We have enough young talent to be a playoff team, but it's likely to take some real substantive experience to develop into a playoff team. Give us a season to acclimate all this young talent and we'll be right there in the conversation.
If you asked me if I thought they could do enough in the draft to be a playoff contender, I would have said almost definitely not. But I honestly think they did.
Offensively, they have all the talent they need to be competitive. They're 3 deep at TE, the OL is rock solid assuming Becton gives you 14/15 games minimum, they have 4 talented WRs (I'd like a vet piece addition for depth), and RB is a good 1-2 punch. It's all on the shoulders of #2, in my opinion. The secondary is completely rebuilt and they added pieces at edge. Excited to see what Saleh does there. My expectation is 8 wins assuming Zach is AVERAGE.
I said no not because of how this team is constituted. Folks act as if the Jets were the only team active on Draft Day. We were already far behind the rest of the division and in fact, far behind the rest of the Conference. So far behind that any improvement gets magnified well out of proportion. We won't know until the games are played just how much ground we've made up. We didn't close the gap on the Bills. Perhaps gained a game on the PATS. Hill in Miami still keeps them just out of reach. We won't go into the rest of the AFC or the League as a whole. We are still a losing team until we prove otherwise. That's gonna require wins and competitive games. We drafted well, but the rest of the AFCE didn't skip the draft and all the teams improved included those in our Div.
Team as constructed + Y = Play Off Team Where Y = full season of game time experience for the new rookies to learn the speed of the new game, full season to master LeFleur's and Saleh's play books, and a full season to learn how to become a pros pro. These are all young kids coming in without a single NFL snap. They don't know what they don't know. This season we be a tremendous learning and growing season for all of them. They will become so much smarter and so much more in tuned with the rest of the team and their own assignments on any given play. 2023 Looooook OUT! 2022 will be a fun season for us fans to watch. We'll get to observe a young team growing up before our very eyes. Now, come December if we happen to be within a cat fight of the last spot, no team in the AFC will want the Jets to get in. We'll be a young team on fire, and that's dangerous!
Same. But only because of the 7th playoff spot. It's so damn seductive to just imagine staying healthy.
This team is vastly improved. However, compared to the improvements made on by much better teams in the AFC, I don't see how this team makes the playoffs next yeat.
Yeah I voted no … just a combo of factors - the AFC got WAY better this year…all 4 AFC West teams are better than us - the three other AFC East teams are better than us still…we maybe made up some ground on the Pats in terms of players and apparent talent there but Belichick throws the scales in their direction, and no matter how good sauce may become, ain’t no one able to cover Tyreek Hill, and they also have Waddle…at least Tua is still the weak link there, but it’s not easy to say we won’t finish last in our division again…third place is possible if the Phins or Pats struggle a little bit, but 4th wouldn’t surprise anyone - half the AFC North is better than us…the Bengals and Ravens, and the Steelers are always a tough team…the Browns are a wildcard with Watson but still better than us - we would compete well in the AFC South I think, but the Colts and Titans are at least as good on paper if not better than us…though the Titans got worse and we did beat them last year So from an external look at the AFC, it’s a tough road to the playoffs…that’s a lot of teams that are on par or better looking internally, I think we have much better talent on paper than a year ago, but there are a lot of IFs that need to go the right way: - IF Zach takes a step forward, because (excuses like OL and WR injuries notwithstanding) he was AWFUL last year….like worst NFL QB ranking awful, and for all the talk about how much he improved after his injury, that stats don’t show that at all…I’m concerned - IF Becton can stay on the field and be motivated, I think this OL can be very good, but if he can’t, I think we are weak at OT and worse off than last year when we at least had Moses. I would have expected us to prioritize OT higher in the draft…again, I’m concerned - IF we can somehow minimize our remaining weaknesses at the obvious places that we’ve all noted…LB, DT, S…our run defense sucked last year and where is the improvement going to come from? Also, we haven’t been able to cover TEs or RBs in the flat for years…I’m still concerned - IF our WRs can stay healthy, I really like our WR room a lot better now than before the draft, but both Moore and Davis missed a lot of time last year, and we lost I think an undervalued guy in Crowder…when he was in there, he was a security blanket for Zach, but that role will need to be filled by a much better TE group and the RBs, which should be a wash…so yeah, the injury risk is real and I’m still concerned so overall I love what JD has done…he’s taken our roster and totally rebuilt it through primarily the draft. This is really year 2 of his rebuild with last year as the first year with a new HC and QB…this is clearly a man with a plan, and I feel very good about him in the GM seat…solid drafting now with his new staff and getting players for their system, no stupid free agent deals for older players past their prime, solid values in trades…and a solid strategy in how to build a team…. he’s the best we’ve had since the Parcells / Tannenbaum days our arrow is pointing up…just maybe not enough for playoffs this year…
If everyone plays to their draft status, yes. But they won’t ,not this year anyway. I’m expecting a little bit of a slow start and a hot finish, just missing the playoffs by a game or 2
A lot falls on Becton, and a even more falls on Zach. The team will go as far as the QB takes them. If Zach plays like a top 10-12 QB, the Jets should be playing meaningful football games in December. If Zach plays like he did last year, Jets will be on the outside looking in with a top 10 pick again.
