NFL Draft

Philadelphia’s folly vindicates New York Jets’ late season victories

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After the Eagles’ embarrassing display on Sunday night, no one should fault the New York Jets for their pair of December victories.

The NFL playoffs are set to get underway this coming weekend and there is no shortage of storylines amongst the 14 participants. But the national conversation is focused on the four-win Philadelphia Eagles and their Sunday night excursion against the Washington Football Team.

Over the first 30 minutes of the 256th and final game of the NFL regular season, Philadelphia made it difficult for Washington to clinch their first division title since 2015. They even held a 14-10 lead until the final 20 seconds. The Eagles’ scoring was handled through the legs of Jalen Hurts, a rookie quarterback taking full advantage of relatively consequence-free football. His passing stats were nothing to write home about (7-for-20, 72 yards, and an interception), With two rushing touchdowns, Hurts was potentially on his way to an early signature moment: ending a division rival’s Super Bowl dreams, fantasies that would transfer over to the New York Giants upon a Washington loss. With the Eagles reportedly clashing with franchise face Carson Wentz, Hurts was in a position to get gameday experience and the joy of an NFL victory along the way.

But, to the bewilderment of the football-loving public and his own on-field constituents, Pederson pulled some of his starters…those who weren’t on the pregame injury list…headlined by switching subbing Hurts for Nate Sudfeld. A career journeyman more likely to appear in the third version of the XFL instead of the NFL in 2022, Sudfeld lost the ball on each of his first two drives. A stagnant Washington offense mustered only three points over the latter half-hour, but they still clinched the NFC East with a 20-14 victory thanks to an Eagle offense that only moved backward with Sudfeld in tow. It will be Washington, not the Giants, that will host Tom Brady and the Buccaneers in the last game of Saturday’s playoff festivities (8:15 p.m. ET, NBC).

Pederson’s gambit of defeatism has drawn the ire of not only the Giants (who only have themselves to blame for missing out on a playoff berth offered to them solely through divisional technicalities), but his own team. Lipreaders claimed that a visibly upset Hurts declared “it’s not right” as he watched Sudfeld (whose last NFL pass came in December 2018) take over. Running back Miles Sanders, one of the aforementioned injury departees, claimed that “nobody liked the decision” to pull Hurts. Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that two defensive players had to be held back when confronting Pederson about the decision.

The Eagles’ ultimate prize for the essential forfeit? The right to choose sixth in April’s NFL Draft in Cleveland, avoiding the three-slot drop a win would’ve obtained. Even with such valuable draft capital, a turbulent offseason awaits in The City of Brotherly Love. Wentz and his massive contract have to be moved, and he’ll likely be one of several staples from the team that made the victorious trek to Super Bowl LII.

Say what you will about the 2020 New York Jets…they didn’t do that.

Hurts’ benching swiped center stage in Week 17 compilation of football follies from the Jets, who finally bid farewell to Adam Gase after a listless 28-14 defeat at the hands of the New England Patriots earlier in the day. The meaningless visit to Foxboro was hardly the most football sin of Gase’s tenure but served as an appropriate end to a two-year term that produced only nine wins.

The Jets’ fortunes were among the most trivial of New York concerns in 2020, but it was still tough to bear from a football fan standpoint. Much like a doomed blockbuster, things went haywire right from the start. Some calamities were completely understandable in the wake of the ongoing health crisis, with linebacker C.J. Mosley opting out before the first snap of training camp. The cancellation of the preseason hurt the Jets more than most teams, denying a team with completely revamped blocking and receiving corps. Elsewhere, the climax of the Jamal Adams saga yielded two first-round from Seattle at the price of an All-Pro-sized hole in the secondary. Second-round deep threat Denzel Mims, among others, were lost to training camp injuries. Even before Le’Veon Bell’s unceremonious release in October, the most casual football observer could tell it was going to be a tough season for the Jets.

