Photo Credit: New York Jets
The 2020 NFL season is finally here after what has seemed to be six months full of uncertainty and disbelief. Although the season will not be like any of the previous seasons without fans in the stadiums, it feels good to be back to almost normal. The Jets will open their tough schedule on the road against the Buffalo Bills who many analysts put as the favorites to win the AFC east and dethrone the New England Patriots. This is a crucial game for the Jets because of how their schedule is set up, they will be taking on the NFC west followed by the defending super bowl champs. To make matters worse, they can’t seem to find a way to keep their players healthy. It won’t be an easy task for the Jets, however there is always a possibility for an upset.
This will be the first look at the New York Jets defense without safety Jamal Adams, who was traded a couple of months ago before the start of training camp. To top that off, linebacker CJ Mosley opted out of the 2020 season as well. Although it was a big loss the Jets were ranked as the second best defense in the NFL, however they did have one of the best safeties on the roster too. I still see the Jets have an advantage with the front line who was second best at stopping the run against the Bills run offense who was ranked eighth in 2019. The Bills didn’t do much to add to their running back core except drafting Zack Moss to complement Devin Singletary.
The pass defense will be a different story, although the team finished 12th in the league in opponents passer rating they will go up against a revamped Bills offense that acquired former Vikings wide receiver Stefon Diggs to complement John Brown and Cole Beasley. Both Brown and Beasley put up big numbers in 2019, and with Diggs on the same team now this offense is ready to get to the next level. The Jets add some players as well to their secondary with Pierre Desir and Quincy Wilson from the Colts to go with Brian Poole and Blessuan Austin who had an excellent camp. The team won’t have that pass rush awareness in Jamal Adams, but they do have two solid cover safeties in Bradley McDougald (from Seattle in Adams trade) and Marcus Maye who not only played all sixteen games but really stepped up as a free safety. I don’t think this secondary will shut down the Bills, but I think they can contain them enough to make the game close.
The offense for the Jets will be the ones to keep an eye for on Sunday. Sam Darnold will look to build some chemistry with new receiver Breshad Perriman who caught 36 passes for 645 yards and six touchdowns, most of them coming towards the end of the season. Perriman’s stats were similar to Robby Anderson despite only playing a lesser amount of games, If he can pick up where he left off then I have confidence in the passing game.
They will also be getting back tight end Chris Herndon who only played one game in 2019, and Ryan Griffin could be great weapons for Sam as well as Jamison Crowder. However, it will be a tough matchup as they will be going up against a Bills pass defense that was ranked 3rd last year.
Both Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde have proven to be one of the best safety duos in the NFL and Tre’Davious White is coming off an All-pro year. The Jets are going to have to rely on running the ball with Le’Veon Bell, it all depends on how the offensive line plays out. This is a brand new look for the o line as they will have all new faces except for one. By not having an entire offseason to build chemistry, it could get very ugly early on in the game.
Although it looked like the team was finally starting to get healthy, they will be without Avery Willamson and rookie Denzel Mims who barely participated in camp. This team was mostly playing with backups anyway last year, so I think they will be competitive but I expect to see some mistakes early on.