Overmatched Jets A Weekly Embarrassment On Douglas’ Watch
The beat goes on: For a seventh time in nine games this season, the Jets have been so noncompetitive that in every one of their second-half possessions, they were down by multiple scores.
The latest embarrassing installment occurred on Sunday with a 45-17 home bludgeoning at the hands of division rival Buffalo. Not even quarterback Mike White’s recovery from the forearm injury that knocked him out in the second quarter of the Jets’ previous contest in Indianapolis could spark this team into turning in a watchable effort.
So much for a Jets quarterback controversy as the bloom came off White’s rose on Sunday. The Bills’ No. 1 rated defense harassed White, who earned a bit of cult status in his short stint as the stand-in for injured rookie Zach Wilson, into four interceptions in three-plus quarters before he too was sent to the sidelines by an opposing pass rush.
All that garbage time did brighten White’s overall stat line (24-for-44, 251 yards) a bit, but it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome a Jets defense that has now given up 45, 45, 34, and 54 points in the last four weeks, the second-most points ever allowed in such a span since the 1970 NFL/AFL merger, according to ESPN. New York (2-7) is once again last in the NFL in point differential at minus-135 after last season’s league-worst minus-214 points, which also happened to mark the second-biggest per-game losing margin in franchise history.
In a league that provides an entry draft and a salary cap to give every team a chance to even out talent gaps, it’s hard to be this awful, let alone for a second season in a row.
The man whose job is to evaluate the talent on the Jets, General Manager Joe Douglas, can no longer hide behind the ineptitude of predecessor Mike Maccagnan. Douglas has his fingerprints all over this roster, with 18 of the 22 starters in green jerseys on Sunday either drafted or signed to their most recent contract by him.
The slack you give to the Jets as the youngest team in the league has to be mitigated by the utter lack of progress in many areas on the field since the start of the season. The defense in particular has rotted to its core. I’ve spent plenty of column space on the schemes, but having capable players on this team would have allowed for a greater margin of coaching error.
Jets Head Coach Robert Saleh often talks about how “the difference between Player A and Player Z is opportunity and reps.” If only. In reality, the Jets as a whole are deficient in many measurables and intangibles, from speed to Football IQ. Add in the injury factor that is haunting every NFL team these days and you’re left with a product that just can’t match up on most NFL Sundays.
Saleh hasn’t done himself many favors—it’s not a good look when your team appeared to give up by the third quarter in three of the last four games. The one opportunity Saleh had to impact Sunday’s contest was when the Jets, down 10-0 in the second quarter, faced a fourth-and-1 at the Bills 45. Though he made the correct call to go for it, Saleh refused to use a timeout to spare his team a delay-of-game penalty. The Jets then punted the ball back to Buffalo, who quickly turned the field position around and ended up with a 17-3 lead by halftime. Wasted possessions like that always come back to bite the teams that face such a large talent-disparity.
Again, that disadvantage Saleh faces every week is on his boss. The bottom line is that Douglas shouldn’t need the full six years on the contract he signed in June 2019 to turn this franchise into something other than a farce. He has made 19 picks over the last two drafts and signed free agents to significant contracts. That his team is 4-21 on his watch speaks for itself.
Though both of Douglas’ first-rounders--Wilson and left tackle Mekhi Becton--were in street clothes on Sunday, the Jets were let down just as much or more by guys like wide receiver Corey Davis, the free agent acquisition who sports the biggest salary cap hit on the offense at $12.667 million, than by the injury fill-ins. Davis, who came into the game with the league’s third-highest drop percentage (minimum 20 targets), coughed up a killer fumble as the Jets were driving into Bills territory at the end of the first half.
On the other side of the ball, linebacker Jarrad Davis, a less expensive ($5.5 million) free agent pickup, has been brutal in the three games he’s played since returning from an ankle injury. The missed tackles are piling up and who knows what he was doing on the game’s opening possession as Bills fullback Matt Breida whizzed by him on a wheel route for a 15-yard touchdown.
To be fair, Douglas has made some very good trades and has stockpiled more picks in the next Draft, with two first -rounders that are currently slotted in the top 7 and four in the top 51. The Jets are also slated to boast $51.855 in salary cap space for 2022, per Overthecap.com, the ninth-most in the NFL.
Unfortunately, Douglas hasn’t had a very high hit rate on the choices he has made to date in his tenure. Of his first draft class in 2020, only safety Ashtyn Davis (third round), cornerback Bryce Hall (fifth) and punter Braden Mann (sixth) were active on Sunday.
In addition, Douglas left certain important position groups, like cornerback and tight end, poorly stocked. Watching Bills receiver Stefon Diggs abuse Jets corners Brandin Echols (2021 sixth-rounder) and Javelin Guidry (2020 undrafted free agent) all day was cringeworthy. Even if Douglas didn’t have the wherewithal to fix every room in the facility in two offseasons, too many of his Plan C and D options have flat-out busted.
Progress isn’t always linear, but you’d expect some signs that a team with young players is heading in the right direction over the course of the season. The Jets’ two victories appear to simply be aberrations against otherwise sound teams that didn’t show up ready to play those days. The White magic versus the Bengals will likely go down as the biggest fluke of them all.
As these games down the stretch of the season lose all meaning, I’ll be doing more breakdowns of the Jets’ depth chart with a long-term view. For now, we can all feel free to stop with the “Let’s blindly trust Joe Douglas because he knows what he’s doing” until he actually delivers some hope that he can fulfill his promises.