Are the Jets a playoff team in 2022?
- Thread starter Innocenti
- Start date
If the team goes 7-10, it's the youth and inexperience of the roster.
This thread is why the Jets can't get out of their own way in half a century.
Jets fans have no patience for a real rebuild, no comprehension of growing pains with a young roster. They raise expectations too high before they are merited. So if this young, talented roster goes 7-10, some Jets fans expecting playoffs or more this year will begin buying up billboards around the Meadowlands and Florham Park. They'll fly planes with banners about how the coaching staff and GM have done nothing but lose. They'll call for ticket boycotts. They'll call into sports radio and rant worse than every Joe Beningo rant ever.
This will, of course, lead to one of two things. Either:
1. Woody Johnson will listen to the rantings of fans who are so sick of losing for a half century that they don't have the patience to let a true build play out, and fire Saleh and/or Douglas, or
2. Joe Douglas will, either through pressure or out of self-preservation, deviate from how he has been building through the draft, sign and trade for a bunch of older free agents to appease the sharks swarming around him, and leave the team old and with no draft capital or cap space.
After which, Jets fans will wonder why this always happens to the Jets.
Jets fans have no patience for a real rebuild, no comprehension of growing pains with a young roster. They raise expectations too high before they are merited. So if this young, talented roster goes 7-10, some Jets fans expecting playoffs or more this year will begin buying up billboards around the Meadowlands and Florham Park. They'll fly planes with banners about how the coaching staff and GM have done nothing but lose. They'll call for ticket boycotts. They'll call into sports radio and rant worse than every Joe Beningo rant ever.
This will, of course, lead to one of two things. Either:
1. Woody Johnson will listen to the rantings of fans who are so sick of losing for a half century that they don't have the patience to let a true build play out, and fire Saleh and/or Douglas, or
2. Joe Douglas will, either through pressure or out of self-preservation, deviate from how he has been building through the draft, sign and trade for a bunch of older free agents to appease the sharks swarming around him, and leave the team old and with no draft capital or cap space.
After which, Jets fans will wonder why this always happens to the Jets.
When you completely tear down the roster and build again from the foundation up, it is.
Who is left from the Maccagnan/Idzik era? Quinnen and CJ? Is that about it? The ENTIRE ROSTER was overhauled, and honestly it was done quicker than I thought it could be. Look at where the roster was when Douglas took the job. Cap hell, very little talent, lots of big contracts for aging players. He stripped it down to the studs, and rightfully so. Should he have built on that rotting foundation? After all, they were 7-9. He should have just spent more money on big contracts, gotten them to 8-8 or maybe even 9-7 and flirting with a wild card until the whole thing fell apart? Would that have shown him to be a good GM?
What if they only win 4-5?
Then a legitimate case can be made about whether the coaching is getting the most out of the roster, or if the right guys are getting taken.
SE, you and I have always seen eye to eye on this. Very valid points.
Sometimes fans forget that bad teams typically look for quick fixes to make everyone happy. We don’t have to go back very far in our history with this team to see how that works out. Signing Trumaine Johnson and LeVeon Bell are the most recent examples. It’s a bandaid for a bullet hole. Appeasement is a perfect word, because you’re simply appeasing the fans with a “star” player that ultimately doesn’t move the needle much or at all in the case of these two players.
The slow build to success is the way. You draft a young QB and let him grow. You surround him with good players mostly via the draft. You don’t kill your salary cap. And when you’re close, you make the big free agent splash for a player that moves you closer to the #1 seed.
If the Jets only win 4 or 5 games, yes, we have a problem. Nobody is advocating for that type of “progress”. The talent is better than that. But the youth on this roster shouldn’t be downplayed. A quick look at the roster shows the following players as starters this season: Z. Wilson (2), G. Wilson (R), E. Moore (2), M. Carter (2), B.Hall (R), A. Gardner (R), J. Johnson (R), and the still to be determined LB position that may start either Sherwood or Nasirldeen.
Young players at key positions.
