For Jets Fans On Bye Week, Helpful NFL Outcomes Doesn’t Erase Stink Off Another Lost Season
Jets fans enjoyed a respite from frustration on Sunday with Gang Green off on its bye week. More than that, for those who chose to spend the day watching other games from around the league, the results proved to be comforting music to their ears.
Seattle, which will be without star quarterback Russell Wilson until Week 10 and owes the Jets its first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft from the July 2020 trade of safety Jamal Adams, fell to 2-4 following a 23-20 overtime loss in Pittsburgh. Ex-Jets galore doomed the Seahawks, with tackle Brandon Shell acting like a pylon in crunch time, Adams botching a potential game-deciding interception off his face mask, and for the grand finale, quarterback Geno Smith carrying the ball like a loaf of bread before fumbling deep in his own territory in the extra session, all generating howls from Jets fans on social media who have seen this act before countless times.
In Carolina, the bloom appears to be off Sam Darnold’s rose after his hot 3-0 start, as not even a superlative fourth quarter could undo the damage from the former Jets quarterback’s erratic passing in another contest that required overtime. The Panthers, who will convey to New York their second-and-fourth round picks in next year’s Draft as compensation for acquiring Darnold this offseason, went down, 34-28, to Minnesota.
The cherry on top of my Sunday was watching rivals New England and Miami also bite the dust, especially with the Dolphins earning the humility of being the Jaguars’ first victim after 20 straight defeats.
Unfortunately, none of the schadenfreude, even with the understanding that these outcomes could put New York in a position where it can possibly own two of the top ten and four of the top 50 picks in next year’s Draft, makes me feel any better about my team.
The Jets, you see, flew home from England last week after another embarrassing first-half effort against the Falcons to drop to 1-4 on the season. It’s already another lost cause tacked onto the previous 53 years. With a trip to New England and head coach Bill Belichick, who must be seething from losing four consecutive home games, up next, the bookmakers appropriately are not giving New York much of a chance of righting the course despite the extra week of soul-searching.
After all, Belichick’s defense baited Jets rookie quarterback Zach Wilson into four interceptions in an ugly 25-6 Patriots victory in their Week 2 meeting at MetLife Stadium. The opening seven-point spread for the rematch seems rather low, right?
I’ll get into more detailed analysis of the matchup in my Friday game preview, but the point here is that another way of looking at the Jets’ current situation can be summed up in a tweet from Football Perspective (h/t my son Jack for the retweet): “It is so weird that the Jets were terrible and then traded top draft picks like Jamal Adams, Sam Darnold, Leonard Williams, and not only are the Jets still terrible but everyone looks back and says, 'wow the Jets did a good job trading those guys.’”
In other words, what good are all these extra picks if the team continues to be mired in mediocrity? Great, the Jets did well in the trades to extract value. Wake me up when these new picks bear fruit, if ever.
The three traded players from above were all first-round draft picks from the regime of prior General Manager Mike Maccagnan, but are we really all that enthralled with the selections in the last two drafts from successor Joe Douglas? In Douglas’ initial nine-member class, only cornerback Bryce Hall, a fifth-round pick, played a majority of the snaps against Atlanta, with the others injured, benched, or outright cut from the squad. Who’s to say whether Douglas will offer oft-injured first-round tackle Mekhi Becton a big-money extension in three years? Or will Douglas end up opting to auction him off too?
As for Wilson, the second overall pick in April’s Draft, the Jets are making all the same mistakes—and more—that stifled Darnold’s development back in the good old days of 2018-2020. Wilson’s fundamentals have been off after getting brutalized early due to a leaky offensive line and he has been at the mercy of the backwards and stubborn thinking of his offensive coordinator (Mike LaFleur), which I have delved into often in past columns.
The sudden death of quarterback coach Greg Knapp in a July bicycle accident was tragic, but that can’t be an excuse to allow the Jets to mess with Wilson’s learning curve (the team hired Matt Cavanaugh as a replacement, but who knows what he’s been doing with Wilson?). That Douglas has refused to support Wilson by adding a veteran backup to at least provide a calming sounding board in this situation is mind-boggling.
Head Coach Robert Saleh bears the ultimate responsibility for putting his chips in with an OC who last called plays as an assistant at FCS Davidson College in 2013. As a rookie himself who rose up the ladder in the NFL on the defensive side of the ball, Saleh should have partnered with an experienced offensive schemer, not a guy he knew well at his last gig in San Francisco. Again, Knapp probably would have been a useful resource for game-planning, but the actual play calls were always intended to be LaFleur’s undertaking.
Contrast the Jets experience with that of the Chargers, who also just hired a rookie head coach with a defensive bent in Brandon Staley. Though Baltimore beat his club up on Sunday, there is excitement in Los Angeles, and much of it is due to their QB/coach combination of Justin Herbert and Stanley.
Unlike the Jets, L.A. uses all four downs (only Detroit has gone for it on fourth down more often) and trusts the forward pass. While Staley recently made a fair point about the value of making opponents shed blocks and tackle his running backs, the Chargers don’t often waste early downs on handoffs that do not help their win probability.
Ironically, the Jets had Staley in for an interview before settling on Saleh. It’s only been five games, but let’s take a look at what they bought instead: Despite trailing in the second half of every game, the Jets have attempted just seven fourth-down conversions, tied for 18th in the league. Want to know why the Jets routinely get off to slow starts? No team runs it more on early downs in the first quarter, per SharpFootballStats.com.
Jets fans, of course, are well aware that this organization reeks from the top. The Johnson Brothers are clueless about anything other than how to gauge their customers for every last dollar. As long as they are in charge, the stink from the “Same Old Jets” culture won’t come off easy. It will require Douglas to hit on more picks and ensuring that his coaching staff gets with the times.
We’ve seen that it can be done—once moribund franchises from all around the league—from L.A. to Buffalo and back out west to Arizona—have transformed in short order.
So don’t tell Jets fans to be patient. It’s been 11 years since Gang Green’s last playoff appearance, with one winning season in that span. Rooting for better draft picks is not why we spend our Sundays watching football.