The Jets had just completed their first touchdown drive of the season in San Francisco and it went off without a hitch. Seventy yards in twelve plays. Aaron Rodgers connected with Garrett Wilson behind enormous protection. Breece Hall also got involved and eventually muscled his way into the end zone on a three-yard run. It was surgical. Everything everyone had been waiting for.
ESPN cameras were fixated on Rodgers as he reached the sideline. It didn’t take long for Wilson to approach him. There was no audio, but a clear message was read from the quarterback’s lips.
We’re just getting started.
It’s been two months and ten days now. The Jets just fired their general manager Joe Douglas. They fired the head coach Robert Saleh and demoted offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett six weeks before. That promise, expectation, hype… completely disappeared. Another season passes before the final match is played.
A sinking feeling at overcoming a franchise that will surely miss the playoffs for a 14th straight year: where do they go from here?
The depth chart read like an All-Star team, with perceived young superstars marrying veterans who had been there and done that. Chair Woody Johnson called this the most talented roster he had ever had, and those feelings were not misplaced. The line stabilized after the addition of Tyron Smith And Morgan Moses. Rodgers, a four-time MVP, was healthy. They had Wilson, Hall. They added Braelon Allen. They knew they would eventually Davante Adams. They then combined that with a defense that has been one of the best in the NFL over the past two years.
And the Jets have looked every bit as good as advertised all summer. Especially in joint exercises with the Commanders, Panthers and Giants. This season would be special. That’s what it looked like early on. After losing to the San Francisco 49ers, they defeated the Tennessee Titans and New England Patriots. Rodgers said the team’s biggest problem would be “dealing with success.”
Since then, they are 1-7.
There were past mistakes that certainly proved debilitating this season. Saleh fought hard to keep him Mike LaFleur as his offensive coordinator beyond 2022, noting the success his unit had with anyone Zach Wilson under center, but ownership wanted change. He emphasized how difficult it would be to find a replacement: playoff mandate, no quarterback. That turned out to be completely true. Ultimately, Hackett agreed to take the job. He promised he would take Rodgers with him.
But it didn’t take long for the Jets to realize Hackett’s shortcomings, which were exposed after Rodgers’ season-ending injury in 2023. They tried to hire an offensive mind to work above Hackett this offseason, focusing on Arthur Smith. Hackett would remain the offensive coordinator, but Smith would run things. They told him they felt Hackett had “lost his fastball.” Smith instead took on the job of Steelers coordinator. The Jets decided to run it back with Hackett, believing Rodgers could overcome anything.
He couldn’t. The Jets’ offense sputtered even when they had success. After losses to the Denver Broncos and Minnesota Vikings, both of which ended with the offense failing to score game-winning drives, the team fired Saleh and demoted Hackett. They promoted the defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. The problem: They never replaced Ulbrich as coordinator.
The result: the offense didn’t improve, the defense deteriorated, and the Jets kept losing. Now you have a team resource described to SNY as “checked out.” Players aren’t angry or annoyed about their 3-8 record. They are, as one described, “just ready for it to be over.”
There are still seven weeks left in this season. It will give the Jets an edge in another rebuild. They are looking for a new general manager. They will be looking for a new head coach. Sources told SNY that the team also prefers to move on from Rodgers. However, those are the easy decisions. Filling these voids poses a much greater challenge.
A search agency was used to find it John Idzik. They fired him. Charley Casserly And Ron Wolf used for shooting Mike Maccagnan (GM) and Todd Bowles (HC). They fired Bowles before Maccagnan and then used Maccagnan (and a call from Peyton Manning) to rent Adam Gas. They then fired Maccagnan and used Gase to help find Douglas. They then fired Gase and hired Douglas Saleh.
The Jets should start by hiring a director of football operations. Let him find the general manager. Let that general manager find the coach and the quarterback, with input from the director of football operations. The Jets desperately need football minds in their building – to let those football minds make decisions.
If they do, they might be able to turn this around, something they haven’t been able to do for over a decade.
