At this point, I think it’s safe to say that the 2024 New York Jets are a bad football team.
What other conclusions can we draw? This team has a record of 2 wins and 5 losses. They are on a four-game losing streak, coming off a 37-15 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football in Week 7.
For the New York Jets, there are many disappointing aspects of this loss. For one, the Jets were clearly the better team for the first 29 minutes. They led 15-6 and had a chance to score another point just before halftime. Then Aaron Rodgers threw a bad interception. The Steelers scored a touchdown. The Jets didn’t score again, and the Steelers weren’t stopped again when they had the ball. The final result was a 22-point victory for Pittsburgh.
If you dominate in the first half and then lose by three touchdowns, that’s a sign that your football team is bad.
It would be hard not to compare this Jets club to other professional sports teams in New York. While the Jets boasted overwhelming strength, Liberty won the championship for the first time in franchise history. The previous night, the Yankees won the game and advanced to the World Series for the first time in 15 years. And on Sunday, the Mets ended their season with an NLCS loss to the Dodgers. But once the disappointment wears off, every Mets fan will look back fondly on 2024 and be proud of a team that exceeded all expectations and created one magical memory after another.
This Jets team had so much hype that many expected it to reach that level. If anything, it reminds me of another Mets team from 32 years ago. That team had big names. He was the highest paid player in baseball. There was a lot of hype and expectations. They finished in fifth place in the six-team division with a record of 72 wins and 90 losses. Bob Klapisch and John Harper wrote a book chronicling that season titled The Worst Team Money Can Buy.
At this point, I would argue that the 2024 New York Jets are the NFL’s title contenders. It’s a star-studded team. That’s a bad team too.
At times like these, I think it’s important to understand how we got here.
Obviously, I’ve interacted with a lot of Jets fans through this site and podcast. I hear the same things over and over again.
People say the team has tried everything for the past 14 years and nothing has worked. This team is just unlucky. Once the players arrive here, they begin to stink as if it were their destiny.
But I don’t think any of these explanations are sufficient.
It’s not that hard to understand why future Hall of Famers like Aaron Rodgers and Tyron Smith are playing poorly. They are old and declining.
Smith was a Ring of Honor player for the Cowboys and spent 13 years with the organization. He’s a beloved figure, but the Jets’ modest contract doesn’t make him a good fit for the team.
Rodgers was 39 years old and coming off his worst season when the Jets traded him. I’m sure the Achilles injury in 2023 accelerated his decline, but trading for him and building everything around him was a lot more risky than many wanted to admit at the time. It was a high adventure.
But the bigger question for me is how did we get to this point? And that’s precisely because, contrary to what I’ve been hearing, the Jets haven’t tried everything to fix this team.
What does the league’s strongest organization value?
They’re obsessed with stockpiling draft picks and understand that the lifeblood of a good football team comes in the form of cost-controlled young talent.
They focus on player development, understanding that most prospects entering the NFL require development.
They understand the characteristics needed to run the system effectively and target players with those characteristics.
They are taking a targeted approach to free agency and trades. Player fit and future performance is more important than stocking big name players based on past performance.
They seek every little advantage possible, whether it’s managing their salary cap more efficiently, breaking new ground with analytics, or discovering advanced training methods.
Now, I would like to ask you a question. Are any of those similarities to what the New York Jets have been doing for the past 14 years? Have the Jets really tried everything?
The only time they came close was in 2021-2022, and they quickly pivoted from there once they had the chance to acquire Aaron Rodgers.
None of the things I mentioned are easy to do effectively. That’s the point. Building a winning soccer team is hard work. NFL teams are large, complex organisms. After all, if you’re not doing things the right way, no one can really make enough of a difference to turn things around. It has a roster of 53 players. Of those, 22 are starters, and many others play key roles. We have an extensive coaching staff, support staff, training staff, front office, and other departments.
What better way to describe how the Jets are operating under coach Woody Johnson than as a football team trying to win the Super Bowl, and more as an organization trying to win the news cycle? i don’t know.
