Ron Jaworski tells a story about when he and Jon Gruden were on “Monday Night Football” and they were watching a Colts practice when Peyton Manning was in his prime. Gruden asked Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore why Manning’s backups did not get any reps.
“Fellas, if 18 goes down, we’re f—ked,” Moore told them. “And we don’t practice f—ked.”
Well, the Jets were f—ked on the fourth play of this season when the Achilles tendon in Aaron Rodgers’ left ankle popped.
But it feels as if no one is willing or maybe allowed to admit that.
Everyone from Jets coaches to players to fans has done this dance since Sept. 11 that the season was not over, that Zach Wilson could fill in for Rodgers and the team would not collapse.
The Jets were able to keep the car moving for a little while, and they pulled out some crazy victories over the Bills, Eagles and Giants.
But the reality is the Jets’ season was over as soon as Rodgers sat down on the MetLife Stadium field unable to walk.
And as everyone searches for reasons why the Jets can’t score touchdowns or win games in late November, there is one real reason this season went south: bad luck.
For some reason, though, we’re not allowed to say the Jets were unlucky.
Instead, it is Joe Douglas’ fault because he did not have a better backup quarterback. It is Robert Saleh’s fault for believing too much in Wilson. It is Nathaniel Hackett’s fault for not being able to turn water or wine into touchdowns. It is Wilson’s fault for not hitting open receivers.
Look, all of those people have a hand in why the Jets are 4-6. You can also throw in an insane amount of offensive line injuries and receivers who can’t catch.
But the overriding issue here is that Rodgers has spent more time on “The Pat McAfee Show” this season than in the Jets lineup.
People need to remember everything about the 2023 Jets was built around Rodgers being their quarterback.
You can say that was flawed, but most teams with good quarterbacks are screwed if that quarterback gets injured in Week 1. The Jets took a swing for the fences with Rodgers and ended up swinging out of their shoes.
There are very few teams in the history of football that have survived losing an elite starting quarterback early in the season.
The 1968 Colts were able to go 13-1 despite Johnny Unitas tearing muscles in his arm in the preseason. Earl Morrall won NFL MVP that season.
Steve Young stepped in for Joe Montana in 1991 and ’92 for the 49ers and got them to the playoffs in the second season.
But Morrall and Young may be the greatest backup quarterbacks in NFL history, and this occurred in a different time.
More often than not, teams either fall apart completely — when Manning injured his neck, the 2011 Colts went 2-14 with Kerry Collins, Dan Orlovsky and Curtis Painter at quarterback — or manage to be respectable but miss the playoffs — when Dan Marino ruptured his Achilles, the 1993 Dolphins went 9-7 with Scott Mitchell and Steve DeBerg.
Perhaps the best example of how hard life is without a franchise quarterback is the 2008 Patriots. A year removed from going 16-0, with most of the same cast of characters, the Patriots lost Tom Brady in Week 1 to a torn ACL. They still managed to go 11-5 with Matt Cassel, but missed the playoffs.
The 2023 Jets’ roster did not have the same talent as that Patriots team.
Should the Jets be at least functional on offense? Yes, it is fair to criticize them for being so inept. They are still an NFL team. But this is not a situation where we should be talking about firing anyone because of this season. For all intents and purposes, this season was over on Sept. 11.
The biggest criticism right now is that Douglas should have had a better backup plan than Wilson.
I understand this thought, but there are a few reasons it made sense for the Jets to stick with Wilson. Let’s start with they would have been hit with a $20.7 million dead money charge against the salary cap if they cut him. No one was trading for Wilson. They would have had to cut him or make him their No. 3 quarterback, who has a $9.5 million cap hit. That is not very good salary-cap management when you consider how much Rodgers and another No. 2 quarterback would be making.
The Jets thought Wilson would benefit from learning under Rodgers, and that seemed to be going OK in training camp. If Rodgers had suffered a sprained ankle in October and missed two games, the Jets would have been fine with Wilson. The only scenario where having Wilson as the backup was potentially a disaster was if Rodgers was lost for a majority of the season.
This being the Jets, of course the worst-case scenario came true. You can rip the Jets for not being prepared for the worst-case scenario, but I think they took a calculated gamble and lost.
The bad luck has continued as offensive linemen keep dropping. The Jets played their sixth right guard on Sunday. The offensive line that Douglas built entering the season was actually playing OK before Alijah Vera-Tucker and Connor McGovern went down. After that, it has been a rotating cast of players who probably should not be on the field.
You can go about blaming whichever Jets figure you choose, but I think it’s OK to admit this season was doomed in Week 1. And while there is blame to go around for the offense performing poorly, it would have been nearly impossible to overcome the Rodgers injury.
Sometimes you just have bad luck and the team is f—ked.
The QB turnstile
The Jets will start their third quarterback of the season when Tim Boyle goes out there Friday against the Dolphins.
Incredibly this is the third straight season, and fourth time in five seasons, the Jets will start three quarterbacks in a season.
In 2019, the Jets started Sam Darnold, Trevor Siemian and Luke Falk. In 2021, the Jets started Wilson, Mike White and Joe Flacco. The same trio started in 2022.
The only backup quarterbacks on that list to win were Flacco, who won one game, and White, who won twice.
The Jets’ instability at quarterback has been remarkable for years.
Ryan Fitzpatrick in 2015 is the last Jets quarterback to start every game in a season.
Want to catch a game? The Jets schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.
Stat’s so
Zach Wilson may have thrown is his final pass for the Jets.
If he has, he finishes his career No. 10 on the all-time franchise passing yards list. Here is a look at the top 10:
1. Joe Namath (1965-76): 27,057 yards, 170 TDs, 215 INTs
2. Ken O’Brien (1984-92): 24,386 yards, 124 TDs, 95 INTs
3. Richard Todd (1976-83): 18,241 yards, 110 TDs, 138 INTs
4. Chad Pennington (2000-07): 13,738 yards, 82 TDs, 55 INTs
5. Vinny Testaverde (1998-05): 12,497 yards, 77 TDs, 58 INTs
6. Mark Sanchez (2009-12): 12,092 yards, 68 TDs, 69 INTs
7. Boomer Esiason (1993-95): 8,478 yards, 49 TDs, 39 INTs
8. Sam Darnold (2018-20): 8,097 yards, 45 TDs, 39 INTs
9. Ryan Fitzpatrick (2015-16): 6,615 yards, 43 TDs, 32 INTs
10. Zach Wilson (2021-23): 5,966 yards, 21 TDs, 25 INTs
Source: Pro Football Reference