Joke Jets Add Another Catchphrase To Embarrassing Lore

Kevin R. Wexler / USA TODAY NETWORK

My laptop died during the play where the exhausted Jets defense jogged while Dolphins running back Raheem Mostert sauntered into the end zone for a 34-yard touchdown to put the cherry on top of Miami’s 34-13 victory at MetLife Stadium on Black Friday.

I took it as a sign that it’s time to give up on this season as well. If you’re a Jets fan that is still rooting for this 4-7 team to win any of their remaining six games, get drug tested. This goes beyond “tanking” for a better first-round Draft pick. Anything that might make owner Woody Johnson think, “Well, they’re in this predicament because Aaron Rodgers got hurt so they deserve a mulligan,” or “Hey, they finished respectably; I should run this regime back one more time”, is sentencing this franchise’s fan base to another year of hard labor.

How much agony is enough? This will be the 13^th consecutive season that Gang Green will miss the playoffs, the NFL’s longest active drought. Rome was rebuilt quicker.

This team is instead going backwards, if not sideways. They have a General Manager in Joe Douglas who lacks humility and employs a Head Coach in Robert Saleh whose philosophies are rooted in 20^th century football. This is what spits out.

I’m not going to judge how embarrassing this iteration has been in relation to others during these last 55 seasons that ended without a Super Bowl appearance. Friday’s end-of-first-half pick-six off a Tim Boyle “Hell Mary”, which I saw coming as soon as Dolphins safety Jevon Holland settled under it at the 1-yard line with four Jets receivers trapped behind him (credit Garrett Wilson for sprinting 176 total yards on the play), joined the lexicon of other Jets humiliations such as the Butt Fumble and the Fake Spike. For Jets fans, they have all morphed into one giant ball of depression.

This Jets’ offense in general is a joke. The change in quarterback from Zach Wilson to Boyle accomplished nothing in terms of this season’s historically inept production. For a second consecutive week, New York failed to eclipse 200 yards—they were stuck on 50 net yards through three quarters. They were 0-for-8 on third downs until Boyle got one on a QB sneak with about 10:30 remaining in the game and the Jets down by three touchdowns. You can take this to the bank: No matter the distance on third downs, the Jets’ QB is guaranteed to throw the ball short of the sticks.

It's fair to feel bad for the defense—they’re expected to be superhuman every week just to give this team a chance. Cornerback Brandin Echols’ pick-six with 58 seconds remaining in the first half cut Miami’s lead to 10-6. That and a subsequent interception by D.J. Reed with 2 seconds left gave fans a little hope.

Who could have thought that it would have been better for the Jets had Reed simply knocked that ball down instead of giving Boyle one last down before intermission?

This mess is everyone’s fault—I pointed to Douglas last week (Following Bills Debacle, Jets Fans Should Be Howling A Familiar Refrain: Joe Must Go (substack.com)) because he’s the one primarily responsible for this roster’s construction. Injuries are a common occurrence in the NFL; he picks and pays these Jets backups good money to step in and at least compete when called upon. Other than Garrett Wilson, no Jets receiver is worthy of a return engagement next season. The right side of the offensive line has been an absolute train wreck since Alijah Vera-Tucker went down in Week 5. Yet Douglas didn’t do anything at the October 31 trade deadline (anyone seen guard Rodger Saffold since his signing was announced three weeks ago? He must be ready any day now, along with overpaid tackle Duane Brown.).

Meanwhile, Saleh’s team continues to be among the most undisciplined in the league. While they’re in the middle of the pack in total penalties this season, they hold the dubious distinction of leading in both roughing the passer and unnecessary roughness fouls.

Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel toyed with Saleh and his staff on Friday, utilizing a variety of packages and pre-snap motions to get his speedsters the ball in space. You’d have thought that the Jets would have wanted to pay extra attention to Miami’s Tyreek Hill since he’s on track to break the NFL’s single-season receiving yardage record, yet how often did McDaniel’s scheme put Hill in mismatches? On Hill’s 7-yard touchdown in the second quarter, he started out of the backfield so his matchup was with safety Jordan Whitehead.  No contest.

An Amazon broadcast (I’ll never get used to that) graphic showed that Miami utilizes motion on about 87% of their offensive snaps. Since Rodgers allegedly considers them gimmicks because it interrupts his pre-snap reads, Jets Offensive Coordinator Nathaniel Hackett largely abandoned them.

Only Rodgers ruptured his Achilles on the season’s fourth offensive snap, so it was on Hackett to adjust. Other than the immaterial QB swap and his moving upstairs to the booth to call plays, nothing has changed with how the Jets’ offense operates. They still believe that sending running back Breece Hall up the middle with a trash o-line blocking will be their identity.   

No Jets fan should be hoping for changes from here on out. Let the season run its course so there can be no mistake about what this team is.

You can’t say that Johnson didn’t give this management team a chance to straighten this franchise out. Douglas was hired in 2019; Saleh in 2021. They failed.

It’s not an option he relishes, but Johnson must clean house and start over again. Since he was away serving as Ambassador to the United Kingdom back then, he can always blame it on his brother Christopher.