Making the claim that New York Jets fans are self-consumed isn’t out of bounds. Of course they’re self-consumed.
How could anybody blame them?
In a league where completing passes and moving the football has never been easier, Jets fans have suffered under the black hand of stagnation. Year in and year out, the Jets’ offense has done its job in promoting the more traditional ways of the NFL.
The franchise’s lack of “getting with the times” is just one of the many reasons New York Jets fans are set to watch the divisional round with potentially torturous results just peeking out on the other side.
The low-flying Jets
Let’s heighten the self-consumption by dropping the team’s passing yardage rankings over the last several seasons:
- 2025: 32nd (2,784 passing yards)
- 2024: 14th (4,016 passing yards)
- 2023: 30th (3,373 passing yards)
- 2022: 14th (4,040 passing yards)
- 2021: 17th (3,959 passing yards)
- 2020: 31st (3,115 passing yards)
- 2019: 27th (3,443 passing yards)
- 2018: 27th (3,404 passing yards)
- 2017: 24th (3,501 passing yards)
- 2016: 28th (3,645 passing yards)
- 2015: 15th (4,170 passing yards)
- 2014: 32nd (3,206 passing yards)
- 2013: 30th (3,270 passing yards)
- 2012: 30th (3,178 passing yards)
- 2011: 20th (3,542 passing yards)
- 2010: 23rd (3,420 passing yards)
- 2009: 31st (2,596 passing yards)
The “Jets,” in this new age of offensive football that allows completion percentage to shoot through the roof, have hardly “flown high.”
It surely worked in the early going of the Rex Ryan era, as evidenced by their 31st and 23rd-ranked passing attacks not getting in the way of back-to-back AFC championship game appearances.
But that was then. This is now.
Times have changed. Just reference what happened to the Rex-led Jets as time marched forward, and the sport continued to evolve in one specific direction (all offense, tougher to play defense, more player safety, etc.).
Times have changed to such a ballistic extent that Jets names of the past are hot commodities around the league.
Familiar Jets in the playoffs
Sam Darnold, who was firmly entrenched as the Jets’ hopeful franchise quarterback from 2018 to 2020, now leads the No. 1-seeded Seattle Seahawks, who are set to take on the San Francisco 49ers.
Robert Saleh, one of the handful of defensive-minded head coaches Woody Johnson has hired during this rudderless stretch, is doing great things as Kyle Shanahan’s defensive coordinator. So much so that the Miami Dolphins are reportedly interested in Saleh as their next head coach.
Oh yeah, let’s not forget about Mike LaFleur, one of Sean McVay’s most trusted assistants, who is receiving head-coaching interest around the league.
Speaking of LaFleur, glance at those passing rankings again. Other than Aaron Rodgers’s at-the-line prowess leading the Jets’ 14th-ranked passing attack last year, it was LaFleur who steered the ship in 2021 and 2020. (And make no mistake about it: LaFleur found his way after that rookie season, as evidenced by the hot start to 2022; he simply didn’t have enough stability at the quarterback position.)
The only other respectable ranking came in 2015, when Ryan Fitzpatrick had his unforgettable season under Todd Bowles. New York’s 10-6 record that season remains the organization’s lone double-digit win season since 2011, and yet, fans were foaming at the mouth to run FitzMagic out of town — after the team’s disappointing 2016 campaign (which I completely understand).
Not to be completely overshadowed by Darnold and Saleh, John Franklin-Myers (Denver Broncos), Sheldon Rankins (Houston Texans), Morgan Moses (New England Patriots), Jason Myers (Seattle Seahawks), and Cairo Santos (Chicago Bears) are also former Jets set to compete in the divisional round.
The most painful scenarios
The New York Jets fan rooting interest — to eliminate as much indirect pain as possible — in the divisional round isn’t as straightforward as one would believe:
- The Denver Broncos over the Buffalo Bills.
- The Houston Texans over the New England Patriots.