Sure enough, the Jets’ were more or less eliminated from the playoff conversation before the Yankees…maybe even the Mets as well. Once the season got underway, the promises of brutality became nightmarish realities. Bell’s departure only opened the floodgates for a veteran exodus, with the New York careers of Steve McLendon, Avery Williamson, Pierre Desir, and Gregg Williams all ending throughout the course of the season. The brutal start saw the Jets fall in each of their first 13 games…a number so garish even Rich Kotite’s doomed bunch manage to avoid it.

Yet…pulling a “Pederson” never seemed to be under consideration.

Indeed, there were plenty of times where the Jets fulfilled Adams’ most damning departing declaration…that the Jets “didn’t want to win”. Any 2-14 season is one for the football hall of shame and the Jets lost half of their games by at least three possessions. But any gameday decision was made with a win in mind. Granted, some decisions were questionable at best…the 37-year-old Frank Gore’s run tally perhaps at the forefront…but the modern Jets were never interested in a reward that some of them might never get to see.

“There’s been a lot of adversity,” Gase admitted to Andy Vazquez of NorthJersey.com after the first of two wins, a 23-20 triumph over the Los Angeles Rams. “The fact that it’s this late in the season, the way that they kept fighting, the way that they stuck together and found a way to play a good game in all three phases was something that our guys should have been excited about.”

That was obvious as the season went on and the Jets inched closer to 16-game imperfection. Observers tried to tell the team that losing, however, was good for them. Inclusion amongst the likes of the 2008 Lions and 2017 Browns was a small price to pay to be at the top of the draft board. All the Jets had to do was take a few losses toward the end of the year…something that, on paper, shouldn’t have been hard to do. Following their Week 10 bye, the Jets battled teams either in the thick of the playoff picture or finding their footing in tough times. The epitome of brutality came in when Adams and the Seahawks dominated the Jets to the tune of a 40-3 shellacking in the Pacific Northwest.

All the while, professional and amateur pundits alike, perhaps partly fueled by the theory that the concept of “LOL Jets” gets clicks, encouraged the team to complete the 16-game goose egg in the win column. Such an “accomplishment” would’ve allowed them to outright clinch a spot at the top of the 2021 draft board. Their lone competition, the Jacksonville Jaguars, appeared to embrace the Pederson method when they benched Gardner Minshew’s potential for the journeyman efforts Mike Glennon. The Jaguars perhaps only avoided such calls for tanking through a 15-game losing streak after kickoff weekend and the theory that prime Joe Montana himself could take over under center in Duval County and still struggle to win ball games.

The Jets’ participants still refused to justify the mere notion. Following the embarrassment at Seattle, they knocked off a pair of playoff-bound teams, the Los Angeles Rams and Cleveland Browns. These Christmas gifts were met with only disdain from the fanbase and observers, who torched the Jets for the sin of winning a game when a date with destiny in the form of Trevor Lawrence awaited. The woebegone Jaguars “took care” of business, headlined by their Glennon gambit, losing their final games in anticipated one-sided fashion. 

It didn’t matter to the Jets.

Already a ludicrous notion from the outset…asking professionals to intentionally toss contests in pursuit of an award they’ll never sow…players went for the jugular when it came to those who called for tanking.

“If you wanted us to lose, you’re not a real fan, honestly,” first-round rookie Mekhi Becton told SNY’s Jeane Coakley after the 23-20 win in Los Angeles. “We wanted the win and we got it. That’s our goal right now. We want to go get another win.”

That mission was accomplished the following weekend, as the Jets prevented their equally star-crossed brothers from the midwest from clinching a playoff spot, topping the Cleveland Browns 23-16. Cleveland was

Simply put, one (rightfully) thrashing the Eagles is a hypocritical move if they also criticized the Jets for going all-out in their final hours.

The era of Gase is one that many Jets would like to eradicate from their memories, Men in Black-style. But it was never one where the Jets outright sacrificed a shot at victory. It’s shameful that it’s something to be proud of these days, but Week 17’s action produced a green aura of defeatism on Sunday…this time, the Jets weren’t involved.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

Should the New York Jets look toward a “stopgap” QB in 2021?

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The New York Jets have decisions to make at quarterback. A stopgap can provide welcome stability if they move on from Sam Darnold.

Well-meaning parents who purchased their children New York Jets jerseys bearing Trevor Lawrence’s name for the December holidays have some explaining to do.