You are very much right about the band-aid approach. I half wonder if that is what some fans want, the big signing who really does signify fool's gold. Bell, Johnson, great examples. To some degree, Mosley was, as well, but until LB is addressed, he is a better option than what the front office has done.
What I like most about this build is the potential for sustained success.
Do I want Zach Wilson to succeed? Of course. That said, my sense is that the front office would rather have had ALL the other pieces in place before bringing in a young potential franchise QB. The problem is, you can't pass up the chance when it is there. They thought Wilson had a ton of potential, and they had the draft slot to get him. So they likely brought him in a couple years before they would have wanted.
Now, the true sign for me about Wilson will be after his third year. That is when a team has to decide whether to pick up a first rounder's fifth year option. If you don't know for certain you're picking up that option, then you don't have a franchise QB (see Jones, Daniel, NYG). If Wilson has not proven himself to be the real deal after year three, that is when you draft your next potential franchise QB. At that point, the roster should be set to let the new QB step right in and either sink or swim. Darnold was neither the answer nor drafted into a good position. Sanchez was not the answer, but he was drafted into a good situation. Wilson might be the answer, but he might have been drafted a couple years ahead of schedule. Knowing how Joe operates, I would imagine his ideal would have been to draft a franchise QB maybe next year or so, but that would both presume that a true franchise QB was on the board and that the Jets had the draft capital to pounce.
Really, I'm the cause of no superbowl wins since 1969!? Wow! My expectations have nothing to do with Woody or JD or Saleh or their decisions. But I'd be willing to bet that JD and Saleh agree with me. Judging from Saleh's pressers, it seemed quite evident that he wasn't happy with 4-13 and expected more from the team last season. I know that Braxton Berrios does.
Maybe you need to re-read my original post. My original post was conditional to 3 things happening. If all of them happen then we'll be in the top 3rd of the league for just about every unit on the team. 14 of 32 teams will make the playoffs...almost half of the teams. It would be absurd to think that we wouldn't be.
I'm sorry if what I'm about to say does not find favor with you, but the rest of your post is silly and I will not comment on it.
If Jets fans and their frequent calls for this HC or that GM to be fired have had no impact on the franchise, why do the fans keep doing it? Isn't it just throwing away good money?
This all I'm going to say about the rest of your replies. Instead of attacking me for things that I didn't say or imply, we might have a better dialog if you actually respond to what I said.
I agree with your initial point that if all of that goes right for the Jets, they have a chance at a playoff spot.
I also stand by the fact that this is still a very young roster, and if the fan base doesn't account at all for growing pains and expects immediate success, they are likely to be let down.
Where do you stand on JD, though? On one hand, you seem to critique him pretty heavily, and you bash those on the board who have praised his moves. On the other, you have these high expectations based on the roster he has built. You spoke of how he built up the OL, and reconstructed the secondary.
I can't tell where you are on the guy.
I can't tell where you are on the guy.
8-9. No playoffs. But 8-9 on the season is a giant step forward. remember…… this is still a very young team.
8-9 is a 4 game improvement, which normally would be considered a step in the right direction. But the last decade has soured this fanbase to the extent that it won’t be good enough. For me, I’d be mildly disappointed but also encouraged that the playoffs aren’t far off.
I think more than anything, I need to see something that suggests that Zach is the answer. I cannot stomach another 3 years of trying to find and develop another young QB.
Fantastic post
Well I think Zach is going to step forward. One of the mistakes made with him was dumping the entire playbook on him. That was scaled back. Personally, I believe that Sauce, Wilson, and Hall are pro-ready.
So where does that leave things?
Jeremiah Johnson and LB.
Johnson is not a huge concern but lb is. We had a horrendous rushing d and it seems like we never addressed it.
I have ZERO patience. Most of the time, I hate the Jets almost as much as I hate brady. The Jets sucking, combined with brady and his all star team winning every year, has pretty much ruined football for me. I still watch every Jet game, but I don’t take them seriously at all
All that said, I am entirely happy with what is going on in Jetland right now. I only wish that we played in the nfc
All that said, I am entirely happy with what is going on in Jetland right now. I only wish that we played in the nfc
You did see the Kwon Alexander post correct?