Is it Time to Stop Being a Jets Fan?
To be a true fan of a team isn’t something you can just turn on and off—it’s something that becomes a part of you over time. Maybe you pick a team when you’re a child for some arbitrary reason or because that team is good when you’re young, but then you stick with them over the years. You stay a fan when their best players are past their prime. You stick with them when the good times are gone and during a rebuild. You rejoice when they’re good again and then the process repeats.
You don’t always pick what team you’re a fan of though, sometimes you inherit it. I never picked the Jets because they were good. Lots of people around my age who picked their own teams ended up 49ers or Cowboys fans since they were premier franchises when we were kids, but I became a Jets fan because of my father and he inherited the team because his grandfather was a fan.
Young Jeffrey, suited up for action. The Jets wouldn’t have had a losing record if he played on the team.
When you inherit a team, it just becomes a part of who you are—your parents dress up baby you in little team clothes and you’re on your way. But even when I was a little kid, the Jets stunk. I remember in elementary school being made fun of for having a New York Jets raincoat. I must have been about seven or eight because those years the Jets went 3-13 and 1-15. Kids can be cruel, but I’d argue that nothing is as cruel as being a diehard Jets fan over the past few decades.
And over the past dozen years, it’s been even worse. Prior to the 2011 season, the Jets had their moments. They were never great, but there were glimmers of hope. The team would compete for a Wild Card playoff berth and fans would lament the fact that the Jets had to play in the same division as the almighty Patriots, a team whose very dynasty began when Bill Bellichick resigned as Jets head coach after one day and chose New England instead.
Currently though, there are no glimmers of hope. The Jets have had an 11-year playoff drought. The second longest playoff drought in the NFL is the Denver Broncos, who haven’t made the postseason for six seasons, but that last time they did make it to the playoffs the Broncos won the Super Bowl, so it’s not like their fans have been miserable for too long. As a Jets fan born after 1969, I’ve never seen my team win the Super Bowl. I’ve never even seen my team make it to the Super Bowl. I’d take 20 years of being awful in a row if it came after that glorious Super Bowl championship.
Me in 2011. I had no idea then just how bad the Jets franchise could get.
But I’m not so sure the Jets will ever get there. The NFL salary cap and draft format are designed to make it so that teams can rebuild and become competitive over time. That’s why over the past five seasons, 27 of the league’s 32 teams have made the playoffs at least once. The Jets organization seems to have permanently skipped the “being competitive” part of a team’s cycle though and are stuck in a mode of being a bad rebuilding team year after year.
Robert Saleh is “Taking Receipts”
Much has been made of Jets Head Coach Robert Saleh’s comments on Monday. Saleh responded to critics by saying, “We’re all taking receipts on all the people who continually mock and say that we’re not going to do anything. I’m taking receipts and I’m going to be more than happy to share then with all of you when all is said and done.”
Now, Saleh seems like a nice guy, and I hope he’s right, but he needs to get out of here with this nonsense. Jets critics are 1,000% justified in being critical of Saleh and the team. Jets fans are tired of a rebuild—they don’t even demand that the team wins, they just want the team to finally be competitive. Jets fans had been promised all offseason that they were going to be better than the horrible product Saleh and the rest of the organization put on the field against the Ravens last Sunday.
But Saleh can’t relate to what Jets fans are feeling because he’s used to being a winner and a part of top organizations. While Jets fans have endured years of awful play, Saleh was winning the Super Bowl in 2014 as a Seahawks coach and then making the Super Bowl again in 2020 as defensive coordinator of the 49ers. Saleh just isn’t used to being a part of such a dumpster fire of a franchise. It’s good and fun to jog up and down the stairs before a game when you’re winning, but when you’re getting crushed week in and week out maybe that time would be better spent coming up with a more efficient gameplan.
Over the 18 games Saleh has been head coach of the Jets, the team has gone 4-14. His wins all could easily have gone the other way too—the largest victory under Saleh’s command was a 7-point win over the Texans. No one was expecting the Jets to win a ton of games last year, but even against teams that failed to make the playoffs Saleh’s Jets went 2-7.
It’s still only been 18 games for Saleh, so you could argue that he deserves more time, but he’s not going to get it. His seat is going to get hot very fast if the Jets don’t achieve better results on Sundays soon.
Joe Douglas Might Not Be So Great After All
After having a pair of horrific general managers, Mike Maccagnan and John Idzik, in recent memory, Joe Douglas seemed great almost by default. Douglas, after all, has been a part of three different Super Bowl championships, two when he was in the personnel department of the Baltimore Ravens and one from his time as vice president of player personnel for the Philadelphia Eagles. “How can he not be great?” Jets fans had asked. Basically, not presenting yourself as a complete embarrassment and totally incompetent at your job is all it takes to look good when you’re associated with the Jets.
Working with a team mostly built by Maccagnan in 2019, the Jets went 7-9. Over Douglas’ next two seasons as GM though, when he had at least some time to improve the team, the Jets have gone a combined 6-27. I have no doubt that a team of monkeys randomly smashing computer keys to select players and make trades over that time span could’ve yielded a similar .182 win percentage.
