We’re finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel
The New York Jets’ veterans will report to training camp just two days from now, finally ending a long, arduous offseason.
When you really think about it, it’s wild how time is distributed in the NFL. Over a 365-day calendar, there are only 17 regular season games. That’s one game every 21.5 days, 1.4 per month, and 4.7% of the days in a year. If you consider that each game is approximately three hours, one team’s regular season schedule makes up just 51 of the 8,760 hours in a year, or 0.6%.
Compare that to the NBA and NHL (82 games):
- One game every 4.5 days
- 6.8 games per month
- Games on 22.5% of the days in a year
- 82 games (2:15 on average) make up 2.1% of all hours in the year
And to MLB (162 games):
- One game every 2.3 days
- 13.5 games per month
- Games on 44.4% of the days in a year
- 162 games (2:36 on average) make up 4.8% of all hours in the year
Despite the actual football making up less than one percent of a calendar year, football dominates the conversation for the vast majority of the year.
Take a look at this chart from Google Trends showing search traffic for each of the “Big Four” sports leagues in the United States over the past year:
From the kickoff of the first regular season game until the playoffs conclude, the NFL is on top by a colossal margin.
We knew this, but what’s more shocking is the presence maintained by the NFL in its offseason. There are multiple points where major events put the NFL back to the forefront without playing games that matter.
In early August, as MLB is entering its stretch run and is the only league playing meaningful games, the NFL preseason draws slightly more interest than MLB. Even in the weeks leading up to the preseason – the start of training camp, which is the period we’re about to enter – the NFL starts to creep up on MLB.
During free agency in March, interest in the NFL nearly matches that of the NBA, which is only about one month away from the playoffs.
When the NFL Draft arrives in late April, interest in the NFL again nearly matches the NBA, even while the NBA is at the peak of its interest: the first round of the playoffs. In fact, interest in the NFL Draft surpassed interest in MLB or the NHL at any point of the year, and it surpassed interest in the NBA at every point of the year outside of April 21-May 25.
Even when things quiet down post-draft, interest in the NFL remains similar to the NHL during its playoffs. And while MLB finally maintains a lead over the NFL for a comfortable stretch, it’s not a big one.
All of that is to say this: We’re spending a remarkable amount of time talking about the NFL relative to how often the games are actually being played. And when you’re doing this much yapping without anything new happening on the field, you’re bound to repeat yourself a few times.
Throughout the Jets’ 2024 offseason, the daily conversation has featured numerous topics that have been repeated over and over again. Now that training camp is finally here and the preseason is only a few weeks away, these narratives will finally be meeting their demise, and I look forward to stomping on their graves.
I am so tired of these five Jets offseason narratives (even if I’m guilty of helping to peddle some of them) and can’t wait for them to begin dissipating as soon as this week.
1. The Aaron Rodgers minicamp drama
If the Jets start 1-3, I highly doubt any of the national media talking heads are going to point back to Aaron Rodgers’ absence from a couple of June practices as the reason for their sluggish start. There has been too much time dedicated to a topic that, as Jermaine Johnson put it, has “zero impact.”
While it made sense for this story to be covered to a certain extent, the major networks have taken it way too far, revealing their weird obsession with trying to put Rodgers down. This was a minor story that will not affect anything that happens on the field in September onward. Get this nonsense off my timeline.
2. The same exact narrative about the Jets’ outlook
Yes, the Jets have an outstanding roster and will be competitive if they stay healthy. We know. Sheesh.
Look, I’ve wrote this sentence myself in plenty of articles this offseason, so I won’t act like I’m not part of the problem. And it’s not even a “problem,” per se. I’m not mad at people for making this statement. Because what else can they say? It really is that simple for this Jets team.
I’m just tired of hearing it and writing it. Let’s play some football.
3. Rankings
I like ranking stuff. Ranking stuff is fun. I ranked all 90 Jets players a few weeks back.
But man, am I tired of these pointless rankings from major outlets. Whether it’s PFF taking one writer’s opinion and sharing it on socials as if it is “PFF’s ranking,” some random national media talking head who wakes up craving attention, or ESPN’s poll that reveals some NFL decision-makers might not be smarter than you and me, I am just tired of it.
