Another catastrophic season for the Jets after being eliminated from playoff contention 14 years in a row

Antwan Staley, New York Daily News on Dec 8, 2024

Published in Football

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MIAMI — Let’s flashback to the year 2010.

Toy Store 3 was the most popular movie in America, people were still using Blackberry phones and the New York Jets actually had a winning football team.

Those were good times for Jets fans, unlike the last 14 years.

The Jets (3-10) were a longshot to make the playoffs before Sunday’s game against the Dolphins. But Miami, for the second consecutive year, eliminated its division rival from playoff contention.

“Extremely shocked,” Jets interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said following the 32-26 overtime loss to the Dolphins. “Disappointed, frustrated, and every other adjective you can think of.

“This group works so hard at it. I would venture to say they work harder than most. And because of that, it makes it more frustrating. It makes me feel that much worse for that group because they’ve done things right.”

Many pundits believed this was the season in which the Jets would win their division and the challenge to compete for a Super Bowl championship. Aaron Rodgers’ return from a season-ending Achilles injury was supposed to be legendary.

Rodgers was trying to accomplish what Tom Brady and Peyton Manning did in their careers and win Super Bowl championships with two different franchises.

That’s precisely why Jets owner Woody Johnson fired Robert Saleh on Oct. 8 after the team began the season 2-3.

That’s also why Johnson fired general manager Joe Douglas and acquired Davante Adams in a trade with the Las Vegas Raiders on Oct. 15.

But that single mistake basically fumbled the Jets season away, much like Brian Baumgartner’s character Kevin Malone from “The Office” dropping a large bowl of chili in the middle of the floor.

Since Ulbrich became interim coach, the Jets have been 1-7 and have continued to lose games similarly. Gang Green had late losses in back-to-back weeks against Indianapolis and Seattle.

On Sunday, the Jets held an eight-point lead entering the fourth quarter, but again, they squandered it late and eventually lost in overtime.

“The expectations were high,” Rodgers said. “Didn’t reach them.

“A lot of difficult games and opportunities to win. Just didn’t win enough games. Didn’t play good enough in some crunch times and that’s why we are sitting here with the record we got.”

The Jets roster was flawed coming into the season. Rodgers never looked close to his former MVP self, and Gang Green’s offense has been one of the worst in the league for most of the season.

“I mean, if you would have told me that in training camp, I would have been shocked,” Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson said. “With the way we practiced in training camp and handled business when we had other teams came in, I would have been like, ‘you lying.’

“One of my takeaways from this is winning the offseason is winning the offseason. Winning in training camp is winning in training camp. Let’s win when it matters.”

Where the Jets go from here will be the million-dollar question during these last four games and into the offseason.

Rodgers, 41, is not owed any more guaranteed money following the 2024 season. If the Jets release Rodgers, they would have a $49 million salary cap hit in 2025.

Before a decision on Rodgers can be made, the Jets must find a new general manager and coach to help lead them out of the abyss their organization has been in since the year Drake released his first solo album, “Thank Me Later.”

Since Rex Ryan led them to the AFC Championship in 2010, the Jets have had four head coaches and four general managers. In a division where the Buffalo Bills currently rule the kingdom, winning the last five AFC East crowns, the Jets will continue to stay in the basement if they do not get their next general manager and coaching hire right.

Meanwhile, the Jets still have four games remaining in the season, all of which are meaningless in a nightmarish season beyond Jets standards.

“You just gotta compartmentalize, man, and understand this is how this game goes,” Adams said. “It is really difficult to win and we have been really, really close too many times. So it is frustrating. It is almost more frustrating when you are right there.

“All you get to do is control how you play and you don’t get to control the score and complain about it. You have 60 minutes to figure it out, and once that 60 minutes is up, the team that has the most is going to be the happiest.

“We have been on the other side of that a lot. It is has been frustrating but you just have to stay the course and keep going.”

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