EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The mediocrity plaguing the New York Jets offense would be difficult to fathom if it weren’t so … familiar.
The faces change, but the result doesn’t. This is one of the NFL’s worst offenses now, as it has been for most of the last decade. So at the end of Monday night, when the Jets lost 27-6 to the Chargers despite stumping Justin Herbert and holding Los Angeles to less than 200 yards of offense, all anyone could muster was a shoulder shrug, a shake of the head.
“I really don’t have an answer for you. I wish I did,” tight end Tyler Conklin said. “If I had an answer, we wouldn’t be struggling like we are.”
Before the Jets’ final offensive drive, a meaningless one at the end of a blowout, Zach Wilson could muster only 191 passing yards against the NFL’s worst pass defense. The Jets converted 3 of 17 third downs and turned the ball over three times. Wilson was sacked eight times. Wide receivers dropped three passes. Wilson fumbled three times and lost two. Garrett Wilson lost a fumble. The Jets were penalized eight times, seven of them on offense.
The Jets had 13 offensive possessions. Those ended with seven punts, three fumbles, two field goals and a turnover on downs at the end of the game. They went three-and-out five times. It was a masterclass in inadequacy.
And it’s nothing new. The Jets (4-4) are last in the NFL in red-zone and third-down conversions. They’ve scored eight offensive touchdowns in eight weeks, and three in the last four. They’re second-to-last in scoring and in EPA (expected points added). The Jets have found shelter in a dumpster filled with the NFL’s worst offenses, alongside rubble and rats. They’ve finished in the top 20 in scoring once in the last 11 years (2015) and have been bottom five in eight of those seasons.
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The only difference now — and last year — is that the Jets also have one of the best defenses in the NFL, wasting away due to an impotent offense and incompetent quarterback play. There are 36 qualifying quarterbacks in EPA per dropback, per TruMedia — and Wilson ranks 36th. His final stats — 34 of 49 for 263 yards, no interceptions — don’t quite capture how poorly he played on Monday. Wilson missed easy throws short and open throws deep. He was pressured a lot, but also held on to the ball too long. Wilson’s average time to throw when pressured: 3.76 seconds. He has eight fumbles in the last five games. He’s thrown only five touchdown passes in eight games, too.
Jets coach Robert Saleh, though, doesn’t view Wilson’s performance on Monday night as a “step back” in his development.
“I don’t know if you can stay step back,” Saleh said. “It’s all-encompassing. Obviously, he’s going to have some things he wishes he could have done better.”
Coach Saleh on the team being unable to recover following a slow start. pic.twitter.com/clvErxp78y
— New York Jets (@nyjets) November 7, 2023
The Jets were thrown for a loop when Aaron Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles in Week 1, and that’s important context. But it’s not an excuse for this level of ineptitude — especially when the defense plays as well as it did against the Chargers. The Jets defense ranks fifth in EPA, eighth in points allowed and third in passing yards allowed per game. Herbert threw for a career-low 136 yards against them. At one point, the Chargers punted on six of seven possessions. The Jets offense didn’t reward their effort.
The Jets are the only team in the Super Bowl era to have their defense get five sacks, hold the opponent to less than 200 total yards, not allow any plays of 25-plus yards — and lose the game by 20-plus points.
The Jets allowed an 87-yard punt return touchdown in the first quarter, which hurt, but it was the offense that killed all hope.
“I hate coming off the field, looking our defense in the eyes knowing we have to send them back out there after three-and-out,” wide receiver Garrett Wilson said. “Those boys are my dogs. They come out and ball and put us in a great position, it’s time for us to start returning the favor. It’s time.”
Running back Breece Hall agreed with the assertion that the Jets’ offense is holding them back. “It sucks, bro. It’s true,” he said. “I mean, that’s all you can say. It’s true. We just gotta be better. …
“We just all gotta grow up and do our job.”
When Rodgers went down four plays into the season, the Jets turned to two people to steer the ship on offense: Zach Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett, the offensive coordinator hired to the Jets largely to help lure Rodgers to the organization, which worked. But without Rodgers, Hackett has had a hard time adjusting to his new reality at quarterback with Wilson.
Last week, Saleh said he felt the Jets offense was “close” to turning the corner. “Eventually things are going to click and it’s going to look pretty cool,” he said the day after an ugly win over the Giants.
Narrator: Things did not click.
“Today was not good, obviously,” Saleh said.
Khalil Mack forces the fumble and it’s @chargers ball #BoltUp
📺: #LACvsNYJ on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/wPNNRv5rzw pic.twitter.com/XWXer15z9t— NFL (@NFL) November 7, 2023
In Hackett’s lone season as Broncos coach last year, Denver had the worst scoring offense in the NFL before he gave up play-calling duties and eventually was fired. Things have not gotten better in his move to New York. Saleh said he will not be making any changes at offensive play-caller, though it’s fair to wonder how much longer he can roll with this current combination at QB-OC.
“We have a championship defense. I know we do,” Saleh said. “We have a young offense, a lot of moving parts. I get the frustration — trust me, I do — but we just have to keep trying to find ways to get better.”
It’s unclear if the Jets’ offensive players feel the same way about Hackett as Saleh (or Rodgers) do. Garrett Wilson was asked directly if scheme or play-calling are an issue on offense. He took a long pause before answering.
“Um,” he said, then paused again. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. I’d like to think that isn’t the case, that there’s things we can watch on film where we can say if we do better on this, we get a touchdown. I go out there and play. I watch film all week. And that wasn’t what we expected to do. That’s not what I expected to do today as far as offense. I know a lot of the guys feel the same. It’s getting to the point where it’s disappointing. … We’ve gotta figure it out.”
The defense can only put the team on its back so much before it breaks. Safety Adrian Amos told the defense in a meeting at the team hotel on Sunday that if the Jets want to be elite, they need to score points on defense. And maybe that’s what it has come down to: If the Jets are going to keep their head above water, they might need the defense to do the offense’s job for them.
“I feel like we did pretty good,” cornerback Sauce Gardner said. “I don’t even want to think about it anymore. I don’t even remember what we did. I just know we were down two touchdowns early in the game. We were in the hole. And we can’t keep getting ourselves in a hole and trying to dig ourselves out of it. Especially when there’s teams we feel like we should be able to blow out. We gotta score on defense. That’s what we said we wanted to do on defense, regardless of what the offense does.”
Regardless of what the offense does.
Right now, it’s not doing much.
(Photo: Dustin Satloff / Getty Images)
