The New York Jets have suffered their fourth loss in six games to begin the 2024 season, falling 23-20 to the Buffalo Bills on a night where they blew countless chances to seize control. Just like the rest of their losses, the defeat was largely due to the severe underperformance of multiple accomplished players the team thought it could count on coming into the season.
Interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich spoke frequently about “accountability” after he was thrust into the role last week. Well, here’s his chance to show that he truly believes in it.
If Ulbrich wants to salvage this Jets season, he’ll get these two team-crushing veterans off the field before they cost the Jets any more games. Forget the money invested in them, forget their experience, forget their name recognition – hold them accountable for the best of the team.
Greg Zuerlein
Zuerlein missed two go-ahead field goals in the second half, both from under 50 yards. It continues an awful start to the season for Zuerlein, who is now 8-for-12 with three of his four misses coming from under 50 yards. His missed kicks have cost the Jets two victories.
Zuerlein had a great 2023 season for the Jets, making 92.1% of his field goals and 5-of-6 from 50+ yards. This earned him a two-year, $8.4 million contract with the team in the 2024 offseason.
However, while Zuerlein played well in 2023, the notion that he is some uber-reliable veteran kicker has always been far-fetched. Zuerlein has been wildly inconsistent throughout his entire career.
Zuerlein’s career field goal percentage of 82.6% is three points below the 2024 NFL average of 85.6%. In fact, 2023 was his first season with a field goal percentage above 83% since 2018. Out of his 13 career seasons to date, Zuerlein has eclipsed 83% just five times. He also missed an NFL-high 9 extra points from 2020-21 with the Cowboys, his final two seasons before coming to New York. On top of that, despite being known for his leg strength, Zuerlein has made only 56% of his career attempts from 50+ yards.
Zuerlein is not one of those saintly kickers who should be followed with unwavering faith into the fiery depths of the Earth. He’s a below-average kicker who happened to get hot last year. And now, he’s having another of his dud seasons. This isn’t unusual for Zuerlein at all; he’s had three seasons in his career where he made under 75% of his field goals. He is well on his way to a fourth.
At the very least, the Jets need to bring in some kickers for tryouts this week and see if someone stands out as a likely upgrade. Zuerlein has not done anything in his career to warrant the Jets having blind faith that he will improve. He is not above being held accountable for costing the Jets multiple wins.
Tyron Smith
Tyron Smith is deep into his career at 33 years old, but the Jets still expected they were getting an elite left tackle when they signed him this March. The likely future Hall-of-Famer was a second-team All-Pro in 2023. His stats and film were both elite. As a lineman known for his elite technique above anything else, he seemed like the type of player who would age well into his thirties.
Every NFL player hits a wall at some point – Father Time maintains his all-time record win percentage of 1.000 – but nobody could have expected that Smith would fall this hard in the matter of one year. A drop from elite to good would have been feasible. Even stooping from elite to decent would have given the Jets offense a viable chance of surviving. But Smith isn’t good, nor is he decent. He is a massive liability who drags the whole offense down.
Excluding Zuerlein, Smith was the costliest Jet on the field last night.
Smith allowed a crushing blind-side sack on third-and-15 from the edge of field goal range, costing the Jets potential points and forcing a punt. Rodgers also lost the ball and was lucky to recover it. Later, Smith allowed another third-down sack to force a punt, although he was luckily bailed out by a baffling roughing the passer penalty (that Rodgers himself admitted was incorrect).
The worst offense was a holding penalty near the goal line that negated a Braelon Allen touchdown, which would have put the Jets up 26-20 (let’s not assume Zuerlein would have made the extra point). Fans can complain about the officiating all they want, but Smith definitely committed a penalty on the play, and it had no effect on Allen’s run, making it even more frustrating. The Jets would fail to score a touchdown, and Zuerlein missed the ensuing field goal attempt. Smith directly removed six (possibly seven) points off the board.
This continues a horrible start to the season for Smith. According to Pro Football Focus, he is tied for second among left tackles with 5 sacks allowed (he would be tied for first with 6 if the phantom roughing call did not occur). Smith is also tied for the third-most pressures allowed among left tackles with 16.
It is shocking how far out of character these numbers are for Smith. His 5 sacks are already the most he has allowed in a season since 2015, and we are only six games in. He allowed only 3 sacks in 13 games last season. In terms of pressures, Smith is only 5 away from his 2023 total of 21 in 13 games, and he is on pace for a career-worst 45, which is 15 more than his worst mark over the past 11 seasons (30).
The cherry on top is Smith’s 5 penalties, tying him for the seventh-most among left tackles. He is the only left tackle in the NFL with 5+ penalties and 5+ sacks allowed.
The most troubling aspect of Smith’s play is how badly he gets beaten. He is getting absolutely roasted with speed rushes around the corner, often failing to even touch his man. As a blind-side protector of a 40-year-old quarterback, this is an unplayable weakness. Aaron Rodgers is not going to last much longer if Smith keeps allowing Rodgers to take full-speed blind-side hits that he isn’t prepared for.
The Jets drafted Penn State tackle Olu Fashanu with the 11th overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, hoping he could develop behind Smith in 2024 and take over as their left tackle of the future in 2025. In the short-term, the plan was for Fashanu to provide insurance in the likely event that the highly injury-prone veteran missed time.
Smith has fortunately been able to remain on the field, but nobody expected that he would play this poorly in the event that he stayed healthy. It is time for the Jets to consider using Fashanu for the other emergency situation: Smith being washed up.
The Jets’ season is in dire straits. Aaron Rodgers is their only hope. And that hope will evaporate very soon if Tyron Smith continues playing left tackle. New York cannot pretend that Smith is going to figure things out.
Smith’s struggles stood out as slightly concerning in Week 1, but it was against a great Niners team, so he deserved some slack. Then, it continued in Week 3 against a dismal Patriots team. Very concerning, but only three games. Maybe he’ll figure out how to adjust to his loss of athleticism. But now, it’s been six games. At this point, this is who Tyron Smith is in 2024. He is cooked. He is not going to adjust or figure things out. His athleticism is just flat-out gone and there is nothing he can do to make up for it.
It is time for Ulbrich to make the decision that is best for the team. Fashanu might also struggle at left tackle, but Smith definitely will. We’ve seen him perform like one of the worst left tackles in football for six games now.
With T.J. Watt and the Steelers coming up, Rodgers will be lucky to make it out of Pittsburgh alive if 77 is protecting his blind-side again. It’s time to pass the torch to Fashanu and live with the results.
