New York Jets Season Summary
Time to wrap up the AFC East health review. Who better to wrap it up with than the New York Jets. A team that prior to their week 10 bye looked as though they had finally pulled it together after years of disappointing their fans. They had wins over both Miami and Buffalo, a little slip against in division rival New England but it was a close game. They sat at 6-3 and got to rest the team. When they returned however everything fell apart and they finished their season with a post bye week 1-7 record, leaving them at 7-10 and missing the playoffs yet again.
By far the highlights of the season came from Rookie CB Sauce Gardner and WR Garrett Wilson. Mike White had some shining moments at QB but nothing that could help them towards the back half of the season as they finished with 6 straight losses. The biggest plus of the year however was by far their defense. Finishing 4th after being #32 the year prior. Good play on all levels for the most part allowed them to keep themselves in games despite their lack of offensive production. Though secondary concerns at the safety position still loom they can be confident that Head Coach Robert Saleh has been able to strengthen up a very week part of past teams.
What is the New York Jets Biggest Weakness?
On offense you can’t look past two key issues, the first is QB play. They all together ending up starting three separate QBs. That’s an easy fix however if they can land Aaron Rodgers and let one of the younger guys develop under him. The more difficult issue to keep under control is health. Offensive production is tough when you lose multiple top linemen and then your starting running back to a torn ACL week 7. All in all this can contribute to ranking 25th out of 32 teams by the end of the year and finishing your season off with 15 points in your last three games.
Let’s break this down even further. As you can see above, The Jets started their season with a low Banged Up Score to begin with at 81.2 ranking 25 in health. Luckily for them, following week 1 injuries many teams dropped which allowed their injury score to keep them around that same position. With not much farther to drop they actually did a decent job keeping their health in check. Much of the reason for their stable B.U.S score was the return of players as other suffered injuries. They continued staying steady until week 7 when they lost both RB Breece Hall and OT Alijah Vera-Tucker. They lost their next game to New England but were able to grab a win from Buffalo the next week.
PHILADELPHIA, PA - AUGUST 12: New York Jets running back Breece Hall (20) runs the ball during pre-season game between the New York Jets and the Philadelphia Eagles on August 12, 2022 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia PA. (Photo by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire)
The Jets Get Eliminated From The Playoffs
Following the Bye week however they couldn’t overcome the offensive and some defensive hurdles they faced. As mentioned earlier their performance and success slide catapulted them out of the playoff hunt and ended their season simultaneously with the regular season. Key injuries to players such as Mike White (Ribs), George Fant (Knee), Quincy Williams (Ankle) and Lamarcus Joyner (hip) decreased depth across many positions in numerous games and pre-season injuries like that to Mekhi Becton (Patellar Avulsion Fracture) already had diminished their player options.
Can The New York Jets Recover Next Year?
The Jets finished their season with an average B.U.S of 74.2 which is actually reasonable amongst all teams but where their injuries occurred combined with some inconsistent play at QB showed that the Jets still have work to do to be close to Super Bowl contention. Regarding health position they ended pretty much smack-dab in the middle of the pack with an average week to week ranking of 14.2 out of 32 teams. A score that brings with it neither feelings of optimism nor pessimism. It’s not good enough but it also could be much worse therefore it ends up being a stat that Robert Saleh should look at and try to understand how they can improve even by just 4-5 spots which would put them into the top 10 teams of the league in terms of health.
The good news for the Jets is this past year though it ended in a very disappointing fashion, have a pretty clear outline of how to improve and if they can piece that together then the AFC East could be a really fun division next year.