The Jets’ endeavor for Trevor is more than likely over after Sunday, as a combination of a New York win and the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 14th consecutive defeat sent the top overall pick in this spring’s draft to Duval County. Considering the Jaguars (1-14) opted to play Mike Glennon in place of Gardner Minshew for their 41-17 defeat at the hands of the Chicago Bears, it’s more or less assured that they’re planning to select the Clemson thrower set to partake in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Sugar Bowl on Friday night (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Even if the Jets (2-13) landed the top overall choice…a scenario rendered impossible by their pair of December wins and the strength of schedule tiebreaker…there was going to be debate over whether they should use it on Lawrence or entrust another year to incumbent starter Sam Darnold. With nearly three stanzas completed, the narrative of Darnold’s New York saga is a complicated one. It has been defined by the occasional flash of brilliance too often countered with head-scratching decisions on the field. The story has also been interrupted by calamities that are either an unfortunate part of the game (injuries) or something most go quarterbacks go through their whole career without seeing (mononucleosis). Missing four games with a shoulder ailment hasn’t helped, but Darnold is on pace to set new career lows in most major passing categories, including yards (currently at 1,942) and touchdown passes (8).

 Mandatory Credit: Danielle Parhizkaran-USA TODAY NETWORK

Countless amounts of turnover have like played a role in Darnold’s lack of progress. His crucial developmental years have been staged in not only the Todd Bowles-to-Adam Gase staff transition, but the general manager swap from Mike Maccagnan to Joe Douglas. Nothing drives the point of unstable turnover than the fact that no receiver (with the exception of tight end Chris Herndon) from Darnold’s rookie campaign (2018) remains on the current Jets’ roster. The Jets may be ready to make yet another coaching change with Gase’s win percentage (.290) besting only Rich Kotite amongst green head coaches with at least one full year at the helm.

Tempting as it may be to see what Darnold could do with a new coaching staff (provided Gase is indeed dealt his walking papers), a legal separation, one perhaps involving a trade for draft picks, may be the best for all parties involved. The Jets don’t have time to help pen anyone else’s redemption story…they’ve spent a decade trying to write their own…and Darnold deserves a place that isn’t relying on him to be a one-size-fits-all solution.

If 2020 has proven anything, it’s that the Jets are far removed from being “a quarterback away’ from mere relevancy, much less the Super Bowl. This is a team with many needs, and it’s not fair to Darnold, Lawrence, or an unknown, young third party to expect them to be the savior sought since Joe Namath hung up his green and white paraphernalia for the last time. Even if the Jets are poised to miss out on Lawrence, the 2021 draft has provided solid consolation prizes in the form of Justin Fields, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, and Kyle Trask.

But what if the Jets took a year off from the franchise quarterback process?

Such a concept has been on the rise in recent years, the phenomenon informally labeled as using a “stopgap” quarterback. Through this endeavor, a talented quarterback helps the team in question keep rolling while other needs are addressed and developed.

The stopgap, as his name implies, is not meant to be the starter for any extended period of time. Rather, they arise out of necessity or in case of emergency. Oftentimes, the stopgap is called upon to clean up the mess or void a retired or departing franchise quarterback left behind. Modern examples on the 2020 circuit include Phillip Rivers in Indianapolis and Cam Newton in New England. Sometines, the stopgap manages to extend his stay. Modern Tom Brady could arguably be seen as a stopgap in Tampa Bay, as the Buccaneers sought his services to capitalize on a strong team around him in plans to make the most of a window of contentions. The Tennessee Titans perhaps envisioned Ryan Tannehill, fresh off a polarizing stint as Miami’s franchise man, as a temporary solution when they pulled the plug on the Marcus Mariota experiment. Tannehill helped guide the Titans to a pair of surprise playoffs wins and was rewarded with the Comeback Player of the Year Award and a four-extension.

