For years, the New York Jets offense has been in disarray. In that time the Jets have had some good defenses, some great defenses and some downright championship level defenses. But the offense has not caught up to even being respectable.
A lot of things have been to blame over the years. Terrible quarterback. Terrible play calls. Terrible weapons. Terrible offensive line. Terrible scheme. Just plain terrible.
But this year was supposed to be different. The Jets spent a lot of offseason capital fixing the offensive line , Aaron Rodgers was back healthy with the OC of his choice, the weapons were improved and healthy. What could go wrong?
ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky took a shot at answering that question this week and you can see the eight minute clip below. If you are a fan of football or of the Jets it is worth your time.
Essentially what Orlovsky is pointing out here, is that it is not one player, group or coach that is hampering the Jets offense, but a shared dysfunction. One play the QB makes a bad throw, one play a tight end misses a block, one play a wide receiver drops the ball and so on and so on.
If one entire side of the ball is dysfunctional, then the blame has to go to the coach. The team is simply not prepared to play at the level required to compete in the NFL. The Robert Saleh tenure as Jets coach came to an end this week and Orlovsky’s video shows why.
The Jets are simply an undisciplined team that are too comfortable making mistakes. A fair portion of that blame should also fall on their offensive coordinator, who I believe should have been ousted along with Saleh, but the buck ultimately stops with the head coach .
I have seen too many talking heads pointing out this week that “Saleh is a defensive minded guy, and the defense iss playing well” and therefore he shouldn’t have been fired. That is absolutely ridiculous. He is the HEAD coach. Not the defensive coach. His responsibility is to the whole team and not simply the defense.
Nathaniel Hackett deserves a lot of the blame for how the offense has played this year and that is why new head coach Jeff Ulbrich ultimately decided to take play calling duties away from him in favor of Todd Downing.
I don’t know that the change in head coach or even offensive play caller will have much of a difference on the rest of the season. But I know the Jets are a talented team, perhaps one of the most talented in the NFL, and I know they have been embarrassingly underwhelming on the field this season. The team has been one of the most penalized the last two seasons and there seems to be no accountability for these egregious mistakes and mental errors.
Maybe a change in leadership is the difference between them playing how they have been versus how they should. The first test is Monday Night against the Buffalo Bills with the world watching.
Related: In a week of turmoil, Jets finally get some good news for their offense
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