Lots of talk about optimism and pessimism, let's see where we stand. Vegas odds were at 5.5, as of a few weeks ago, what say you?
I'm going to hold off on my vote until we get more info on Zach's knee here in a day or two. If the recovery timeframe we currently have ends up being accurate (Zach's out 2-4 weeks), my vote will be 7-8 wins and will ultimately depend on how optimistic I feel at that moment.
I don't mean to pessimistic but I am in the 2 to 4 win range. If everything goes really well I see 5 wins as our likely ceiling. We are heavy underdogs most games this year with 5 winnable games. I just don't see us converting all those winnable games into wins particularity the Lions game. I look at as a young team with 11 to 12 new starters as one that progresses in stages. Going from non-competitive to competitive is step 1. see the 1977 Jets or 2021 Lions. Going from competitive to winning games enough to be mediocre is step 2. I think it is overly optimistic that we will skip step one to go to step 2 unless we get a ridiculous easy schedule like 2019 where we play 6 or 7 of the worst teams in the league which does not look to be the case this year. I think we will be a much improved team but struggle to win more than 2 games. As a 50+ year Jet fan I do not take anything positive for granted. Show me the wins and improvement before I buy in and believe it. Once I see this team winning consistently then I will buy in otherwise I will expect us to continue doing what we have done the last 10 years. My expectations for wins are low. My expectations for improved play are somewhat optimistic.
To me, if we end up winning only 2, we likely need a new coach and a new QB. Probably new GM too. Schedule is tough, but second half looks pretty reasonable. Also, last year QB play was not great, probably one of of the worst in the League as Zach was a rookie. Whether we have second year Zach this year or Flacco, who while washed up still has some level to his game, which is better than rookie Zach last year, QB should be an improvement from last year. There also seems to be a consensus around NFL that we had a great draft and added good FAs. With all that to win just two games, that will mean that we have absolutely atrocious coaching and players JD got are terrible. I just don't think this is the case. 7 games is what I put for now, anything below that would be a huge disappointment for me.
I'm sticking with my original prediction (really expectation) of at least 6, no matter who the QB is.
I have to go with 0. If the soothsayer known as @Br4d can come up with anything positive I will change it to 1.
Last decade and start of this one has been rough on the Jets. 11 years in a row we missed play-offs, so the expectations for this season are understandably low. But even during this dry spell we managed to average about 6 wins a season. So, winning 6 games is just giving us an average of the crap we've been dealing with for the past 11 years. I really don't think it's super optimistic take to hit this mediocre average given the improvements JD made to the team or even a little better than that.
Payton only takes the job if Douglas is sent packing too and he (Payton) gets full control. Which to be clear would be a good idea.
Payton only considers the Jets job if the other 31 teams fold. Then he'd still turn it down because what would the point of being the HC of the only NFL team be anyway.