Former Jets wide receiver Derrick Mason said he was made a “scapegoat” by the Jets for the problems in their locker room.
The Jets traded Mason after five games to the Texans. Mason had trouble learning the playbook with the Jets, and was critical of teammates just before he was sent packing.
Appearing on SirusXM NFL Radio, Mason said the Jets issues at the end of the year prove he was not the issue.
“If I was the problem, then they would be OK,” Mason told hosts Adam Schein and Jim Miller. “They would have been just fine. No one publicly came out and said that I was the problem because they understand I never was the problem I was the scapegoat in all of this. I’m OK with it.”
Mason said at the time of the trade Oct. 11, he told coach Rex Ryan he thought it was unfair but accepted it.
The 37-year-old receiver was signed early in training camp. The Jets expected big things from him, with Ryan predicting he would catch 90 passes. It never worked, though. Backup quarterback Greg McElroy said on an Alabama radio station this week that the team tried to become too reliant on passing the ball with Mason.
The Jets scrapped the passing attack after Week 4. It was at that time that rookie Jeremy Kerley took Mason’s spot as the slot receiver. Mason said offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and Ryan were on the same page.
“It just didn’t work the way everyone envisioned it to work,” Mason said. “It’s nobody’s fault. I don’t think Brian and Rex were butting heads or anything. It just didn’t work.”
Just before Mason was traded, there was a published report that he along with fellow wide receivers Santonio Holmes and Plaxico Burress complained to Ryan about Schottenheimer. Mason said he never complained.
“I can’t speak for Plaxico nor can I speak for Santonio. I can only speak for myself,” Mason said. “As I said when I was leaving out of there, I never complained to Rex Ryan nor did I complain to [GM] Mike Tannenbaum about Brian Schottenheimer. I went to Brian and Brian and I had a conversation when all of this stuff started to happen. I wanted to go to him as a man and tell him, ‘Listen, I have no problem with you coach, no problem with the play-calling. I don’t know where all of this is coming from. I never went to Rex and complained about you.’ I had to do that myself.”
Mason said the locker room was not divided when he left, but things were “starting to heat up.”
“It pretty much bit them in the butt at the end of the season,” Mason said.
Mason said he believes this was his last season. He plans on retiring. The Texans, who won the AFC South and have a playoff game Saturday, cut him late in the season.