It was a pleasant Saturday for New York Jets fans
The 2023-24 NFL playoffs kicked off with a pair of AFC blowouts on Saturday. The fourth-seeded Texans protected home-field with a 45-14 thumping of the favored Browns, while the third-seeded Chiefs looked comfortable in the frigid cold as they coasted to a 26-7 win over the out-of-their-element Dolphins.
Here are some of the main takeaways for Jets fans.
The nonsensical Joe Flacco takes can stop
For weeks, Jets fans were forced to hear silly takes from media members and non-Jets fans who claimed the team was foolish not to re-sign Joe Flacco. “If the Jets re-signed Flacco, they’d be where Cleveland is right now!”, they claimed, even though none of them suggested the Jets should re-sign Flacco this offseason.
If I'm a defensive player for the Jets and watching this Browns defense get to play in the playoffs, I'm never forgiving the front office for not signing Flacco the minute Rodgers went down. Joe Douglas Masterclass of a season tho.
— Aaron Nagler (@AaronNagler) January 13, 2024
Flacco-mania came to a screeching halt in Southeast Texas. Flacco launched two pick-sixes and averaged just 5.4 net yards per attempt in a ghastly performance that showed the world he is still the same guy who went 1-8 in green. The moment Cleveland stopped dominating on defense and stopped giving him good protection, he turned into a pumpkin.
Flacco certainly played better than anyone could have expected this season, but for the most part, he was the same quarterback he was with the Jets, just propped up by a better supporting cast. Over Flacco’s short Linsanity run, Cleveland’s offensive line, coaching, and skill positions were performing at top-notch levels.
In the regular season, Flacco was pressured on just 33% of his dropbacks and sacked on only 3.8%, per NGS. For perspective, the league averages were 35.9% and 6.7%, respectively. Flacco also averaged a whopping 3.01 seconds from snap to throw, which is well above the league average of 2.8 seconds and stands out as very impressive when coupled with his low pressure and sack rates.
Basically, he was getting tremendous protection. The Browns let him sit back there and hold the ball for a long time to set up deep shots, and yet, he still was getting pressured less frequently than the average quarterback.
Against the Texans, Flacco’s pockets were not nearly as cushy, and he unsurprisingly started playing the same way he did in New York. Flacco was pressured on 40.4% of his dropbacks, sacked on 7.7%, and averaged 2.9 seconds from snap to throw. The pressure rate is nearly identical to the Jets’ 30th-ranked mark of 40.6% in the 2023 season.
Flacco finally had to deal with an unfavorable situation, and he unsurprisingly started playing the same way he did with the Jets. If New York brought him back, he would have looked the way he did in Houston every week.
It’s an extremely valid critique to say the Jets should have added a high-level veteran backup quarterback instead of relying on Zach Wilson. But to claim that Flacco should have been that guy never made sense. It was a take powered by recency bias and hindsight, made primarily by people who either did not watch the Jets last season or did watch them and just chose to ignore how poorly Flacco played so they can make an anti-Jets take for attention.
If you want to say the Jets should have signed someone like Andy Dalton, Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew, Mike White, Baker Mayfield, Drew Lock, Teddy Bridgewater, or someone along those lines, then by all means, you have a great point. Joe Douglas dropped the ball there. The Flacco thing never made sense though, and yesterday proved it. He wouldn’t have made a difference if the Jets kept him.
The Elijah Moore trade is looking good so far
Saturday was Elijah Moore’s 18th game with the Browns, and it was a fittingly quiet conclusion to a disappointing season for the former Jet.
Moore caught two passes on two targets for 12 yards against the Texans. Including this game, he finished his first season in Cleveland with 61 catches on 106 targets for 652 yards and two touchdowns. Per-game, that’s 3.4 catches for 36.2 yards. Moore also had nine carries but only gained 11 yards on those. He fumbled twice and lost both.
Cleveland provided a nice opportunity for Moore to break out after leaving New York. While the quarterback situation was a mess, the Browns did offer a strong offensive line, a good coaching staff, and the opportunity to play alongside Amari Cooper, who would take attention away from Moore.
Despite these advantages and substantial career-highs in both targets (27 more than his previous career-high) and snaps (172 more), the Ole Miss product did not perform any better than he did with the Jets. Maybe this is just who he is.
Rather than netting an additional pick in the trade with Cleveland, New York used Moore to move up from the third round to the second round in the 2023 draft, where they selected Wisconsin center Joe Tippmann with the 43rd overall pick. Tippmann enjoyed a promising rookie year where he performed like a league-average starting center at just 22 years old despite playing within a messy offense.
Tippmann already looks like an average starting center at the very least, and if he develops as planned, he will become much more than that. I don’t think you can argue that Moore is an average starting wide receiver. And with three years already under his belt, the odds of him getting to that level are becoming slim.
There’s still plenty of time for both players’ careers to play out, but the Jets are winning this trade at the moment.
Another Phins Phailure
Even when the Jets aren’t in the playoffs, it’s always fun for Jets fans to root against the team’s division rivals. Miami delivered a delicious treat for the green faithful on Saturday night, served ice-cold with a side of Andy Reid’s frozen mustache.
Miami never led in a 19-point blowout loss to the Chiefs. Save for one touchdown bomb to Tyreek Hill, the track runners from South Florida looked completely incapable of handling the bone-chilling midwestern air.
For Jets fans, it was fun to see this one play out the way that it did, as it validated all of the anti-Miami storylines going into the game.
It seemed like a perfectly crafted nightmare scenario for the sun-bathed, finesse-driven Dolphins: playing a gritty road playoff game in below-zero Kansas City, especially considering Miami’s year-long struggles against winning teams on the road (0-4 in the regular season).
Poetically, the trip served as a punishment for failing to secure the AFC East crown against Buffalo last week. The Dolphins would have been at home in sunny Miami Gardens had they won.
Things went exactly as scripted.
After all the points, all the records, and all the hype, the Dolphins sit in the same spot they’ve found themselves at this point of the season for the last 23 years: on the couch.
The last time Miami won a playoff game, the Nintendo GameCube had not hit stores yet. Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan each had one ring. The number one song in America was “Independent Women Part I” by Destiny’s Child.
Jets fans are forced to hear “you haven’t won the Super Bowl since before the moon landing” jokes all the time, so they have the right to punch back. The continuation of Miami’s playoff-win drought provides plenty of counter-punches for Jets fans, who have seen six playoff victories since Miami beat Indianapolis in the 2000 Wild Card round.
What are great article, and here I thought I was the only one! haha. The Flacco thing was wild, even before yesterday 8 INT’s in 5 games, if Zach did that it would be full on media crucifixion. I like Flacco so this isn’t about him but the “Flacco Love” was at vomit levels.
The Moore trade looks very good right now, add that to Adams (one of the greatest robberies in sports history), what they got for Darnold, and Joe has done a nice job. I’m going to continue to bang that drum because we like to look a the failures and use those to define everything.