- The San Francisco 49ers over the Seattle Seahawks.
- The Los Angeles Rams over the Chicago Bears.
AFC
Rooting for the Broncos and Texans is an easy one. Both the Bills and Patriots are AFC East rivals, even though the teams are in contrasting situations.
Josh Allen’s home-away-from-home has been the playoffs, even if he hasn’t played in a Super Bowl (as of yet). Nothing’s stunning about Sean McDermott’s squad being here.
New England’s presence, however, is as brutal as it gets for the Jets fan. After years of suffering under Bill Belichick and Tom Brady’s football authoritarianism, Jets fans received a reprieve once the duo finally walked away.
Jerod Mayo’s horrendous 2024 season allowed Jets fans to breathe easier about their own struggles, and things looked bleak up north. Yet, Mike Vrabel spurning the Jets, in favor of his old squad, has turned a big ship quickly in a way only nightmares are born.
The Pats literally crumbled for a couple of years, only to rebuild lightning-fast, all in the same timeframe that the Jets remained awful.
NFC
Rooting for the Niners over the Seahawks is pretty simple, if only because coaches receive far less screen time than quarterbacks. I’d bet money it would be much more painful to watch a once-hopeful franchise quarterback have tournament success than to watch a former head coach.
The Rams over the Bears is the trickiest one of the bunch. While on one hand, LaFleur does exist, the other possibility is much fresher.
Mike LaFleur hasn’t been associated with the Jets since 2022. Plus, he’s just an assistant. Chicago potentially emerging victorious does indirect damage to the highest degree…
Not only does the big-market New York fanbase witness how quickly great coaching can turn around a big ship — one that’s been so terrible for a long time — but it’s who’s leading the coaching staff that represents the real rub.
Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn will remain connected forever. These were the top two assistants under Dan Campbell with the Detroit Lions, an organization that pulled off one of the most impressive turnarounds in NFL history. Lions fans, like Jets fans now, deem it impossible to turn things around.
Yet, Johnson, Glenn, and Campbell did that very thing. (Although I think logic leads most to believe that Johnson’s promotion to offensive coordinator in 2022, while residing in an offense-driven sport, was the real needle-mover for Detroit, via offensive/quarterback efficiency value.)
Nevertheless, the Bears got Johnson while the Jets snagged Glenn. The Bears finished 11-6 as NFC North champs, whereas the Jets went 3-14. Both teams won just five games in 2024.
Ben Johnson’s inclusion in the Super Bowl would consistently remind Jets fans that they chose the wrong Lions coordinator. Worse yet, it would be a reminder that the Jets continue to misdiagnose the reason why they cannot find success…
They continue to value head-coaching traits that are entirely outdated — ones that worked in the sport of yesteryear, when physicality was still a major element of the game, and defense could still dictate terms to a respectable degree.
Ranking the worst Super Bowl scenarios
Victories by the Bills and Pats, leading to an AFC title game between those two organizations, is unequivocally the worst Jets fan scenario that could come out of the divisional round. Not only does it make Championship Sunday insufferable, but it guarantees one of the two squads will play in the Super Bowl.
Though the NFC side is more arguable this weekend, Sam Darnold’s face on Super Sunday is a living nightmare for many fans. (By the way, we’re fully aware there are plenty of Jets fans who are actively rooting for Darnold; don’t get it twisted.)
In terms of Super Bowl combinations, here’s how the ranking looks, with No. 1 representing the worst-case scenario for the New York Jets fan:
- New England Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks
- Buffalo Bills vs. Seattle Seahawks
- New England Patriots vs. San Francisco 49ers
- Buffalo Bills vs. San Francisco 49ers
- New England Patriots vs. Chicago Bears
- Buffalo Bills vs. Chicago Bears
- New England Patriots vs. Los Angeles Rams
- Buffalo Bills vs. Los Angeles Rams
Oh, the pain.
