Hey, it’s a brand new year and time to celebrate the New York Jets making it to the playoffs for the first time since 2010! What do you mean, they failed again to make the postseason? Yes, Green and White fans, the Jets will miss the playoffs yet again and while the 2022-23 season started with so much promise now will end up the same way the last 12 seasons have ended – as a sad dumpster fire.
The Blame Game.
You can place blame for the Jets’ season collapse on a myriad of things. Before the bye week, the Jets were 6-3 and the talk of every NFL show as a team finally on track to make a playoff run after being out of the postseason for so long. Well, the bye week certainly didn’t do the Jets any good because since that week off they’ve gone 0-5 and eliminated themselves with yesterday’s 23-6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks from playoff contention – again.
You can blame the continual QB drama that’s unfolded this season with the on-again, off-again starting role changing hands each week. At any given point this season, the Jets have used no les than four quarterbacks and have benched Zach Wilson not once but twice in favor of Mike White. White has the support of the locker room and probably the coaching staff but yesterday he looked like he was out of his depth with a dismal 23 for 46 passing game for 240 yards with two critical interceptions. White’s O-line leaked like a sieve too by giving up four sacks and ten QB hits – all on a guy who’s just recovering from badly bruised ribs in the Buffalo game a few weeks ago.
The Jets’ defense showed us what they have with CB Sauce Gardner defending four passes and keeping Seahawks’ WR’s DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett to four completions combined. DL Quinnen Williams had four QB hits and the Jets defense sacked Seahawks’ QB Geno Smith (and former Jets QB) no less than four times yesterday. Guess what? All of those statistics didn’t matter as the Seahawks came out with playoff hopes of their own and finished off the Jets quickly. Apparently the Seahawks want a chance to be in the postseason.
You can come up with every part of the blame game as much as you want but the reality is the New York Jets failed again this season. Everyone from the Jets’ front office, coaching staff and locker room deserve equal blame for this abysmal collapse and there shouldn’t be a pity party thrown because the Jets got what they deserve.
What’s next for the Jets?
Adding insult to injury, the regular season still has one more week to play and the Jets have to face the Miami Dolphins once again. All the Jets can do at this point is try and finish off the season on a winning note and pull off one more “W” against the Dolphins and finish up the season with twice as many wins as last year. A win will be small consolation for the Green and White as they had into a postseason of discontent and soul-searching. This franchise needs to take a hard look at itself from the top on down and get things right for next year or risk permanent irrelevancy in the NFL.