When the NFL released its Top 100 Players list for this year, which is voted on by the players, the Jets had exactly zero players on the list. If it was Douglas’ first year, it’s not really his fault for not having any talent on the roster, but now, it’s on him. Another sub five or six win season will likely mean the end of Douglas’ time with the Jets, and that’s deservedly so. Maybe he just isn’t ready to be a general manager.
Will Zach Wilson be a Dud Too?
As with Saleh and Douglas, there are serious doubts about Zach Wilson. Wilson had one fantastic year at BYU playing against inferior competition when he threw for 33 touchdowns, just 3 interceptions, and completed 73.5% of his passes, but that’s all he’s shown as far as top level play goes. Even the year prior in college (still not playing great college-level competition), he had more mediocre stats, tossing 11 TDs with 9 interceptions and a 62.4% completion rate.
That was all good enough though for Douglas to draft Wilson with the second overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Since he was drafted so high and is seen by many as having so much potential (which sounds a lot like Sam Darnold), Wilson gets a lot of slack for just how bad he really played during his rookie season.
Out of the 31 quarterbacks last season who threw enough passes to qualify for the NFL’s completion percentage stat, Wilson came in dead last, completing just 55.6% of his passes. For comparison, Teddy Bridgewater, Davis Mills, and Mac Jones all completed over 66% of their pass attempts. Wilson also ranked 31st out of 31 for quarterback rating, 30th out of 31 QBs in yards per pass attempt, and 30th out of 31 in total yards per game amongst quarterbacks who started at least ten games.
It’s still too early to write off Wilson after a bad rookie campaign, but his supporting cast will now be better than Darnold’s ever was and he needs to show he can compete at the professional level. Missing the first few games of this season due to an injury likely won’t help matters for Wilson as he could definitely be returning to a winless team desperate for its first victory.
If the Jets bomb this season and end up with a top draft pick, will they start completely over at the quarterback position next year? In a time where you seem to need a top quarterback to compete, Jets fans are tired of watching a revolving door of mediocre/bad QBs play for their favorite team.
Woody, Woody, Woody
At the end of the day, football is a business and you’re only as good as the people at the top. The man at the top of the Jets organization since 2000 has been Woody Johnson. Johnson (and his brother, Christopher) serves as the team’s owner, chairman, and CEO, and he’s the true common denominator over what’s been several awful different regimes. All of the Jets coaching and general manager hirings go back to Johnson, who has set the tone for what’s become an organization of the “same old Jets”—an organization with a losing culture.
Johnson, the heir to a billionaire fortune, is a businessman more than he is a sports fan. He doesn’t have the same passion for his team the way some owners do. Johnson contrasts starkly to someone like New York Mets owner, Steve Cohen, a lifelong, diehard fan of the team he now owns. Woody Johnson could have bought any random team and he’d have become a “fan” of them.
Johnson is also seemingly more interested in the world of politics than he is football (and interested in seeing people who will help him keep/increase his wealth gain power). Over the past few years, Johnson has given millions of dollars to Trump’s campaigns and a pro-Trump super PAC.
In 2016, Johnson was one of six finance vice-chairmen in the Republican National Committee responsible for raising a billion dollars for Trump’s campaign. When Trump won that election, Johnson, despite having zero diplomatic experience, was appointed by Trump as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. I’m not totally against athletes or other sports-related figures from voicing their political concerns or thoughts, but you can’t get much more political than Woody Johnson.
Way back in 2011, Johnson was asked if he was looking at running for office himself. “I’m open to looking at it, but I haven’t set my sights on any specific avenue yet,” he said. Maybe it’s time for him to sell the Jets and move on to the world of politics. He can’t be too much worse at that than he currently is at being an NFL owner, can he?
So, Where Do Jets Fans Go from Here?
At the end of the day, Saleh, Douglas, Wilson, and Johnson are only the current group of team figureheads letting down fans of the New York Jets. This organization has always been one letdown after another. It’s almost unfathomable that in the 60 year history of the Jets, the team has won its division just four times, with two of those times coming in the 1960s.
2006: I might be giving a thumbs up, but this picture was already taken four years after the Jets most recent time winning the AFC East.
At this point, it's almost a certainty that this will be the 12th straight year the Jets will miss the playoffs. They haven’t even won a September game since 2018, meaning they’ve been totally out of the mix right away the past few seasons. I don’t think I’m alone amongst Jets fans who need to see improvement to stay even remotely invested in this team.
There’s still time for the current group of Jets brass to right the ship, but circumstances seem pretty dire. The start of the Jets 2022 Season schedule-wise is extremely brutal. The Jets need a decent showing this weekend against the Cleveland Browns or things could go downhill for the year quickly.
I want the team to turn it around. I want the Jets to be competitive again. I’m tired of being the “same old Jets,” the laughing stock of the NFL. But this is it. The rebuild needs to be entering a new phase now because I can’t take more years of searching for a decent head coach, GM, and quarterback to lead the team. This is it, New York Jets. Now go out there Sunday and make me proud.