Eliminated

Edition #541

Good morning!

In a game they simply had to have, a game I described as season-defining, the Jets were a no-show. Following the game wide receiver Allen Lazard came out and said "They outschemed us and they out-efforted us." That to me is completely unacceptable, and it’s not only a damning indictment on the coaching staff but also the collection of players as a whole. Even if you’re out-schemed, you should never have a player come up and say you were out-efforted…

With the Houston Texans winning (behind Case Keenum) and the Cleveland Browns winning (behind Joe Flacco), the Jets have now officially been eliminated from the playoffs, which means 13 straight years without playoff football, the longest playoff drought in North American sports.

It’s now time for the heat to be seriously turned up on Robert Saleh who’s teams get worse as the team progresses. The Jets head coach now has a 16-32 record overall and a 2-13 record in December/January games. His “All Gas, No Break” philosophy hasn’t been seen since his opening press conference, and when your team is unprepared for a game that has serious playoff implications, that’s on the head coach. He called it embarrassing, and he’s not wrong.

The Jets have now scored 1 or fewer touchdowns in 12 of their 14 games, which is just shocking ineptitude, yet the offensive coordinator is still turning up for work this morning. Injuries happen and they’re difficult, but the Jets are not the only team to lose players to injury, but we’re certainly the team that crumbles the quickest.

The offensive line is now a punchline. Zach Wilson was sacked 4 times on 15 dropbacks and then Siemian was sacked a couple more times. Mekhi Becton is a turnstile over there at left tackle because he can’t or refuses to move his feet. He is not the answer, he’s now given up double-digit sacks and that draft pick has to be considered an absolute bust. We talk about Zach a lot, but Mekhi has been just as disappointing on the field. Defensive coordinators simply need to put speed on that side and they know they’re going to have success. His lack of movement caused the sack fumble last night, and it’s hard to watch. Now the Jets have gone into full tank mode, I’ll be praying to the altar of Joe Alt every day.

Zach didn’t stand a chance with that scheme and offensive line and ended up leaving the game with a concussion, so while we still have no idea what we have in him, it’s hard for anyone to play behind that line within that structure. Chances are we’ll finish this 2023 season without truly understanding if the Zach Wilson who ripped up Houston in the second half last week was the real version.

Now the Jets have been eliminated, we can forget that Aaron Rodgers comeback story arc. It’s been overdone anyway, but if the Jets allowed Rodgers to play this year it would be malpractice. Even if Aaron wants to play, it’s up to Joe and Saleh to put on their big-boy pants and put the long-term interests of the Jets ahead of Aarons's ego to prove he can recover quicker than anyone else. They also need to show they're in charge by firing Nathaniel Hackett, but we’ve had that conversation before, and I don’t expect anything to change there.

Garrett Wilson got his first target in the third quarter…if having the worst offence in the league is not a firable offence, then not scheming a target for your best offensive player is. I can’t even fathom how someone like Wilson doesn’t get a target in a half where we generated 4 yards of offence…how bad does this have to get before the Jets will take action? The Jets are a passive organisation who sat and watched their season go down the drain. They all felt sorry for each other as soon as Rodgers went down, they had a ready-made excuse and they were willing to use it at every opportunity.

To be fair to Garett Wilson, he didn’t blame anyone but himself…even though that’s ridiculous. Wilson takes accountability even when he shouldn’t, and that’s part of the reason he’s being let down by the Jets. "I've got to figure it out, be better, run better routes, be better in the meeting room to figure out how I can be involved early and often and how we can win games," - No Garrett, you just need better coaches and players around you.

They’re also either completely inept, or they’re being held hostage by Aaron Rodgers. An organisation can’t be run by the QB, that’s not how it works. The Jets need to fire Hackett today and if Rodgers wants to retire because of that then let him.

Hackett is the worst coach I’ve ever seen, and that includes his Dad and Adam Gase.

If Zach can’t play next week, the Jets will start their 4th different QB in a season for the first time since 1989. So much for trading for Rodgers to offer stability, who would have thought a near 40-year-old QB would be an injury risk?

I certainly won’t be watching that game again to evaluate what went wrong, because the answer is everything. The product the Jets are putting on the field is unacceptable, they know that and they’re doing absolutely nothing about it.

I’ve never been one to call for everyone to lose their jobs, but if the whole coaching staff and general manager lose their jobs today, it would be warranted and that may fuel a little excitement the rest of the way. Put simply, I don’t trust Joe Douglas to put the right players on the field and I certainly don’t trust Robert Saleh to get the best out of them.

It’s tough! I think the rest of the week we’ll focus on the draft.