Jets shutout, eliminated as playoff futility reaches 13-year mark

The longest active postseason drought in professional American sports continues as the Jets are eliminated from playoff contention.

Dec 18, 2023

What’s Up with the Jets? 🛩️

The Jets had their worst performance of their entire season as they were obliterated by the Dolphins, 30-0 (box)
Following the loss and the Browns victory the Jets were officially eliminated from postseason contention, extending their playoff drought to 13 years
QB Zach Wilson didn’t have much of a chance in the loss, going 4/11 (36.3 percent) for 26 yards and a lost fumble before exiting the game before the first half with an apparent injury
Wilson originally left the game due to dehydration, was later said to have a head injury but wasn’t in concussion protocol, and ultimately was ruled out due to a concussion
QB Trevor Siemian relieved Wilson and played the remainder of the game, going 14/26 (53.8 percent) for 110 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions
OT Mekhi Becton allowed three sacks in the game and has now allowed 12 this season, the most of any offensive lineman in the NFL
The Jets ran the ball just 12 times in the entire game, gaining a measly 23 yards
New York suffered their first shutout loss since the 2020 season, when they lost to the Dolphins by a 24-0 score
On Saturday, QB Aaron Rodgers was reportedly moving closer to being medically cleared to play in the team’s Week 16 match-up against the Commanders (Schefter)

Game Balls 🏈

🏈 The fans: There are no game balls to be found for a single person associated with the New York Jets organization this week – the offense was disgraceful, the protection abominable, the coaching non-existent and the defense didn’t do all too much, either – so this one goes out to this fanbase. If you actually took any time out of your Sunday to watch this mess of a football team, you deserve a game ball.

Play of the Week 📺

Hard to find a play of the week when you score no points and force zero turnovers. Sigh.

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Back to your regularly scheduled programming ✍️

Coming off of their biggest offensive output of the entire season and an unlikely victory over the Texans, a slight glimmer of optimism shined into what was an otherwise doldrum season. The team had a minuscule but mathematical path to an impossible playoff run and Aaron Rodgers was reportedly just days away from potentially being medically cleared to play in an actual football game.

For a very brief moment, the vibes weren’t so awful around the New York Jets. And then they had to play an actual football game.

Any faint bit of hope was squashed from the moment Sunday’s game began against the Dolphins as the Jets put up by far their most disgusting performance of the season. Their offensive line was worse than ever, making any sort of evaluation of Zach Wilson completely moot (though we all know what he is at this point), the coaching staff once again looked as if they had no answers for anything after being outrageously out-schemed yet again – something that Allen Lazard directly said in the postgame – and the defense had a “we’ve got nothing left in the tank” type of performance.

For this organization, it was a deflating return to their regularly scheduled programming. This performance, while the worst of the bunch, was merely a microcosm of what this entire season has become for this woebegone franchise. It’s one thing to be bad, but for the Jets, there’s also so much more that goes into it.

You’d be hard-pressed to find another team in the entire league that’s had this many highs and lows in a single season, with the lows consistently dipping to the point of “total disgrace.” This team can’t just lose, there’s always so much additional drama and turmoil that comes with it, constant injuries to key players, quotes and leaks from players throughout the year, text messages with Joe freaking Benigno getting exposed on the radio, and mysterious injuries to their quarterback who reportedly didn’t even want to play for this team for the rest of the season. I truly can’t ever remember a 5-9 team with this much fucking drama.

At the end of the day, there isn’t much more to say. I feel like I’ve been a broken record on this newsletter for the past two months at this point, but there’s really not much more to it. This team has been the same kind of bad ever since they beat the Eagles two months ago, and it really hasn’t looked different at any point other than the one blip on the radar that was their win over the Texans last week.

Once again, this organization will have to do their best to air out the stench and exercise the ghosts that this franchise has had such a hard time of clearing out. Not even bringing in a Hall of Famer like Aaron Rodgers was enough to do that this year, and now the team will need to attempt to find more answers in the year ahead. One thing for sure is that there is a lot more than just getting Rodgers back healthy.

Zach Wilson obviously can’t be back here for a myriad of reasons, the offensive line needs to be rebuilt, real receivers other than Garrett Wilson need to be brought in and if we’re being completely honest, the head coach and entire offensive staff should be fired without any shadow of a doubt, with Joe Douglas getting consideration for that, as well. The latter of those things is very unlikely to happen, unless things get so bad that owner Woody Johnson feels as if he has no other choice. To that end, though, I’m really not sure how much worse things can really get other than giving up a 60-burger on national television like the Chargers.

The win last week was fun while it lasted, but we’ve learned time and time again that nothing gold can stay in this Jets season. Back to the draft projections.

Next Week’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Jets (5-9) vs. Commanders (4-10)

Where: MetLife Stadium – East Rutherford, NJ

When: Sunday, 1:00 PM EST

Where to Watch: CBS

Around the NFL 🏁

The Raiders destroyed the Chargers on Thursday Night Football, 63-21, leading to L.A. firing head coach Brandon Staley
The Cowboys clinched a postseason spot, but were emphatically blown out by the Bills in Buffalo
The 49ers kept on rolling and clinched the NFC West for the first time since 2019, defeating the Cardinals by a 45-29 score
Bengals backup QB Jake Browning rallied his team to a game-tying touchdown in the final minute as the team outlasted the Vikings and won in overtime, 27-24
The Steelers slide continued thanks to their sputtering offense as they lost their third consecutive game, falling to the Colts 30-13
Tommy DeVito mania quieted down as the Saints handily defeated the Giants by a 24-6 score
Despite being down to their third string QB Case Keenum, the Texans forced overtime late and defeated the Titans on a field goal in overtime