I understand why these rankings are made. They get people talking. They get people reacting. And that’s all most media outlets really care about. So, good for you. Do your thing.
There are just too many questions at play for any of these lists to mean anything.
What should constitute one player being ranked above another? Is it their full body of work or what they have done for me lately? Should we base it on the eye test, analytics, or both? Should accolades be considered? Why should we trust your ranking of these players if you have not watched all of them in-depth? Why should we trust your opinion in general? And the most important question of all: Why do you hate my favorite team?
I’ll just make the same point I did in the last section: Let’s play some football.
4. Twitter shenanigans
At this time of year, the national media is like a group of parched travelers marching through the desert, and every quote from Aaron Rodgers is like an oasis to fill their canteens with enough little red heart icons to satisfy their dopamine intake for the day.
In the offseason, players don’t have a football field to perform on, so Twitter becomes their stage. Everything that happens on Twitter in the offseason is a story. Whether it’s a throwaway quote that gets erroneously twisted into a trade rumor or a player getting flack for a minorly controversial post, the media circles the Twitter timeline like a pack of vultures above some fresh roadkill.
None of this matters.
Let’s. Play. Some. Football.
5. Over-criticizing minor roster issues
This is another one that I’ve contributed to, without question. In fact, I’m mostly pointing this one at myself.
Here’s the deal. As an NFL writer, when there are seven months between the last regular season game and the first preseason game, you have to write about everything to fill the time. And I mean everything. My friends, it was only last week when I wrote about a simulated tournament between the worst Jets teams of all time in which the losers advanced.
The long break will lead you to spend a lot of time covering topics that, in actuality, you aren’t as concerned about as it may seem based on the fact you wrote a 1,000-word article about it.
In this case, I’m talking about my criticisms of the Jets’ minor roster issues.
The Jets have an amazing roster. It can be argued that it’s as good as the second-best roster in football on paper. However, it’s not perfect, and that’s not a slight on the team in any sense. It’s just reality, because no team in NFL history has been perfect except for the 1972 Dolphins.
I like to cover every last corner of the Jets from the quarterback to the long snapper, so if I spot a minor weakness, I’m going to talk about it, and I’m going to talk about it in-depth. When looking at this Jets squad, I’m a little concerned about the defensive tackle depth behind Quinnen Williams and the overall state of the run defense. I do think the Jets could be mediocre against the run this year and I’ve written about this a few times.
Regardless, the most important point here is the fact that this is what we’re talking about as the Jets’ hot-button issue. Not the quarterback. Not the offensive line. Not the pass rush. Not the cornerbacks. Not the weaponry. Defensive tackle depth and run defense. Two things that, while they certainly matter, are undoubtedly less vital than any of the premium areas where the Jets long had nothing to write home about.
Speaking of the aforementioned 1972 Dolphins, if there was one area where they weren’t perfect, it was run defense; they were top-three in yards per pass attempt, yards per pass attempt allowed, and yards per rush attempt, but “only” ninth-best in yards per rush attempt allowed (4.0). In the playoffs, that number rose to 4.5, worse than the 4.1 league average that season. Having a great run defense isn’t necessary to be dominant; it wasn’t even necessary back in an era where rushing was king.
I’m concerned about the Jets’ defensive tackles and run defense, but am I concerned to where it changes my overall outlook for the team? Not at all. But there just aren’t many other concerns to write about, so I have to dedicate more time to the issue than I would prefer to.
This Jets roster is awesome, and, frankly, it’s made writing about them in the offseason more boring than usual. At most positions, the story is, “They’re really good here, they just need to (A) stay healthy or (B) hope Aaron Rodgers stays healthy.” It’s much different compared to previous Jets offseasons, when most position groups had a massive spectrum of potential outcomes and a wide array of variables at play.
Once the games get started, covering the Jets will be more fun than ever before. For now, the sheer completeness of their roster forces us (specifically me) to focus on minor problems more than we actually care to.
