team. So, we\u2019re looking for talent and trying to structure that talent to help us win. If it creates a splash, so be it, but that\u2019s not our intent, for sure.<\/p>\n On why the Jets signed Burress instead of WR Braylon Edwards\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a question of value. This is a very, very difficult year because we\u2019re in a transition between one set of rules and a new set of rules. You have to be half accountant, half risk analyst, and half talent evaluator, but the other parts come in, so we didn\u2019t have a lot of surplus cash. So, this is the perfect fit for us, with Plax.<\/p>\n On whether one of the side benefits of signing Burress was to take away a player the Giants wanted\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n That really has absolutely nothing to do with it. We\u2019re not looking at the Giants or anybody else, any of the other teams who were interested in him. We\u2019re sort of saying, he\u2019s a guy that\u2019s played in New York, so he\u2019s going to be a good balance for Santonio (Holmes) out there, and you\u2019re going to have to focus on him, as well.<\/p>\n On how the Jets decided to approach players about restructuring their contacts\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n You\u2019d have to ask Mike (Tannenbaum) on all that, but I can say that I\u2019m very proud of this team, the people who were asked to participate in that. Really, I\u2019ve never seen anything like it, what these gentlemen did, and how proud I am they did it for this team. And that\u2019s only because of the team that they\u2019re on and the feeling that they have for each other, that they were willing to do this. So, it was pretty spectacular.<\/p>\n On whether he was physically in the building during the past week of free agency..<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, for a lot of it I wasn\u2019t. I was physically on the phone, so I felt like I was here all hours of the day and night, but Mike (Tannenbaum) and his staff were here 24 hours for a week or two doing this.<\/p>\n On what the effort to sign Cromartie was like, after losing out on Asomugha\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n It was intense, but we didn\u2019t turn from one to the other. We were always talking to him. He knew that we wanted him. There was no question.<\/p>\n On how Cromartie could know the Jets wanted him when the Jets were pursuing Asomugha\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Because, the nature of football, is you never know. We want him, it\u2019s a question of what happens.<\/p>\n On whether anything less than a Super Bowl would be a disappointment\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n I think the way I would answer that is, our goal is the Super Bowl, but I would never be disappointed with the team we had last year, for example. Our goal last year was to win the Super Bowl. I\u2019m certainly not disappointed. I take a look at that team, I\u2019m very proud of the way they handled it, and the way they played those last games. It was amazing. Every one of those guys put everything they had into it, I\u2019m convinced. And that\u2019s all you can ask. It\u2019s just a sense of great pride, really.<\/p>\n