What have the Jets been doing wrong all this time? Is it the players, coaches, front office? Who knows. The Jets haven’t made the NFL playoffs since 2010, 11 years ago. This is the longest active playoff drought in the NFL. In those 11 years, they have been through four head coaches and six quarterbacks. Typically, change is good, but in this case it is not.
Normally a successful franchise has the same coach and quarterback for numerous years. Doing so, shows how successful they have been because they aren’t making any changes with in most times, the most important parts of the team, the coach and quarterback.
Don’t get me wrong, teams have had bad years before. But, they get high draft picks and make the best out of it and grow as a franchise. The Jets on the other hand are always at the bottom and are never expected to do better than the usual. The Jets their troubles may be over when they brought in Robert Salah, the former San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator as their head coach. Salah is a smart and unique coach who knows how to lead a team to victory. Although, so far in his first year, it doesn’t look like it. The question occurs, is it Salah’s fault, or is it just the Jets being the Jets per usual.
It is not easy to rebuild a team. That is why Jets fans still have hope for their head coach and young team. Going back to drafting, it seems as if the Jets always pick the wrong guy. If one looks at the past 10 Jets drafts, they may know about 10 guys at most that have been relevant to the team. Most either were busts or got traded away for future draft picks that just do the same thing. The Jets are like a cycle of bad. They’ll have a bad year then do the same thing thinking something will change but it won’t.
Jets fans recently had hope that they found their guy, their quarterback for the future. His name is Mike White. Mike White had a legendary Hall of Fame game against the 5-2 Cincinnati Bengals. White threw for over 400 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Jets and their fans were not expecting this at all, nobody was. Mike White was immediately put in the Hall of Fame after one start.
Now back to what this story is about, the Jets being cursed. The next game after White’s spectacular game, what happens? White gets hurt. Now the 3rd string is in. Although he didn’t do bad, he wasn’t Mike White good. Thankfully, next game White came back but didn’t show the same performance. He threw for 251 yards, 0 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. This is the usual Jets. This may be surprising for any other team but for the Jets, it’s expected.
With White’s horrendous performance, Joe Flacco is in line to start the next game. This is what the Jets do. They go from one guy to the next hoping for better things when in reality, it will never come. The past three years the Jets had Sam Darnold as their quarterback. Yes, he struggled very much because his team wasn’t very talented and the coaching wasn’t all there. But the Jets gave up on him right as his rookie contract was up. They traded him to the Carolina Panthers for 3 future draft picks that they will probably pick the wrong guy again. Like I said before, the Jets are a never ending cycle of bad.
The Jets as a franchise are only cursing themselves. The decisions they make always result in bad. A suggestion is to keep a coach and quarterback for more than 3 years. This allows both parties to grow alongside each other. It creates a bond between the two in which results in better football play. If the head coach and quarterback know everything about each other, that leads to knowing what plays he would want to do in certain situations. Not only keep the quarterback, but the players around him. The Jets tend to give up on players before their prime. How many Jets potential Hall of Famers have there been in the past 10 years? Maybe 2 or 3 at most. You would have to go back about 20 years to find the last great Jets team with a bunch of Hall of Famers.
All in all, one may not know the true reason for the cursing of the Jets. Some may have their opinions on what it may be whether it’s the front office, coaches, players, or even the fans. But at the end of the day, the curse is real and is in play. It doesn’t seem as if the Jets will be booming anytime soon. They still have a ways to go, just like every other year. The Jets are a poverty franchise and will continue to be so unless they stop making changes and trust their guys. To all Jets fans, I am so sorry. I pray your team steps it up and becomes wiser and smarter as an NFL team.