Still a Jet, Allen Lazard left as the last man standing
Jets wide receiver Allen Lazard runs during training camp at the Atlantic Health Training Center on Tuesday in Florham Park. Credit: Corey Sipkin
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. – Just about all of those wild flailing swings the Jets took with their roster the previous two years followed the same inevitable trajectory.
They came here. They failed. And then they left.
Aaron Rodgers was, of course, the grand marshal of that parade route, but there were so many others it was hard to keep track of them all. Between Davante Adams and Randall Cobb, Duane Brown and Tyron Smith, Haason Reddick and Dalvin Cook, the Jets locker room resembled a Grandpa Simpson gif with folks walking in then walking out just as quickly.
Allen Lazard was among that wave of management misfires, too. The wide receiver and FOA – Friend of Aaron’s – showed up as part of the package deal with the quarterback in 2023 and fell right into step on the career path that all those others wore bare.
He came here like they all did. He failed like they all did.
The difference? Lazard is still around, still a member of the Jets.
His lack of significant production so far in training camp this summer and the minimal attention he has garnered from any dynamic plays may make that statement come as a surprise to some. And it is a bit baffling why the new Jets management team decided to save him among all the other pieces they abruptly discarded upon taking over. It wasn’t just an oversight either; the Jets restructured Lazard’s contract to purposely keep him… albeit at about $8.5 million less than the $11 million he was due to earn.
But he’s out on the practice field just about every day running routes, attempting to catch passes (he dropped the one that came his way from Justin Fields on Tuesday), and serving as the last vestige of an era that many want to forget.
Perhaps that is his true role on this team, serving as a reminder to all that there are no shortcuts to success. It has to be built from within, with young talented draft picks such as the recently extended Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson, not bought like a prefabricated home. For as long as Lazard is a Jet – and that may not be long if he continues to scuffle in practices, although he is hardly the only member of the passing squad struggling – he’ll be the last monument to the lavish Gatsby-esque party the Jets threw themselves in 2023 and 2024, a spending spree that ended up, much like Gatsby himself, face down in the pool.
Naturally, that is not how Lazard sees his place among these 2025 Jets. In his first public comments since the end of last season on Tuesday, he said when Aaron Glenn was hired he spoke with the new head coach and expressed his desire to stick around. That’s why he agreed to the significant pay cut this offseason.
“I came here to continue my legacy and to be a part of something great and changing the culture,” Lazard said. “Even though the past two years haven’t gone that way, that doesn’t mean that has steered me away from my goal, which is to be a big part of the change and turn of things here with the Jets. I’m glad that we were able to figure things out and I’m still here to be a part of this new regime and to be part of something great.”
Lazard also seems hellbent on proving he is not simply a product of Rodgers’ wizardry. While he wilted playing with other quarterbacks when Rodgers was sidelined the past two seasons – and to be fair, those other quarterbacks would have made steel sag – he said it is “pretty obvious” he’d like to find a level of production with Fields or whoever else the Jets play this season.
“My success isn’t determined off who is throwing me the ball,” he insisted. “There is a reason I am still here and it’s not because I had Aaron Rodgers throwing me the ball my whole life.”
No, that’s just the reason they brought him here. The reason he is still here?
“I remember playing against Lazard when I was in New Orleans,” Glenn said. “We played Green Bay quite a bit, and he made a number of plays against us, so that's what I remember and that's what I saw.”
He called Lazard “a good player” who can can block, run routes from the slot, and, theoretically, catch passes in traffic.
“You just don't let guys walk out of the building like that,” Glenn said. “I know sometimes it happens, but if you can keep a guy like that, get him bought into what we are trying to do, which he is, there's value.”
So Lazard will remain a part of this team. He’ll continue to try to master the first new offense he has played in since he entered the NFL seven years ago. He’ll work on building chemistry with Fields.
Maybe he’ll even manage to become the one salvageable element of the follies foisted by the previous team-runners.
A more likely scenario is that he just fizzles out like all the others did and winds up as the last one through the exit. That could happen as soon as final roster trims at the end of this month.
It’s a short trip to Pittsburgh if that happens. Shorter even than his or any of the other carpetbaggers’ stays in New York.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
