I figured this would be an easy week to write something about the MLB playoffs, college football and some thoughts about the NFL and the start of the NHL season. Which I will get to.
One of the topics I was going to write about regarding the NFL was the New York Jets and the team’s abysmal performance against former Jets quarterback Sam Darnold. The 23-17 dreary loss in London made it seem like the Jets were in a fog. Minnesota ran its record to 5-0, looking every bit like a playoff team in the NFC—even if the NFC North has roadblocks to an undefeated season or even the divisional title, as strong teams are in Detroit and Green Bay and improved Chicago also lies in wait.
I got the post-game could have beens, should have beens from Head Coach Robert Saleh and quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The team would lick its wounds on the flight back from England and start to prepare for divisional foe Buffalo on Monday night.
Except my phone began to light up like a Christmas tree on Monday morning. I recognize it is October, not December.
Team owner Robert Wood Johnson IV, a.k.a. Woody, had enough of the inexcusable start. Losses to San Francisco, Denver and now Minnesota had the team heading in the wrong direction. Again.
So Johnson did something atypical for him. He fired a head coach in season. His way of doing things had been to fire them at the end of the season.
Gone was Robert Saleh, who said plenty of nice if not vacuous things. His 20-36 record placed him 181st of 201 head coaches who have coached into their fourth season.
Given that Johnson had been told by Saleh and GM Joe Douglas that this was a team which was to legitimately compete for the Super Bowl, he saw this was heading towards another disastrous season—this time with Rodgers not on the shelf as he had been after five plays in 2023. So he reacted and made Defensive Coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, a former NFL player of some note and leader of a staunch NYJ defense acting Head Coach, in an effort to immediately breathe some life into the team with his energetic style of coaching.
A day later, Ulbrich demoted Offensive Coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, a close friend and confidant of Rodgers, making Quarterbacks Coach Todd Downing, a former OC most recently in Tennessee, as the man in charge of the offensive game plan and making the play calls during the games. Rodgers has purportedly signed o to the changes while steadfastly denying he had anything to do with Saleh’s ouster.
Whether this awakens the offense remains to be seen. Rodgers seemed to be fighting for his survival behind an offensive line which either allowed too much pressure on him or caused the future Hall of Fame QB to throw quickly, at times before the receivers were ready or had completed their routes. And it was a line which committed way too many penalties, forcing the offense to start drives with longer yardage to the first down marker. It wasn’t a pretty picture.
What has been the common denominator here is Johnson, the heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and a former ambassador to Great Britain. Since becoming co-owner in 2000, this now marks the seventh had coach fired by the owner. This includes chasing away Bill Belichick and forcing Bill Parcells to move on.
In that time, the Jets have drafted five quarterbacks in the first round and acquired two aging Green Bay Hall of Fame QB’s who seemingly had lost their stuff. With a points differential over a negative 1000, it is hardly surprising that the Jets have a cumulative record well below .500.
The team can’t get it right because the owner and his General Managers repeatedly bring in the wrong people because they, themselves, are a bad fit for what his team desperately needs—a winning culture. The swagger and talent of the Joe Namath Super Bowl III winning team is not here. Hasn’t been for a long time.
Since 1999 through last season, the Jets have won a grand total of six playoff games. The last time the team won the AFC East was 2002. The team’s last trip to the AFC Championship was on January 23, 2011, when, after victories over Indianapolis and New England, the Jets lost in the title game to Pittsburgh. That game also marked the last time the made the playoffs.
I saw an article by Mike Vaccaro in the New York Post calling Johnson the worst owner in New York. That moniker had rightfully belonged to James Dolan, the owner of the Rangers and Knicks. But now there are good vibes at MSG, along with the Yankees and Mets in their respective League Championship Series; the Giants have recently been playing much better; the Islanders and Devils have promising futures; only the Brooklyn Nets seem to rival the Jets for the worst franchise in New York right now.
I knew three things coming into this season and now well into the games. All of which could impact the team. Rodgers, coming off of his Achilles tendon surgery, was an aging 40 year old. How much rust would there be and how agile could he be? The early returns haven’t been encouraging.
Second—what kind of relationship did Rodgers have with Saleh? When I saw Saleh go to hug his QB on the sidelines during the New England victory, I realized the chemistry wasn’t there.
And third—what was happening with All Pro defensive lineman Haason Reddick? The demand echoed by Johnson to the holdout, whose agent, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), disengaged with their client, with rumors that Reddick was being counseled by someone else, didn’t help. The fact that the Jets wouldn’t discuss a new contract until Reddick reported to Florham Park, where the Jets training facility is, showed me an unwillingness to really compete.
Add it all up. The history. The quarterbacks. The general managers. The ownership. It is hard to envision a meaningful change which might propel this team into the playoffs. The AFC East is not that strong.
Could the Jets win it with a 9-8 record, the figure I predicted before the season began? Yes. And that would only mean a worse draft choice for a team which will have to start over sooner than later.
I look longingly at Washington, Chicago and Houston as teams which made the right call on young and able quarterbacks. Then I think of who New York has drafted and I wonder if there will ever be the right move in a franchise so bereft of talent—on the field and from the top down.
I wanted to write about the Yankees winning a tough series from a gritty Kansas City team—without Aaron Judge hitting a ton and actually led by the apparent playoff monster, Giancarlo Stanton. The Bombers draw a tough team in Cleveland, winners over Detroit in a five game ALDS series.
The there are the Mets. First they take apart the NL Central champion Brewers. Then they easily dismantle Philadelphia, the NL East champs. Now the Mets can go for the trifecta and beat the NL West champion Dodgers for a trip to the World Series.
The New York Rangers look even tougher this season. I wonder how much the fallout from top goaltender Igor Shesterkin’s rejection of a record 8 year, $88 million contract offer will impact his play?
And finally, I was stunned, as the college football world was, with Vanderbilt’s monumental upset of then-# 1 Alabama last Saturday night in Nashville. Vandy is now 1-61 against Top 5 teams. Top 5 and Top 10 teams have had their hands full this year with no shortage of upsets and tight battles—see Ohio State and Oregon’s battle Saturday night in Eugene as proof. Which will continue until the College Football Playoffs begin. Thankfully there are 12 teams instead of 4; heaven knows who will still be standing strong when the selections are made.
However, with what has happened with the New York Jets, how could I have devoted time to other subjects? It’s rough being a Jets fan…once more.
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