Five games into the season and the New York Jets are sitting at a dismal 1-4 and tied for last in the division. This Monday night won't be a "give me" game either, as they prepare for the Arizona Cardinals. The way the Jets have been playing, 1-5 after this week, isn't an outcome any of us fans thought. After such a promising season last year being at the door step of the playoffs; this year many primed the Jets of a no doubt playoff team. Five games in, that looks like a long shot and the holes in our roster are glaring.
Lets start with the defense, which has been the complete opposite of dominant. Entering last Sunday's game against the Steelers, the Jets have allowed 8.3 yards per pass with a passer rating around 114. We were ranked second to last in pass defense. Our hall of fame and number one corner Darrelle Revis has allowed a completion percentage of 81% when passing his way. In the backend Marcus Gilchrist is ranked the 4th worst cover safety in the NFL. Buster Skrine is ranked 45th at his position out of 73 eligible players. The Jets allowed another deep touchdown against the Steelers when Marcus Williams was cooked by a 9 route ran by Sammy Coates for 72 yards. It has been such a reoccurring story line this season allowing big plays like that to occur. This is not what the Jets envisioned when creating this "No Fly Zone" secondary. The secondary is not all to blame! After having a dominating first week accumulating 7 sacs, the defensive line only had 5 sacks in the last 4 games. Not much to brag about there considering the Jets are a top 5 talent at that position. Adding to the list of troubles, our outside linebackers haven't been able to get pressure on the QB as well. Early in this upcoming draft, the Jets must find a dominant pass rusher. The Jets front office should address secondary help at some point in this draft.
On the offensive side of the ball, we all can see that Ryan Fitzpatrick is not effective, and that is putting it nicely. Even though this fanbase would love to see them take a QB in the first round, I just don't see that happening, seeing they invested a second round pick on Penn State QB Christian Hackenberg. I can't imagine the Jets picking him in the second round and not prepping him to be a future starter at some point. The GM Mike Maccagnan's philosophy is pick a QB until you land the right one. So I will not be shocked if he drafts one in the later rounds to compete next offseason or even bring in a veteran to compete as well. Another glaring need for this offense is a tight end. The Jets tight ends have a whopping 3 catches in the season. We did sign Austin Seferian-Jenkins who has all the talent in the world but off the field issues have stalled his career. The last need is offensive line which I felt should have been addressed early last offseason but was not addressed until the 5th round of last draft. With center Nick Mangold aging, left tackle Ryan Clady has been injury prone and with a right tackle position that has had a rotation between two players, it is a must to grow that position to be dominant. The Jets have blocked well when pass blocking, but haven't played well when run blocking. This seems like a big reason why the Jets have shied away from the run game after Matt Forte's week 2 performance when he ran for 100 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Currently the Jets are 1-4 and the season isn't over, but watching this season you cannot be confident in this roster. No one thought the rebuild after Rex Ryan would be a quick one, but after going 10-6 last year, it really threw this fanbase for a loop. It's time to re-tool this roster and this fanbase has to accept that.
HAPPY REBUILDING!