Joe Benigno opened up a can of worms, and it has left Boomer Esiason steaming.
Benigno, the semi-retired WFAN host who still makes sporadic appearances on the radio station, sent tremors through the Jets universe on Monday when he alleged on “Evan & Tiki” that head coach Robert Saleh doesn’t like Zach Wilson based on a text Saleh sent to Benigno, with the backdrop of Saleh pushing back on a Monday report from The Athletic that Wilson was hesitant to return because the starting quarterback.
Benigno said he recently suggested to Saleh that Wilson needs to be reinstated because the starter, to which he claimed Saleh replied, “Are you kidding me?”
But as Benigno admitted Tuesday on “Boomer & Gio,” he misinterpreted Saleh’s text, which was directed at Benigno since the radio host begged Saleh for months to bench Wilson and now desires to play him.
Esiason couldn’t consider that Benigno “outed” Saleh.
“What the heck is that? That to me is about as little as it gets,” Esiason said firstly of “Boomer & Gio” on Tuesday. “It’s unbelievable. That’s about as unprofessional because it gets. Saying all that, what’s Rob Saleh enthusiastic about? You’re dancing with the devil, man.”
When Benigno revealed what he thought was Saleh’s thoughts on Wilson, he did say that Saleh “might get mad at me for this, but I don’t care.”
Within the second hour of Tuesday’s “Boomer & Gio” show, Benigno called in to issue a mea culpa, before which Esiason said Benigno “blowtorched” Saleh.
“To begin with, total misinterpretation by me of what [Saleh] said. I used to be fallacious about that,” Benigno said. “What mainly he was saying was, ‘You already know, all this time you’ve been killing Zach and you wish him benched, and now you wish me to play him?’ OK? That’s mainly what it was. So, I used to be fallacious about that. Totally misinterpreted it that he didn’t like Zach. That’s my bad, my fault, and that’s the story.”
When pressed on putting Saleh’s texts out into the general public, Benigno said, “It was a nasty job by me. I’m not gonna say it every other way. Shouldn’t have done it. I actually didn’t think that I used to be throwing him under the bus, I’ll say that.”
Benigno said he has “no idea” what Saleh’s relationship with Wilson is like. He also said he and Saleh never discussed ground rules for his or her text chain and he was never told he couldn’t say certain things.
Then Benigno said he expects to proceed to speak with Saleh.
“You’ll probably have loads of time to do this on the golf course ‘cause he’s gonna be out of a job,” Esiason said of Saleh. “You simply outed him [Monday]. If you happen to’re the owner of the Jets and your head coach is coping with a man who’s screaming on the radio and divulging that he texts with him day-after-day how does that make you are feeling for those who are the owner of the Recent York Jets?”
Wilson, 24, had two rough seasons after the Jets took him No. 2 overall within the 2021 NFL Draft.
He was set to be Aaron Rodgers’ understudy this season, but when Rodgers tore his left Achilles 4 plays into the primary game, Wilson took over because the starter.
Wilson played so poorly and the Jets unraveled a lot that Saleh benched Wilson for Tim Boyle for the Black Friday game against the Dolphins, which the Jets lost 34-13.
Boyle was then benched for Trevor Siemian during Sunday’s 13-8 loss to the Falcons, and Siemian hardly instilled any confidence that he could adequately lead the offense, resulting in questions on Wilson potentially returning to the fold.
Saleh said Wilson went into his office on Monday and expressed that he desired to be back on the sector, however the coach wasn’t able to make a call.
“The young man wants the ball,” Saleh said Monday. “He wants to start out. He believes he’s the most effective quarterback within the room, the most effective quarterback for this team and the guy who gives us the most effective probability to win. I’ll tell you a similar thing I told him: I appreciate that he desires to play. I’m just not there yet.”
