It's official the New York Jets are the worst team in the NFL, even though the Bengals are the only team that has yet to win a game. But if there's anything to take anyway from yesterday's game against the Dolphins, it's that there's a difference between teams who can't just catch a break and the ones who are just awful completely. The Jets are a team that is dysfunctional and unorganized, they can't seem to get anything right on both sides of the ball. Even when we had thought the strongest position on this team was going to help bail the rest of the teams woes turned out to have problems of their own. If that wasn't the worst part, our franchise quarterback has regressed to a point where fans are wondering if this team made a mistake on taking him.
First off for anyone to make that assessment is just wrong. Although I agree that Darnold has regressed a lot since returning from his illness this isn't entirely his fault, you have to look at who he is throwing to as well as who is protecting him. The offensive line hasn't given the second year enough time to allow him to look through his progressions as well as routes breaking out, when that happens he has to make these bonehead throws in attempt to make some type of play. Receivers aren't even helping out Darnold at the first sign of trouble, against the Jaguars Robby Anderson didn't even fight for the ball when Darnold threw a pick. Then against the Dolphins on the terrible interception in the red zone that prevented the Jets to cut into the lead, Crowder ran into Anderson and it looked like Darnold tried to throw the ball away but it ended in a pick. Although both sides were at fault on that play, you can't put the blame on just the quarterback.
The defense took a massive hit throughout the season, losing both their starting linebackers and their backups for the season. They are currently down to their third and fourth string linebackers, as well as being extra thin at cornerback. So much so that they can't just bench Trumaine Johnson because he isn't playing well. Statistically the defense isn't playing that terrible but it's the overall performance that draws the attention from the viewers, they couldn't even get off the field against a Dolphins team that wasn't trying. Their best safety had a terrible game as he couldn't stop anyone or even cover on a route from a receiver running at him. Maybe it was the distraction from all the speculation that he was going to be traded or just the frustration of this team losing but if you want to put yourself in the same category as Tom Brady and Aaron Donald, you better be ready to play.
In the mist of all of this, you have to put majority of the blame on the coaching staff and front office (not named Joe Douglas). The reason why I'm leaving Douglas out of it is because he was inherited with a bad team because Christopher Johnson thought it was okay to allow Mike Maccagnan to hire a coach and build the team. I'm willing to at least give Douglas a full offseason to show us how he plans to fix this team, but everyone else deserves if not all then majority of the blame. Adam Gase was hired because he was the "offensive guru" or the "quarterback whisperer," that is just simply not the case as his offenses after Peyton were awful. Not to mention that there has been no adjustments on how he's going to fix these problems, in fact you don't see him do anything on the sideline besides looking at his play sheet.