The New York Jets suffered their fifth loss in six games on Thursday night with a 19-3 loss against Jacksonville. The loss has assuredly put their playoff chances on life support. A large part of the blame can be placed on the offense, who – for the first six weeks of the season – looked to be everything Jets fans have been yearning for since years past. In the last six weeks, though, the offense has looked lost and winnable games have become heartbreaking losses. The New York Jets offense has been bad over the last six weeks – really bad. I’ll point to four reasons why it’s bad.
Quarterback Instability
The first reason why the New York Jets offense is bad is instability at the quarterback position. The Jets have had a very recent checkered history at quarterback. As mentioned in my previous article, Zach Wilson was selected second overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. His statistics over his first two seasons are now comparable with JaMarcus Russell. This is an indication that Wilson is in a nosedive towards Draft Bust territory. Last night’s game might have put the final nail in the coffin for Wilson’s time in Gotham. The Jets have gone through four quarterbacks this season due to durability issues or bad game play. At least Joe Flacco and Mike White gave the Jets the better chances of winning. Wilson has been historically terrible, which is unfortunate. Their quarterback play depends on the run game, which brings me to my next reason.
Abandoning the Run Game
The second reason why the New York Jets’ offense is bad is throwing out the running game. Back in Week 7, the Jets lost rookie running back Breece Hall to a season-ending ACL tear. He had 463 yards rushing through six games and change. Hall is STILL the Jets’ leading rusher through Week 16. It has been a running back by committee with Michael Carter, Ty Johnson, James Robinson, and Zonovan Knight. Even with the running back by committee, they still ran the ball effectively. Over the last two games against teams who bleed rushing yards, the Jets ran for 50 against Detroit and 66 against Jacksonville. Unacceptably bad. Speaking of the run game, let’s go to the next reason why the Jets have been bad offensively.
Inconsistent Offensive Line Play
The third reason why the New York Jets’ offense is bad is sub-par offensive line play. Granted, this is the one group that has suffered the most injuries for most of the season. It all started with Mekhi Becton’s season-ending knee injury two weeks into training camp. Tackle George Fant and guard Nate Herbig have missed time with injuries. Rookie tackle Max Mitchell was declared medically ineligible after Week 13 when it was discovered he had blood clots. The biggest loss came in Week 7 when Alijah Vera-Tucker was lost for the season with a torn right tricep. Injuries aside, the offensive line has looked at times brilliant and at times looked terrible. In particular, the last three weeks has been the worst this unit has played all season. But we can’t blame this all on the players, which brings me to my final reason.
Bad Coaching
The final reason why the New York Jets’ offense is bad is bad coaching. Jets fans can’t place complete blame on the players for the last three weeks on their schedule. A part of the blame needs to go on the coaches, especially offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur. After the disaster in New England, head coach Robert Saleh benched Wilson in favor of White. Week 12 saw a blowout against Chicago, but the Jets’ offense sputtered in the first half in Minnesota – which led me to this observation on social media:
So, is Mike LaFleur setting up his QBs to fail or are the Jets QBs just this inconsistent?
— Ryan McCarthy (@WhoIsRyanMcC) December 4, 2022
It’s both. #TakeFlight #JetsTwitter
The following week in rainy Buffalo, the offense struggled again, but a large part was the offensive line’s inability to protect White. This led to White having his ribs broken in that game. Now it was back to Wilson and the offense has struggled mightily. LaFleur can’t seem to figure out how to get this offense to click at every level. He doesn’t setup his quarterbacks to succeed partly because he can’t get the running game going. This is not just on him, but offensive line coach John Benton and quarterbacks coach Rob Calabrese as well.
It was nice that the New York Jets gave the fans a semblance of hope in 2022. But with all these factors contributing to the offense shooting bullets, the Jets will likely miss another postseason.
