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 as the starting quarterback.
Benigno said he recently suggested to Saleh that Wilson has to be reinstated as 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 because the radio host begged Saleh for months to bench Wilson and now wants to play him.
Esiason couldn’t believe that Benigno “outed” Saleh.
“What the heck is that? That to me is about as low as it gets,” Esiason said at the start of “Boomer & Gio” on Tuesday. “It’s unbelievable. That is about as unprofessional as it gets. Saying all that, what is Rob Saleh thinking 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.”
In the second hour of Tuesday’s “Boomer & Gio” show, Benigno called in to issue a mea culpa, before which Esiason said Benigno “blowtorched” Saleh.
“First of all, total misinterpretation by me of what [Saleh] said. I was wrong about that,” Benigno said. “What basically he was saying was, ‘You know, all this time you’ve been killing Zach and you want him benched, and now you want me to play him?’ OK? That’s basically what it was. So, I was wrong 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 public, Benigno said, “It was a bad job by me. I’m not gonna say it any other way. Shouldn’t have done it. I certainly didn’t think that I was 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 their text chain and he was never told he couldn’t say certain things.
Then Benigno said he expects to continue to communicate with Saleh.
“You’ll probably have plenty of time to do that on the golf course ‘cause he’s gonna be out of a job,” Esiason said of Saleh. “You just outed him [Monday]. If you’re the owner of the Jets and your head coach is dealing with a guy who’s screaming on the radio and divulging that he texts with him every day how does that make you feel if you are the owner of the New York Jets?”
Wilson, 24, had two rough seasons after the Jets took him No. 2 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft.
He was set to be Aaron Rodgers’ understudy this season, but when Rodgers tore his left Achilles four plays into the first game, Wilson took over as the starter.
Wilson played so poorly and the Jets unraveled so much 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, leading to questions about Wilson potentially returning to the fold.
Saleh said Wilson went into his office on Monday and expressed that he wanted to be back on the field, but the coach wasn’t ready to make a decision.
“The young man wants the ball,” Saleh said Monday. “He wants to start. He believes he is the best quarterback in the room, the best quarterback for this team and the guy who gives us the best chance to win. I’ll tell you the same thing I told him: I appreciate that he wants to play. I’m just not there yet.”
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