The New York Jets have dropped back to back games to the Broncos and Vikings and have been outscored 33-26 in the process. Allowing 33 total points in a span of two game while holding the Broncos and Vikings to a combined 439 yards of offense should result in at least one win if not both. And if you really want to go in further – one of Minnesota’s touchdowns was on a pick 6 – meaning the defense did not allow those 7 points. The Jets have been very underwhelming to start the year and change was needed. There was a lot of concern heading into the season with this coaching staff and why they were kept after Robert Saleh had a cumulative record of 18-33 through his first 3 years. I understood the reasoning to keep Saleh as no head coach was ever going to succeed – or at least have long term success with the quarterbacks he dealt with through his first 3 years. But why I think the Jets are in a scary situation at the moment is – this was a quick firing. It’s usually a lot further into a season before a head coach is fired, and I understand the decision to part ways with Saleh – but one of my concerns with Saleh now gone is what is the offense going to do? Robert Saleh was of course a defensive coordinator for the 49ers prior to accepting the Jets job and his defenses in New York were always great – and they have been great to start the 2024 season.
I understand players were frustrated with leadership and I get it and linebacker Quincy Williams even said after the Vikings loss that leadership needs to take accountability which was a very telling quote – especially after a tough loss. But even with Robert Saleh now out the door – there’s a whole lot of questions about where this team is mentally and what they can do moving forward. I understand players getting frustrated with Saleh as there were countless press conferences where he would say “we gotta look at the tape” and “we gotta correct these things” without ever correcting them. And I said after the Broncos game in week 4 that I was out on Robert Saleh entirely as the teams head coach because there was never a plan to get better. It was a lot of coach speak and the Jets had 13 penalties for 90 yards against Denver in week 4 – and after the game Saleh said it was “unacceptable and “we’ve gotta figure it out”.
I don’t think the decision to fire Saleh was the wrong decision as I’ve said several times that I would prefer to cut ties sooner rather than later if you know it’s not going to work out. But firing him doesn’t fix a lot of the other problems. Firing him doesn’t fix Nathaniel Hackett being the teams offensive coordinator and how atrocious his play calls – and results for that matter are at times. Denver’s defense is wildly underrated and I know some Broncos fans have been asking to talk about the work Vance Joseph is doing and to bring up how good their defense is this year – and it’s one of the best in football. Truly. But one sequence I can’t get over from the Jets Broncos game was when the Jets had 1st and goal on Denver’s one yard line after a defensive pass interference from Riley Moss to put the ball on the one.
The Jets ran the ball twice with Breece Hall, then threw an incomplete pass in which their 40 year old quarterback took a completely unnecessary shot and when they were lining up to go for it on 4th down from the one yard line – guard John Simpson committed a false start penalty and the Jets settled for 3. I know Robert Saleh is the scape goat right now – but that doesn’t have anything to do with Robert Saleh. Nathaniel Hackett couldn’t execute a play call to get the ball in from the one yard line and the Jets ended up losing by one point. I would also argue in that situation that I would have sent Braelan Allen out there to run the ball 4 times between the tackles and if Denver stops him all 4 times – credit to them and they get the ball at their own one yard line. Braelan Allen is 20 pounds heavier than Breece Hall and Nathaniel Hackett opted to hand the ball to Breece twice rather than give Braelan a chance on the one. And my whole point here – is – this type of incompetence isn’t going to stop because Robert Saleh’s gone.
Now when players are questioning leadership and not fully buying in and you can see the coach’s body language on the sideline look like he doesn’t want to be there then it is time to make a decision. But we go back to a point where the Jets offense is every bit as much of a problem as Robert Saleh was. And I would also argue that if you were firing Robert Saleh – why not go ahead and fire Nathaniel Hackett too. This team has one game in 5 – where they’ve had 270 or more yards of offense – which as you can imagine – is bad. They’re 27th in total yards as an offense and 25th in points. They also have zero ground game and they are dead last in rushing yards as a team and 30th in yards per carry.
They’re also 27th in net yards per passing attempt and they can’t push the ball down the field the way they’d like to either. The Jets offense is top 3 in the rate of short fades, short outs, in, and slant and go routes while they are in the bottom 3 of deep and medium crossers, deep outs, comebacks, and digs and you can see this every game. It’s downright frustrating to watch. This was per Seth Walder of ESPN by the way. So when you essentially limit what your offense can do and pidgeon hole your offense into a lot of timing routes while targeting the toughest routes to compete – like the short and deep fade – these are the results you’re going to get.
And one of the most common route combinations you see across the NFL is the deep post and medium crosser – or as I call it a dover route – or deep over. The Lions scored a 70 yard touchdown on this concept against the Seahawks with Jameson Williams and this is just one simple concept I’d like to see the Jets run more of. I think Garrett Wilson has been disappointing this year because they’re not setting him up for success the way other receivers around the league are. He has a catch percentage of just 58.9% in 2024 and one of the biggest reasons I was excited for him was because of having Aaron Rodgers. But the play calling and the route choices that are being made by the coaching staff have been disappointing. Garrett’s catch percentage of 58.9% is only 2% higher than what it was over the course of his first two years – and we all know who quarterbacked for the Jets over the last two years.
There is a 18 minute breakdown on why the Jets future scares me on Youtube discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly with their future. I hope you enjoy!
