Finding New Ways to Lose

Edition #745

Good morning ☕

This may be the most overrated roster the Jets have ever had.

Pre-season talk revolved around Championship aspirations, but the reality is the Jets are in the running for the #1 overall pick in the draft.

This “Championship” team has the same record as the re-building New England Patriots. They are just one game better off than the Jacksonville Jaguars who currently own the #1 overall pick.

Entering this season the Jets had a 13 year playoff drought, that will soon be confirmed as a 14-year playoff drought and counting.

The Hall of Fame QB the Jets bent over backwards for is not only failing to win games for the team, he’s actually a big contributing factor for why we’re losing. His inability to throw deep either because he can’t, or he’s scared of throwing picks makes the Jets an easy game-plan.

That defense that we heard so much about continues to wilt in the biggest moments. On two occasions yesterday they allowed Anthony Richardson to drive 70+ yards. The same Anthony Richardson who had been benched earlier this season. The same Anthony Richardson that had never completed 50% or more of his passes when attempting over 5 this season. The same Anthony Richardson who had never thrown for over 250 yards.

The final stat like for Richardson yesterday? 66.7% completion, 272 yards, 3 total touchdown.

I think it’s become abundantly clear that the success of this defence rested with Robert Saleh and the Jets being 1-5 since firing him may be karma for Woody Johnson and his inability to make a firm decision in the off-season. D.J Reed was asked about the defense being worse post Saleh and that it’s allowed 26 points per game, “I have noticed that.” He also said he understood it was challenging for Ulbrich to be HC and call plays but that he can handle it. Evidently not.

Johnson believed this to be the most talented roster he’s ever had, but the truth is that it’s a roster full of weaknesses and it’s been assembled by one of the worst coaching staffs in the NFL.

The more you watch this team the more it becomes abundantly clear, the Jets are outcoached every single week. Teams make adjustments against us and we seem to run the exact same gameplan out every week, regardless of the opponent. Maybe it’s ignorance, maybe it’s arrogance, whatever it is it doesn’t belong in the NFL.

Yet another example of awful game management and wasted timeouts. On 4th and 2 with the chance to ice the game with a first down, they lined up to try and draw the defense, when that didn’t happen they took a timeout instead of a delay of game penalty. Ulbrich said it was to give Carlson the best chance to make the kick. But that timeout was significantly more valuable than those 5 yards. Right now Jeff Ulbrich is coaching scared and he looks overwhelmed.

When you have Rodgers, even a reduced version of him, you need to go for it on 4th and 2 to ice the game and of course Rodgers wanted the ball - "Yeah, but, I mean, Brick felt good about Anders [Carlson] kicking it and the defense stopping it," he said. "But, yeah, of course [I wanted to go for it]. I felt like we needed to get to 30 just to be in the game. Now, obviously, the way we played, still needed to get to 30 to win. But, yeah, if we were a great team, we would have scored seven there."

Aaron Rodgers got out-classed by someone who I think will end up being a career backup in the NFL. The All-22 is going to be interesting because I believe based purely on the broadcast that Rodgers left 5-6 big plays out there. On some key 3rd downs he took negative plays despite having open receivers and I’ll repeat what I said on X last night “I've never seen Aaron Rodgers look more like Zach Wilson than on that final drive.” That may actually be harsh on Wilson, who would have at least attempted some deep passes.

Rodgers has now had the ball in his hands late in the 4th quarter with a chance to win the game for the Jets on four occasions, he’s 0/4 in those games.

I don’t want this to just be against Rodgers because the issues run so much deeper. But we brought him here to win these kinds of games. We brought in a terrible OC to placate him, we traded draft capital to bring his friend over, and we’re 3-8.

Like I said on Friday, I’m ready to move on from Rodgers in the most complete sense. He’s not the QB he was and he has too much power within the franchise. The experiment failed, like many thought it would.

The Jets came out and failed to get a first down on their first 5 possessions which is quite unbelievable, it wasn’t until late in the 2nd quarter that Breece Hall powered over for a first down, met with ironic cheers by the frustrated crowd.

Talking of Breece Hall, it was another week of underuse. As the Jets were fighting back from a 13-0 deficit, it was Breece Hall who was the catalyst. In a game as close as this, Hall should have been run into the ground. I’d argue he should have been touching 25 carries in a game like this. Instead he had 16 carries despite getting 4.9 yards per rush.

Rodgers has attempted just 6 throws of 10+ yards over the last two weeks and he’s completed just one of those. If you look at his ball placement yesterday, he looks every bit the 40 year old QB.

The Jets need to completely reset.

New GM. New Head Coach. New Quarterback and a lot of roster turnover. If Woody Johnson tries to run this back then the result will be exactly the same, if not worse. We’re 3-8 because we’re a bad football team, a poorly coached football team. We’re 3-8 because the characters in that locker room wanted a saviour and looked to one man instead of taking their share of the burden.

None of the current coaching staff can return and I can probably count around 10 players I believe we absolutely have to keep next season.

This team is so incredibly unlikeable and lacking in all the things you find appealing in sport, just chop it all down, dig up the roots and start again.