Remember when the New York Jets lost to the Miami Dolphins? The season was over. The Dolphins, at that point, were winless, and the only win the Jets recorded was against the THEN 3-2 Dallas Cowboys. 1-7 at week 9 in the season, all was lost, and everyone was calling for coach Adam Gase’s head.
Then they beat the New York Giants, in a game that was dubbed the “poop†bowl. Then, they beat the Washington Redskins, who scored their first touchdown as a team in… well, it was over a season. Both games weren’t really considered “quality wins†when you look at the teams. The Giants are in the same boat the Jets are in, getting a newbie quarterback acclimated to playing pro football. And the Redskins are just a hot mess. Duane Haskins spent HOW LONG trying to learn the offensive system before the Redskins front office said: “START HIM!â€
Now, in their first real challenge from a good team since Dallas, the Jets beat a team with a winning record. Going into yesterday’s game, the Raiders were 6-4. That’s the second team the Jets beat with a winning record this season. With a nice, and pretty, 3 game win streak, have the Jets truly figured it out? I think the answer is a resounding yes.
How Do You Measure Success?
Mathematically, the Jets have a slim chance of making a Wild Card berth for the playoffs this year. You read that right, they have a mathematical chance of making the playoffs as a Wild Card team. How realistic is it though?
The Bills are sitting pretty as the top Wild Card team at 7-3. The Raiders are 6-5, tied with the Colts. The Colts are not only tied with the Raiders for the second Wild Card team, but they’re also only 1 game behind division leader, the Houston Texans. The Jets, still have to face the Bills and the Ravens down the stretch, not to mention they’re playing Miami again, a team they’ve already lost too. Way too much have to go the Jets way in order to nab that second Wild Card spot, like a beyond epic collapse from the Bills, on top of beating the Bills on the seasons last day.
So you shouldn’t measure the success of this season by the Jets making it to the playoffs.Â
Considering the Jets going through just HOW MANY?!?! quarterbacks in the first 4 games of the season, a .500 season, or even a 7-9 season should be viewed as a success for the team. You can’t predict or prepare for your starting quarterback going down with mono. And while Darnold can still improve as a quarterback, Darnold has looked impressive during the Jets current 3 game win streak.Â
So I think, yes, I think if the Jets finish within a game of .500, you can count this season as a success. If we’re talking 2 games below .500, it’s borderline. Anything below .500, considering how the Jets streak of a new coach having a winning record is going to be broken with Gase this season, and you can consider the season a failure for the still-developing Sam Darnold and the Jets.