Will anything ever work for this franchise?
They had a top-5 defense, along with a (supposedly) top-tier young running back and (supposedly) top-tier young wide receiver both waiting for the right quarterback who could allow them to explode. Despite suffering from was commonly dubbed as the worst quarterback play in the NFL, they still won 7 games in each of the last two seasons, losing a plethora of close low-scoring games. Just give them a competent quarterback, and this is at least a playoff team!
It only took seven games for the narrative that was peddled since Aaron Rodgers uttered the words “My intention is to play for the New York Jets” in March 2023 to be squashed. Aaron Rodgers, Davante Adams, Allen Lazard, Tyron Smith, Morgan Moses, John Simpson – none of it matters.
2-5.
It’s a record that quarterbacks such as Zach Wilson, Josh McCown, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Sam Darnold, and Geno Smith were able to surpass through seven games at least once as the Jets’ starting quarterback. Now… Aaron Rodgers can’t do it? With this roster? It doesn’t make any sense. At all.
One of Jets fans’ favorite exercises over the past two offseasons was to point out all of the games Zach Wilson lost that Aaron Rodgers would have won. The 3-10 loss in New England? Dub. The 12-16 loss in Las Vegas? Jet Up, baby!
Nope. Instead, it’s time to start talking about the wins Zach Wilson got that Aaron Rodgers could not.
Wilson went 2-0 against the Broncos (in Denver) from 2022-23. Rodgers lost to the Broncos at home when the defense gave up 10 points.
Wilson went 2-0 against the Bills at MetLife from 2022-23. Rodgers fell in the same situation.
Wilson won in Pittsburgh in his first game back from an injury in 2022, making a double-digit comeback in the fourth quarter. Rodgers couldn’t do the same.
Yes, yes, I know T.J. Watt played against Rodgers and not Wilson. I know Greg Zuerlein missed costly field goals in the Broncos and Bills games.
In no way am I blaming the Jets’ failures this season entirely on Rodgers. I do not think this start is even remotely close to being entirely on him, or any other particular individual. In fact, I don’t think… anything. I’m not thinking right now. This is just a rant from a devout pragmatist who has finally been pushed over the edge by the most astonishingly consistent franchise in football.
For once, I’m throwing logic out the window and just letting the emotions flow. Because the way that the New York Football Jets manage to do the same things year after year, no matter what cast of characters is playing all the different roles, is downright impressive.
And it’s time to start wondering whether that will ever change. If this group couldn’t change things – not even an ounce (in fact, it might even be worse) – what will?
Who is to blame? I don’t know. Is it Woody Johnson? Maybe, but the Jets were Jetting long before Woody was in town. Plus, the Jets’ most successful 11-year run in franchise history came under his watch. Over Woody’s first 11 seasons as the owner, the Jets made 6 playoff appearances, won 6 playoff games, and only finished with a losing record 3 times.
Is it all due to Woody’s hires since the end of that run? Sure, that would definitely be a logical explanation. Did he strike out on Todd Bowles, Adam Gase, and Robert Saleh at head coach? Did he whiff on John Idzik, Mike Maccagnan, and Joe Douglas at general manager? The answer is a resounding yes on both fronts.
Logic can point you in a lot of reasonable directions as to the source of this team’s unfathomable start to the 2024 season. But no matter how hard you try to be logical about what’s happening in Florham Park, there is something ominous hanging over it all. Something that can’t be seen. Something you just can’t put your finger on.
Going into 2024, everything… made sense. For once in the Jets’ miserable existence, you could see a plan in place. It’s easy to call this team an untethered circus right now, but I ask you all to revisit your record predictions before the Jets took the field in San Francisco on September 9. You didn’t care about Rodgers’s age. Or Tyron Smith’s age. Or the defensive line depth. Or the coaching. Perhaps you were slightly concerned about some or all of those things, but in spite of that, you still believed. I would wager that over 90% of Jets fans predicted the team to finish with a winning record. (That is obviously still possible, but let’s be honest with ourselves about how likely that is.)
And those predictions were logical. I cited numerous times throughout the offseason that the hype surrounding the Jets was not blind optimism fueled by bias. For instance, ESPN’s analytics department ranked it as the second-best roster in the NFL. Not Stephen A. Smith or Chris Russo – the analytics department. That is worth something, because the conclusion was reached using facts and data regarding the quality of all players on the roster.
Predicting the Jets to be great was… smart. They did what they were supposed to do in the 2024 offseason. They bolstered the offensive line with three veteran additions who all played good football in 2023. They added a strong complementary wide receiver for Garrett Wilson. They added youth and power to a backfield that had none of it behind Breece Hall in 2023. Everything they didn’t do to support Aaron Rodgers in 2023, they did in 2024.
And, finally, Aaron Rodgers was back! Even if you tempered your expectations for Rodgers to the highest degree, you still thought he’d be competent enough to win all of those low-scoring games that the Jets could not with Zach Wilson.
For whatever reason, none of it has changed a darn thing.
When you spend enough time around the Jets, you eventually realize that logic is a futile tool for trying to unpack their woes. With this team, the nonsensical is the typical. The implausible is the expectation. The unexplainable is easily explained. And that explanation is simple:
They’re the Jets. How could you expect anything different?
The analysis doesn’t need to go much deeper than that. Call it a cop-out, but after watching the most logically constructed roster in recent Jets history crash and burn before Halloween, I am not sure how else you could explain this besides the New York Jets doing what the New York Jets have always done.
Until someone comes in with enough moxie, vigor, and pure determination to shatter whatever dark curse is sealing this organization within an inescapable prison of despair, they are, and always will be, the Same Old Jets.
It’s very possible to find that someone. Look at what Josh Allen did in Buffalo, and what Jayden Daniels is in the process of doing in Washington. Those franchises were equally as downtrodden as the Jets, if not more so. They just needed a hero. The Jets still haven’t found theirs.
Maybe they will someday, but to this point, every attempt has been more futile than the last, whether it be the high draft pick route (Sam Darnold and Zach Wilson) or the cast-off star veteran route (Rodgers). Call the latter a doomed proposition if you so please, but you’d be ignoring that two of the last four Super Bowl champions were led by that brand of quarterback. It worked perfectly for the Bucs and Rams, but pulling the same stunt in New York gets you… well, whatever this is.
I’ll get over this emotional tirade and analyze the team in a more scientific and level-headed way over the next few days. Things probably are not as dire, unforgivable, or unfixable as I made them seem in this article. And I can’t wait to get to that point of the week, because regardless of how many times the Jets go out there and Jet, I just love to analyze and break down the sport of football. There’s nothing I am more passionate about.
But just for once, I had to come out here on a Misery Monday and let the words flow without a rhyme or reason. No premise. No structure. No conclusion. Just… emotion. Frustration. Disappointment. And more than anything else, contemplation… regarding whether there is anything that can possibly be offered as a believable solution for this obviously-cursed franchise.
That’s all. See you over the next few days with the stats and film. For now, we sulk. And we wonder… will things ever change? Can they?
