The 2019 season for the New York Jets has resulted in yet another year where the team has failed to make a postseason run, which makes nine straight years. This was supposed to be a year full of high expectations after they won the free agency by bringing in Le'veon Bell, CJ Mosley, and others to help boost talent, but then the injuries came and everything fell apart in a hurry. The Jets started the season with a 1-7 record and probably the worst performance on both sides of the ball, the offense wasn't producing with their third string quarterback which also made the defense look bad too. But then the schedule got better, and then we see this team win 6 out of the last 8 games. The defense was the second ranked in the NFL with a bunch of backups and the offense showed some life, now this team needs to take the next step to help their fans rid of what has been gruesome ten years filled with disappointment. Here is what we should expect them to do.
Re-sign their free agents:
The Jets have a ton of their players hitting the free agent market, and most of them played a major part of this team this year. Therefore, I believe that they need to sign back Jordan Jenkins, James Burgess, Neville Hewitt, Brian Poole, and a few of their o line like Beachum. All of those guys played a huge role and have stepped up big time, which is why this team had some success during the second half of the season. While guys like Anderson, Poole and Jenkins would be clear cut starters, Burgess and the others would add some key depth to this team.
Add some more key contributors:
During their locker clear out, Adam Gase and Joe Douglas agreed that one of their major priority going into this offseason is building their offensive line. This was one of the stepping stones of Joe Douglas since being in Baltimore and Philadelphia, where they all have tremendous offensive line that protects their quarterbacks. Now that he is the general manager of the Jets, I fully expect him to continue his tradition with his new team as they are looking to help keep Sam Darnold upright. Here are some free agent lineman, I would like to see the Jets to target.
Brandon Scherff Washington: Scherff was the fifth pick of the 2015 draft which was before the Jets pick. The Jets of course picked Leonard Williams who was traded earlier in the year and Scherff proved to be a dependable interior lineman. The former Iowa grad is a guy that would fit in Joe Douglas's characteristic of being a tough guy, I can see the Jets heavily trying to recruit him. The university at Iowa has recently developed some studs on their o line and Scherff is one of them.
Jack Conklin Tackle Indianapolis: The Colts have finally started to build a solid line to protect Andrew Luck, even though it was proven to be too late for him. I doubt the Colts would just let him walk without attempting to sign him first, especially since they might be losing Castonzo to retirement. This might be a betting war between them but Conklin will be a major improvement over the guys they have now.
The other thing they need to look to is build their line through the draft as well so that they will have much more depth going into next year, as well as bringing in another wide receiver to develop in case Anderson doesn't re-sign. They also need to find a true edge rusher to compliment Gregg Williams defense, which could be a very scary unit next year.
But the most important thing is that the Jets most definitely need to do is to find a true identity on the offensive side of the ball. Bell and Darnold are the vocal point of this side of the ball and it just so happens that their quarterback performs at his best in the play action. The Jets could be a very sound run first balance approach on offense if Adam Gase can come to his senses.