Offensive Personnel As Much To Blame For Jets’ Incompetence As Departing LaFleur
Thursday marks the 54th anniversary of the Jets sole trip to a Super Bowl, a painful reminder for long-suffering fans. Worse, there have only been a handful of times in the intervening years where Gang Green has come close—and this past season certainly wasn’t one of them.
A six-game losing streak sent the Jets crashing down to also-ran status. Offensive Coordinator Mike LaFleur, as many expected, served as the scapegoat for Gang Green’s incompetence that included zero touchdowns produced over the last three games. LaFleur and the Jets mutually parted ways on Wednesday, per reports.
While I have always viewed LaFleur as in over his head and that Robert Saleh made an egregious gaffe as a rookie Head Coach last season in not teaming up with an experienced play-caller/QB whisperer as his OC, the team’s problems went beyond LaFleur’s performance.
For those who’ve been brainwashed into the spin that this team “is just a quarterback away”, you’re living in a fantasy. General Manager Joe Douglas will enter this offseason with only slightly fewer holes than he had to fill a year ago, with QB1 the most obvious need. The offensive line again needs to be retooled and for all the excellence at cornerback and on the front four, the Jets defense had a fairly soft underbelly which could use improvements.
This time, though, Douglas won’t have the overabundance of salary cap space and Draft capital that he had last offseason. In fact, with New York currently estimated to hold just under $16 million in 2023 cap space, he will have to finagle a bunch of contracts this Spring so that those underachieving positions can be boosted with new personnel.
As such, here’s an early look at who should stay and who should go, starting with the offense:
Quarterbacks:
Stay: Mike White, Chris Streveler (practice squad)
Go: Zach Wilson, Joe Flacco
Blow it up. In hindsight, the organization would have been better off cutting bait on Wilson after his awful rookie season., Giving up on a No. 2 overall investment after Year 2 is almost as difficult psychologically. Still, it has to be done. Keeping an unreliable $9.6 million backup quarterback is poor roster management. For those who took Douglas and Saleh at their words about believing in Wilson’s development prospects, remember that Douglas said the same thing about Sam Darnold before he was traded two years ago. Get what you can for Wilson in the market, sign a veteran like Jimmy Garoppolo or Derek Carr, and draft another QB who doesn’t need to start right away. If the money isn’t too rich for White as a free agent, he can be brought back as QB2.
Running backs
Stay: Breece Hall, Michael Carter, Ty Johnson (free agent), Zonovan Knight (practice squad)
Go: James Robinson, Nick Bawden
Hopefully, Hall won’t lose his unique explosive ability as he recovers from his ACL tear. Despite a sophomore slump, Carter isn’t going anywhere since he’s on a cheap rookie contract while Robinson, who cost the Jets a sixth-round pick in a trade with Jacksonville at the deadline and then looked like a shell of his former self, is surely a goner this offseason as a free agent, I’m less certain about Johnson, whose speed out of the backfield seems to be captivating to the Jets coaching staff. Knight came roaring out of a cannon at his midseason debut, but then petered out—he’s a practice squad player who could be a cheap RB3 if Johnson isn’t re-signed.
Wide receivers:
Stay: Garrett Wilson, Elijah Moore, Corey Davis (restructure), Braxton Berrios (restructure), Jeff Smith (restricted free agent)
Go: Denzel Mims
Wilson is a star in the making while Moore, who was the player I predicted would take a leap this season, regressed in Year 2. Still, I’m not ready to give up on Moore, though I am on Mims, Douglas’ 2020 second-round bust. Under no circumstances should the Jets bring Davis back with an $11.17 million cap hit when they could easily cut him and save $10.5 million. However, he does bring value as New York’s most physical receiver and blocker. It shouldn’t be hard for Douglas to get him to help lower that 2023 number. The same goes for Berrios, who took a step back from his 2021 Pro Bowl campaign. I’ve given up hope that the coaching staff will sour on Smith, who at least held onto balls sent his way this season before he got hurt.
Tight Ends:
Stay: Tyler Conklin (restructure), C.J. Uzomah (restructure), Jeremy Ruckert, Kenny Yeboah
The three-year free agent contracts Douglas doled out to Conklin and Uzomah last offseason punted the cap pain to 2023, with expensive dead money hits and little cap savings if either got cut, per overthecap.com. Lucky for them, because neither had a season to rave about. As such, they are both obvious candidates for reclassifying 2023 salary as signing bonuses. Ruckert and Yeboah are young and cheap.
Tackles:
Stay: Mekhi Becton, Max Mitchell, Duane Brown
Go: George Fant, Cedric Ogbuehi, Mike Remmers
This position is one giant question mark for next season. Six different tackles spent time on injured reserve this season and the Jets were forced to close the campaign with picked-off-the-street Remmers and Ogbuehi as their starters in Miami. The media reported on a slimmed-down Becton at Monday’s baggie day, but this is a player who has suited up for just one game over the last two seasons. The Jets would get no cap relief from cutting him this offseason, so Douglas has to go into 2023 assuming that whatever he gets from his 2020 No. 11 overall pick is gravy. Mitchell’s malady is more frightening, as he was found to have blood clots after a decent six-game look as a rookie. Reports indicate that he can come back, but recent events might make it not so cut-and-dried. Saleh has praised Brown to the moon all season for his warrior mentality in playing through a shoulder injury that will require surgery. Given that his $11.6 million cap number for next season isn’t outrageous for a starting left tackle and that he was ranked 20th out of 63 tackles in pass protection efficiency by ProFootballFocus.com (300 pass block snap minimum), I believe he’ll be back if he doesn’t retire. On the other side of the coin is Fant, who for $10.75 million struggled mightily this season, dinged for five sacks allowed in eight games, per PFF. Whether it was because he was hurting all year or was affected by the constant shuffling from left to right, it wasn’t the type of performance that gets you a raise as a pending free agent. Expect Douglas to draft a tackle—early.
Interior offensive line:
Stay: Alijah Vera-Tucker, Laken Tomlinson (restructure), Nate Herbig (free agent)
Go: Connor McGovern, Dan Feeney, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif
Boy, did the Jets offense go south in a hurry after Vera-Tucker and Hall went down in their Week 7 win in Denver. AVT proved to be so versatile, he even saw time at both tackle spots. Unfortunately, Tomlinson wasn’t so effective—if you follow Jets X Factor, they posted clips all season of Tomlinson looking like Stallings in the old football movie “North Dallas Forty,” whiffing on blocks left and right. I can’t believe he’ll count $17.36 million against the cap next season unless Douglas steps in. McGovern is a pending free agent coming off a so-so year, so my guess is that he’ll be fielding better offers in March/April. As for backups on expired contracts, I’d look into bringing Herbig back—he was better than Feeney—and Duvernay-Tardif should just quit football to focus on his medical career.
Kicker:
Stay: Greg Zuerlein (free agent)
It’s true that Greg the Leg’s accuracy waned a bit in the final quarter of the season, missing three crucial field goals to drop his overall percentage to a substandard 81%. However, only nine other kickers booted more 50-plus yard field goals this season, one of which went a Jets franchise record 60 yards. Only 16% of his kickoffs were returned, per PFF, the league’s lowest percentage (25 kickoff minimum). The people at One Jets Drive should know better than anyone that finding a kicker isn’t easy. Give Zuerlein another year at a small raise over his $1.985 million 2022 compensation.
Coming soon: The Defense