All four of those games are winnable. you really do not know what team you will have to about week 4 because of the abbreviated off-season. I like how all of a sudden the Bengals and the Browns are these powerhouse teams. The Bengals were 10-7 the Browns 8-9, the Ravens 8-9 and the Steelers 9-7-1. None of these teams are powerhouses and outside of the Bengals I think most of the rosters have gotten worse. If you think Watson is coming out the gates looking like an all-pro after a year lay-off with a new team does not watch a lot of football. I am not saying we will win all four of these games but they are all winnable and probably the easiest start we could ask for.
John Harbaugh is one of the best September coaches ever. 10-4 on opening day games and most of the wins were blow outs. Its a nightmare for an opener. then you consider the Jets never win in Pittsburgh and the Bengals just happen to be reigning AFC Champs. You better win IN Cleveland, no small task considering its their home opener, or the season will be over by Columbus Day... again
I think 1-3 as well, but I think that's a very physical stretch to start the season that will have lasting impact in the weeks following
If we win 2 out of our first 9 games it will be a miracle. Let’s be honest, with the absence of hopes, prayers, and blind intuition we look absolutely awful on paper. Zach Wilson was trash last season. We hope and pray he improves, and some folks are blindly confident he will be. But history overwhelmingly has proven that after a rookie season like Zach just had, we’re much more likely to be discussing what viable veteran can come in and win the job from Zach (at best), to possibly flat out looking to draft his replacement. At this point if he reached Daniel Jones level it’d be a massive improvement, and Daniel Jones sucks.
we actually look really good on paper. the thing is paper =/= success. we have a ton of young potential but not much proven. with that said, you then only seem to focus on zach and honestly if you think he was trash you clearly only looked at stats and didn't watch the film. there is a reason players in the NFL are high on zach, they seen him in person and on film. He had a rough start with lots of rookie mistakes, too much hero ball, and some flashy plays. he came back after injury and looked like a field general who didn't make many mistakes for that final stretch. the stats sucked because at that point we were decimated with injuries. berrios was our WR1 and even he got hurt. no moore, no davis, no cole, we had waiver pick ups starting at WR. we also lost our top 3 TEs who already sucked anyway and most of our o-line. we had starters that weren't even on the roster to start the year. no QB would have produced with that around them. stats don't tell the whole story
stats don’t tell the story, wins and losses don’t tell the story, lack of offensive production doesn’t tell the story…. I did watch him all year. He stunk. No two ways about it. He plain stunk. If you were a fan of any other team looking at Wilson you’d agree. Can he get better, sure. He probably will to an extent due to the talent around him. But he has a massive climb to even be considered average. On the bright side we will have a talented offense to attract a FA QB next year.
actually most non jet fans think wilson did well and showed potential. as did the actual players he went up against. Id suggest going back and just watching the all 22s on zach and figuring in the talent around him. he looked bad the 1st half of the season, he looked great after coming back from injury, the stats just weren't there because the talent level around him on offense was bad due to injury. if he had most of the team around him we expected his stats for the 2nd half would have been huge.
if he had this, if he had that, if this happened, if that happened. If… if.. if…. His second half was not very good either. He barely moved the ball and rarely scored, all a product of him obviously taking less chances because I’m sure the coaches told him he needed to stop being so reckless. But his second half was much better, I agree. Not because it was good, it was in fact pretty awful, but because his first half was so awful that it was laughable. Again, you have every right to be optimistic yourself, but if you can’t see the other side of the coin that is loaded with overwhelming evidence to the contrary of your opinion, then you’re just deluding yourself.
The Ravens game is going to be an early test of our run D. The Bengals are coming to us after the Steelers and the Cowboys; if they start 2-0 it could be another trap game for us this year. Spot on with the Steelers and Browns takes; I love that we’re seeing them early in the season.
Lol. “How is a team with a mediocre QB win more games than teams with elite QBs”…. Then mentions Steelers and Titans - 2 teams who went to the playoffs with mediocre QBs. The Titans had the best record in the AFC with a mediocre QB ROFL. Do you even read your own posts before you reply. At least stupid comments aren’t limited to Jets fans. Oy vey.
The highlighted in red is the type of comments that really pisses me off. "Blindly confident" means that we're confident about Zach improving with absolutely no basis in fact, when in fact there are actual reasons for this optimism, reasons that go beyond simple stats and numbers, and are more reliable as indicators of success. I'm not going to rehash all these reason now, but if anyone who wants to be reasonable looks at film of last season, especially the period after Zach returned from injury, and factors in all the injuries and sub-par talent he had to work with, drawing the conclusion that there's no basis in fact to be optimistic about him this season is either due to laziness in relying only on stats, or an anti-Wilson agenda.
I’ve seen a couple of that guys post. He comes off like he doesn’t watch the games just catches highlights on Sportscenter
sadly I’ve watched every game last year and every year for the past 40 years. He had moments where he made good plays. Never a full game, never a string of games. But overall his performance was dreadful, to deny that is absolute homerism. I fully am onboard with giving him this season and I hope to God I’m wrong, I honestly do. But this is a thread asking if this is a playoff caliber team. Come on now.
To deny all the obstacles he had to contend with that were a major reason why his stats were poor is then what? I'd call it denial of reality to justify your pessimism.
I think you, and others, are overestimating how much MiLF is going to put on ZW’s shoulders. MiLF is basically a big kid with every shiny new toy you can imagine in front of him. With possibly the top RB room in the league this kid is going to have fun with ground and pound, flea flickers, 2 tight end sets, play actions and bootlegs galore, just like a kid in a candy store. Even Mike White can have an HOF performance in this offense. OL depth is my only current fear (and always the turf) but I’m confident JD is on top of it.
sure, but he was also the cause of much of it. Our atrocious OL suddenly improved greatly the moment Zach went down. Coincidence, or more likely Mike White and Joe Flacco have a basic concept of blocking assignments and hot reads. Zach was terrible last year. You can come up with your hypotheticals as to why he was terrible, and I can come up with mine. But what’s undeniable is that he was in fact terrible last year.
