Not only did they not quit... but they continued to play together through advisory and turned around a could have been Kottie type of 1-15 disaster into a chance to potentially finish the season @ 7-9 due to winning 5 of our previous 7 games and a win on Sunday would make it 6-2 during the 2nd half of our season. That's not to be overlooked due to a "strength of schedule". Guys like Le'Veon Bell kept his composure after coming from a winning culture in Pittsburgh and kept good spirits within the locker room. Jamal Adams promised during our 1-7 stretch that we would turn this thing around. Sam Darnold was talking playoffs. These guys never quit and never threw in the towel; they responded together. Gase and Williams first season here. Two completely different systems. Injuries galore with Darnold getting sick with mono (came back and improved upon and had a better season this year than his rookie season of last year), Herndon as our starting TE getting suspended before being injured as a promising 2nd year pass catching option for Darnold, Quincy Enunwa who would've been Darnold's #2 Outside wide receiver, Herndon's backup TE in Griffin who showed a lot of promise (leaving Darnold with 3rd string types of TE's), the O-Line being a complete disaster starting with two distaters in K.O @ LG and Kalil experiment @ Center (from there the makeshift really began). C.J Mosley who's an absolute stud and one we haven't had since David Harris in the middle of our D and to make it worse his should have been running mate and #2 IMLB in Avery Williamson also missed the 2019 season (leaving us to 3rd and 4th string IMLB's). Bust or not our #1 CB heading into the season in Trumaine Johnson was sidelined and even our kid rookie Quinnen Williams battled through minor injuries. So under a new head coach calling our offensive plays in Gase (under less than ideal situations/circumstances), a new defensive coordinator coaching up our Defense in G. Williams, an insane amount of injuries to key startes, a complete makeshift of an O-Line, a new GM who wasn't yet here throughout our off-season in order to sign free agents or draft his own players in Joe Douglas, a 1-7 start; but yet we're 5-2 (since the infamous 1-7 start) with a chance to close out the 2nd half of 2019's season @ 6-2 during our previous 8 games with a win on Sunday. That's not something to overlook heading into our 2020 off-season. Sometimes a team must lose together, before they're able to learn how to win together. First year under a new regime ala Gase/Williams/Douglas (with Darnold only being a 2nd year QB). They didn't quit - they responded. From a Kottie like disaster to potential and promise moving forward.
Amazing what a charmin schedule will do for the outlook. If one has to reach for a positive, you can always fall back on "we didn't quit". The only issue is, "we took the first half of the season off" and can't play offense beyond the first scripted series. So, in keeping with not being a scrooge on Christmas Day, we were fabulous over the last 8 games of the season. Thanks for a fantastic 2019 NY Jets! Can't wait for 2020!!!
I used to wish for a Super Bowl appearance before I died. I guess now I'll be more realistic and settle for another playoff appearance pre-death. But yeah......we didn't quit. That's nice.
Are you going to be predicting another post-season appearance next year? I’ll happily predict 4-12 right now. After a well-rested Xmas period , I’ll be ready for another dog-shit tailspin.
So if JD revamps 3/4 of the Roster that means we are only left with 25 percent of players who learned this years memorable lesson I much prefer >>>be a paid Professional. do your job, and most importantly stay healthy and off IR
Kudos for finding a silver lining to take comfort from. But given the years...decades...of practice, this really isn't hard to do. What's hard to do is for those who have rooted for this team all that time, and tried to console ourselves year after year with this empty "accomplishment", is to believe anything at all that promises a better result next year if only we're patient. This franchise has enriched itself on uncompensated patience and that well is running dry. Silver linings aren't the same as silver trophies.
Well, I definitely did wipe my ass with this season; but Charmin or bargain brands, quite honestly, I don't think my ass can tell the difference.
In past years, this end of the season would make me optimistic for 2020. I learned a lesson though this year, my friends! I will wait and see what Joe Douglas does in the off-season, plus like I said in my schedule thread: the schedule looks really tough in 2020. Having said that, @DefenseWinsChampionships is right. It was nice to see the team not completely quit. However, not showing up in Cincinnati was completely unacceptable no matter what. There are only 16 games. Gase's team showed up for like half of them this year. Needs to be all 16 in 2020. Hopefully more, but no one should expect that.
They definitely have a hard row to hoe for 2020. The offensive line basically needs four or five replacements and you can't patch that together in free agency, nor is the draft a guarantee given the learning curve in the NFL. The RB's are all post-prime or headed there fast. There is no #1 WR and the #2 is probably going to land someplace like Las Vegas with a ridiculous contract. The only position groups on the offense that are acceptable at this point are the QB's (Darnold) and the TE's (and Griffin is going to be 30 at a position that commonly retires at 30...) The defense is much better off but still lacks consistency and star power on the edges. An early indicator for how next season will go is how the Jets attack free agency. If they make a few splurge signings with a big marketing campaign attached then it's probably going to be a disaster. If they put some real thought into the team's needs and accept that next year is going to be a development year with a possible playoff push involved they'll sign younger players with more upside to flesh out the depth chart and use the draft to try to find the beginnings of an offensive line. They'll wait until the second wave of free agency to maybe sign a guard or tackle the league is disrespecting at a discount to help solidify the OL build without screwing up the cap. They'll make a rational decision on Robby and sign a young guy with some promise to a reasonable deal if they have to so they aren't forced to over-prioritize a burner WR in a draft that should be all OL and edge defenders with an emphasis on OL early and often.
Great post. I'd add that even if Austin's the real deal, another CB or two is needed as depth at the position is poor. I'd like a FA signing and a middle round pick used for the position.
A good post. I know the Jets generated a lot of negativity early in the season, including from me, and with good reason. However, aside from the things you mentioned, we can look at the defense as an area of consistent improvement as the season progressed. Jets are #2 in rushing defense and while rushing defense is not as important as passing defense, they are ranked #15 in passing defense which isn't too shabby. More importantly we can point to the play of the Jets "no name" CB's as a source of surprisingly decent play. Also, the Jets seem (at least to me) to have cut down drastically on the number of "dumb" penalties such as offsides, motion and encroachment, which in the past killed offensive drives and allowed opposing drives to continue. As much as people probably don't want to hear this, that has to be attributed to coaching. While we all agree, the offensive line needs work, I noticed watching other teams this past year, that few of them can boast having good offensive lines and that includes the Pats. As for Gase, I was not a fan of bringing him here like most of us, but he's here and will be here for a while. Despite the early misfortune he experienced with injuries and illness, I feel any coach (except Kotite) can experience success with the right factors. In short, I see improvement with this team and feel good things are possible.
We win the "Potential and Promise" award !!Thats way better then stoping our 9 year playoff drought under a head coach who it was just revealed by Manish Mehta that he has multiple burner accounts on twitter.
