The New York Jets for most of the season have been carried by their defense and solid special teams under second year head coach Robert Saleh. The Jets offense can’t get the quarterback position right this season and it’s holding back an offense with a brilliant play caller in Mike Lafleur, nice young weapons in the receiving core, and in the backfield. According to Billy Riccette of Jets Wire, the Jets at one point in the season were ranked dead last in offense by Pro Football Focus with a grade of 62.4. Their passing grade only ranked above the Chicago Bears.
The Jets offense has been riddled with inconsistency at the QB position whether it’s been Zach Wilson, Mike White, or Joe Flacco under center. In yesterday’s game against the AFC East leading Buffalo Bills, the defense did its job for most of the afternoon but the offense floundered once again. White threw for 268 yards, Zonovan Knight ran for 76 yards and his first NFL touchdown, but the Jets couldn’t put many points up and settled for 2 field goals in a game they absolutely needed to win. Yeah they scored 22 against the Minnesota Vikings last week but Minnesota’s defense is essentially fool’s gold. They scored 31 on Chicago in a blowout win but Chicago is not necessarily concerned about playing defense nor winning games after trading two defensive stalwarts from last year’s team. In the last game, they played against Buffalo, they only scored 20 points. In both games against the New England Patriots, the Jets offense only combined for 20 points in both games as they got swept.
They have only scored 30+ points three times this season and they are trending in the wrong direction as the home stretch starts to come and the playoffs are around the corner. The quarterback play has been a huge concern as the best games have come from Flacco’s Week 2 performance against the Cleveland Browns and White’s performance against Chicago. The lack of great QB play is starting to be an Achilles heel for a team ready made for January football.