The Jets haven’t adopted any of the best practices from championship-winning organizations. That’s a lot of work. It’s much easier to sell that there is a savior who will solve all of the team’s problems, or that there is a scapegoat who will keep the team and that his departure will lead the team to glory.
Yes, the Jets had some bad luck along the way. The ball bounced poorly, the opponent made an unfavorable call, or there was an unexpected injury. Of course, they lost their quarterback four plays into last season. But even with some luck, the Jets wouldn’t have been able to build a team that lasted.
Finding the next genius general manager or head coach isn’t that easy. Especially if you don’t empower them to build the team properly. The next quarterback you draft won’t improve your team if you don’t do anything to support his development.
And it’s great to find someone to blame. But when you’re the least successful franchise in professional sports for over a decade, there’s probably one or more people holding you back.
At this point, this team feels less like a team built to win championships and more like it’s being run by owners to appease the short-term whims of fans on Twitter and callers on WFAN .
Take a look at what Woody Johnson said last December.
Owner Woody Johnson told the Post on Sunday that general manager Joe Douglas and head coach Robert Saleh will return for the 2024 season.
“My decision is to keep them,” Johnson said in an exclusive interview before the Jets’ 30-28 win over the Commanders on Sunday. “I think we made some very positive moves. The team culture is much better. We’re better on defense. We need some pieces on offense.”
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Coach Johnson said the reason he wants Douglas and Saleh back is to “maintain continuity for Aaron and our team.” “As I said a year ago, we need a quarterback. We had a quarterback on four plays. We haven’t been able to replace him since. We need a good quarterback. It makes everyone’s job easier. It makes the line better and the receivers better.”
The meaning was clear. The Jets were close. All they had to do was bring back Aaron Rodgers and fire blocker Zach Wilson, and the team was in great shape.
Five games into the following season, Saleh was fired.
Let’s think about it. There was a short period of time between Johnson claiming Saleh was the right coach for the team and saying the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expect different results.
What was most surprising to me was that the general reaction to Saleh’s firing was that Woody deserves credit for admitting his mistake.
But did he really admit his mistake? What problems did Saleh present in 2024 that weren’t clear when Woody declared him qualified for the job late in the 2023 season? There was nothing. And Woody couldn’t tell what Saleh’s shortcomings were anyway.
Zach Wilson was no longer the answer to every problem. Woody needed a new scapegoat. Fans on Twitter and WFAN wanted Saleh out. It’s very easy. The news cycle has won. The Jets are back on track. Without Saleh’s terrible coaching, the Jets would have been on their way to the Super Bowl.
Not so fast. Jets lose to Buffalo. Aaron Rodgers threw a key interception and blamed it on a route run by Mike Williams. Obviously, these receivers are not a good fit with Rodgers. That’s the problem. So Williams will be our new scapegoat and we will be trading for our new savior, Davante Adams.
Of course, one of the things that makes scapegoats so appealing is that they often bear some of the blame for their team’s struggles. Wilson was a failure as a quarterback. Saleh lacked the tools to effectively lead this team, and Williams looked like a shell of the quality player he had with the Chargers.
But these failures have never made the Jets look inward. They never ask why the mistake of bringing them in was made in the first place. They never think about what flaws there are in the way they do business. We also never ask how the team failed to develop the skills of these people.
It’s just a reactive thing. This man is bad. Fans want him out. Surely this will solve the problem.
But there are no quick fixes in the NFL. It’s easy to fire people who don’t do their job. That won’t do anything.
Asking hard questions is much more difficult. Building the infrastructure for a successful soccer team is not easy.
I would say that what has happened this year is that Woody Johnson is going into a period of introspection. After nearly a quarter century of owning this team, I don’t think Woody is capable of self-reflection.
This is not the time to waste your time finding new scapegoats or quick fixes.
Until that changes, the Jets won’t have any meaningful success.
