Jets cut me right after surgery they told me to get
Ty Johnson provided some context Friday for why the Jets released him in April with a non-football injury designation.
Johnson tore his pectoral muscle while working out in the offseason, he said in a video posted to Instagram, and when the Jets’ team doctor told him to “get it fixed,” Johnson underwent surgery.
But soon after the procedure, he was cut by the Jets.
“I’ve had some dark, dark days, man,” said Johnson, a 25-year-old running back.
Johnson signed a one-year deal in free agency to return to the Jets as a reserve running back, but Gang Green released him April 26.
“Saw the team doctor, he was like, ‘You need to get it fixed,’” Johnson said in the Instagram video, which he called the “ice barrel talk of the day” in the clip. “Flew out the next day. Came back happy that I got it done, even though I didn’t want to get it done. That following Wednesday, you out of there.
Ty Johnson was released by the Jets in April with a non-football injury designation. Screengrab via Instagram/@tjohnson2442
“And I was like, ‘Damn.’ But at the end of the day, man, I know I’m gonna be alright.”
The Jets signed Johnson off waivers in 2020 from the Lions — who drafted him in the sixth round out of Maryland in 2019 — and he recorded 145 rushes for 652 yards and four touchdowns in two-plus seasons with the team.
He also caught 62 passes for 559 yards and another three touchdowns out of the backfield, in addition to playing 42 percent of the Jets’ special teams snaps.
Ty Johnson runs with the ball during a 2022 game against the Patriots. Charles Wenzelberg
But when it came to rushes and offensive snaps, Johnson got stuck behind Breece Hall, Michael Carter and Zonovan Knight on the Jets’ depth chart — even after Hall’s promising rookie season ended in Week 7 against the Broncos with a torn ACL.
Then, in the 2023 NFL Draft and three days after parting ways with Johnson, they also added Pittsburgh running back Israel Abanikanda in the fifth round.
Source: New York Post
