The Jets have replaced John Mellody as the team’s head athletic trainer, according to ESPN’s Rich Cimini.
In the meantime, the Jets have promoted Mellody’s longtime assistant Dave Zuffelato to the head trainer position, per Cimini. Mellody, a fixture in the Jets organization under eight different head coaches, will stay on as a consultant. Mellody originally joined the Jets organization in 1996 as an assistant. After a decade with the team, he was promoted as the head athletic trainer in 2006.
According to Bleacher Report’s Connor Rogers, there had been some tension building up between Mellody and Adam Gase. In 2019, the Jets led the NFL with a whopping 21 players placed on injured reserve. Quincy Enunwa suffered his second neck injury in three seasons and C.J. Mosley was rushed back from a groin injury, which cost him 14 games. The organization also had two injury grievances filed against it by Kelechi Osemele and Luke Falk.
New York will now turn to Zuffelato, who has been with the team since 2006, to help change its misfortunes with injuries.
