Flushing Another Jets’ Stinker Of A Season
Now that the Jets season has mercifully come to its conclusion, I’m supposed to write some form of obituary.
Except I feel that was done in a variety of ways over the course of the last seven weeks, pretty much since the pathetic late loss to Indianapolis eliminated all practical hope that Gang Green would end its 14-year playoff drought, the longest of any pro team in the four major sports leagues. The Jets were then forced to maintain the charade of competitiveness while playing out the string like they were the dead boss in “Weekend at Bernie’s.”
It would be cruel to cast the aging Aaron Rodgers in the Bernie role, as he’s recorded his most productive outings of the season down the stretch, including in the finale’s 32-20 victory over visiting Miami that saw the 41-year old toss career touchdown pass Nos. 500, 501, 502 and 503.
Though I kept my vow of not watching a second of Sunday’s contest in defiance of owner Woody Johnson’s Idiocracy, I did read that the pregame ceremony showcased the large Jets flag in an upside-down position. How apropos. Just about everything related to this campaign was ass backwards, most of which I ranted about in prior posts.
Simply winning the last game to finish at 5-12, which isn’t the fault of competitive players and coaches toiling for their future livelihoods, piled onto the damage inflicted upon the organization from the nine losses in 10 games. How do I know? Because meaningless late-season wins costing the Jets valuable Draft slots has already happened about a half dozen times in the last decade. Instead of selecting sixth overall, New York will head to April’s Draft with the seventh or eighth pick, depending on the Sunday night outcome. Had they also coughed up the game at Jacksonville three weeks ago, they could have moved up all the way to No. 1. Yeah, who needs the best college quarterback anyway?
Yet I’ll bet that Johnson is ecstatic that his club got two out its last four games, as if there is some kind of mystical carryover into the 2025 season. (Fact check: There isn’t.)
Of course, when the Jets were supposed to win, they often lost, going 4-6 outright when they were at least 1.5-point favorites before Sunday. The preseason hype that seems like it was forever ago sure lasted way too long for supposedly attuned Las Vegas oddsmakers.
Looking at the club today, I can’t believe so many experts were bamboozled by it. The Jets were banking on the ability of Rodgers to not only recover from last season’s Achilles rupture, but to stay healthy for 17 games at his age so that the team could overcome lousy coaching and a defense hamstrung by former General Manager Joe Douglas’ misguided tinkering on the front line.
Bad teams find ways to lose and the Jets exhausted the full bag of follies, from Rodgers picks to missed kicks (the Jets set a franchise record by using five different kickers this season). In the middle of the freefall, the owner got in the way, firing both Head Coach Robert Saleh and Douglas, ending the holdout of edge rusher Hasson Reddick, and trading a third-round pick for what could be an 11-game rental of Rodgers’ wide receiver buddy Davante Adams.
The Jets, typically just a laughingstock, were pilloried for their dysfunction. And they might be forced to pay the price for it going forward during this offseason’s hiring carousel, for their GM/HC positions will likely be deemed the least coveted among the clubs that have openings. Despite his interview at One Jets Drive this week, Mike Vrabel, perhaps the most sought-after HC currently on the market, isn’t taking New York when he can go to his former New England organization that has a young QB in hand, approximately $130 million in salary cap space, and an owner he knows well.
In other words, don’t get your hopes up that this offseason will bring a big splash. More likely, we’ll be looking at another round of first timers in charge.
For many younger Jets fans, this season has been the most excruciating one in their memory. For older folks like me, it’s just been another tease that got jumbled alongside so many others. I really wish I can foresee a cleansing after this shitshow; unfortunately, the stench, like I always say, reeks from the top of the Jets’ organization chart.
After years of being utterly tortured by constant disappointments, I’ve found a way to turn the pain upside down—by keeping expectations low and not caring so much when the lower bars aren’t met.
It got me through this hellish season.
Great article, Steve, you're always on point. I'll be 54 in March and I've never seen the Jets win - or be in - a Super Bowl. Although Wesley Walker and Richard Todd were fun to watch as a kid, my first recollection of futility was the 14-0 AFC Championship loss in the "Mud Bowl" where AJ Duhe - an LB with 2 career interceptions - picked off Todd 3 times, one for a pick six. Boomer, Kenny O'Brien, Vinny T, Neil O'Donnell, Mark Sanchez, even Rodgers couldn't get us to the big game (who knows now what Darnold could have done).
I'll always bleed Green, but along with Steve, watching Gang Green in the future comes second to a looooong list of better ways to spend my time.
I don't know about you, but I started in the early 60s as a fan of the New York Titans in the Polo Grounds, listening on my transistor radio in my bedroom on Sundays to the static filled announcers. I'm trying to remember some of the names. Everyone (and I use that term as a bit of hyperbole) remembers Joe Namath as the Jets' savior. He had 2 good seasons: 67/68 and 68/69. He was barely a 50% passer and was incredibly frustrating after the Super Bowl win. After him, there were a succession of just okay QBs, including taking a decent Ken O'Brian when I believe it was Dan Marino taken after him. My history may be sketchy, Chad Pennington, Mark Sanchez, Christian Hackenberg, Geno Smith, Sam Darnold, Zack Wilson....a succession of GMs making bad choices or not providing the QBs with the right schemes or support system. I left off Vinnie and Ryan because they were imports. The Jets' failure is particularly painful given the success of Geno and Sam elsewhere at high levels. I know it's a crap shoot. The need for the proper scheme and support structure is so obvious: Sam Darnold, Geno Smith, Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield. Even Bryce Young with Canale is looking like the real deal finally. Sure sometimes a talent has to suffer and mature, and some never do become more than mediocre. The very fact that the schmuck who owns the Jets has hired Mike Tannebaum to help and they're interviewing coaches before GMs (yeah they interviewed 2 former GMs with somewhat questionable histories) is a bad sign. Forget Vrabel being dumb enough to work for Johnson. He's going to Kraft. And the coaches they're interviewing are almost a rogues' gallery of bad choices. I actually thought that Douglas was going to be good, from his Philly history. His poor drafts early on should have been enough to disabuse anyone, but destroying his defensive line, bringing in the corpse of Aaron Rodgers, drafting Zack Wilson, giving up on Becton and failing to build the offensive line (which was his own background) should have gotten him fired before this season. Saleh wasn't the greatest coach, but his defense was excellent and he could have improved. LeFleur might have gotten better with better players on the offense. But you're right...the rot is at the top and has been for most of the Jets' history. Hess was no genius and was also cheap. We'll wait and see, but I'm expecting more of the same recycled failures. I spent time years ago as a psychologist doing projects for the local public schools in my area. Some of the teachers who came and talked to me should not have been working with children. They were incompetent and the very fact that they still had jobs was the overall problem for public schools. When incompetence is tolerated, excellence leaves. The only ones remaining are the mediocre who have enough stomach to stay in their sinecure, and through seniority move up to the administration, perpetuating the mediocrity. In my mind, a metaphor for the Jets' continuing ineptitude. Thanks for listening to my venting.