A similar plan could work out for the Jets, a team working on a playoff game drought that’s older than all but two movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The most important thing the Jets need right now is stability. They’re a team venturing off the football rails, where even a mere winning record has proven elusive. This is a squad that needs to get back to a place where a win isn’t the worst thing that can happen to the franchise, as many have declared after the Jets stole wins from playoff contenders in Los Angeles and Cleveland. This isn’t a scenario like the Indianapolis Colts had in 2012, when Andrew Luck turned a two-win squad into a playoff team. The Jets don’t have a plethora of reliable veterans to help the kid, unlike Indianapolis’ haul of Reggie Wayne, Dwight Freeney, and Adam Vinatieri, among others.

There’s a light at the end of the green tunnel in the form of 2021 cap space. The Jets’ offseason bank currently stands at just over $81 million, once again trailing only Jacksonville. This season, particularly a strong December, has yielded some potential building blocks (Mekhi Becton, Denzel Mims, Quinnen Williams, Marcus Maye among them), but the Jets are far from a completed project. They still need blocking and weaponry on offense while the defense needs help in the secondary. The pass rush also needs to be bolstered with matchups against Josh Allen on the horizon for the next decade, and their kicking situation needs clarity. It’s not fair to waste further development on Darnold on a situation like this, nor is this any condition in which to subject a top overall pick. As the Jets try to find their footing, a stopgap man could work wonders. A short-term deal is feasible in this cap space surplus, filling one need while diverting attention to more long-term goals. Draft picks obtained from a potential trade of Darnold can be used to net weaponry that can be overseen by a proven throwing option.

Whereas the draft class may loaded with franchise potential, 2021’s free agency class is laden with stopgap potential. Jacoby Brissett had a strong showing in filling the gap between Luck and Rivers last season and would potentially seek a new chance to return to starting duties. Andy Dalton has kept the Dallas Cowboys in contention for the NFC East title since taking over for the injured Dak Prescott. The Jets may even have a stopgap option on their roster in the form of Joe Flacco. Super Bowl XLVII’s MVP may be facing the twilight of his career, but showed that he did have some gas left in the tank while filling in for an injured Darnold earlier this season.

The Jets’ most recent glory days…or the closest thing resembling them in this dreary decade…have come with stopgap guys under center. Ryan Fitzpatrick’s 2015 season appears at or near the top of nearly every single-season passing record in the Jets’ record book. Fitzpatrick (as well as fellow free-agent-to-be Tyrod Taylor, who helped end the Buffalo Bills’ eternal playoff drought before Josh Allen arrived) has nearly made a career out of the concept and currently serves in such a capacity in Miami on a part-time basis as they bide their time with Tua Tagovailoa.

 [ALLEN EYESTONE/The Palm Beach Post]
Two years later, Josh McCown kept the Jets competitive in a year some expected them to go winless. The final ledger read 5-11, but McCown’s brief restablization kept them in ball games.

Of course, the Jets have plenty of time to rectify their current surroundings to make them more desireable to an incoming franchise quarterback. If offseason funds are spent wisely (i.e. adding a strong receiving talent like Allen Robinson or JuJu Smith-Schuster), the idea of a stopgap man could seem almost laughable. For all we know, Darnold could emerge to pilot his fourth straight kickoff weekend for the Jets, hopefully one packed to the brim with fans this time around. But the stopgap conversation is one the Jets shouldn’t ignore this offseason.

Whatever the Jets have been trying in the franchise quarterback department, it’s clearly not working. Maybe some change would do them some good…if only temporarily.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags 

The New York Jets won a game…and that’s completely fine

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The New York Jets committed a mortal football sin on Sunday: a win in Los Angeles. But Gang Green has nothing to apologize for.

Christmas morning came about five days early for New York Jets fans.

Week 15 action saw two of their wildest fantasies become a reality, a pair of gifts that would generate a reaction forever immortalized in home movies. The early window of Sunday action saw the New England Patriots’ postseason streak finally end in a loss in Miami. On the other side of the country, the Jets perhaps prompted toasts of Zima amongst members of the 2008 Detroit Lions and 2017 Cleveland Browns. Their 23-20 win over the Los Angeles Rams…a team in legitimate contention for an NFL postseason spot…ended a franchise-worst 13-game losing streak and helped the Jets avoid 16-game imperfection.

For Jets fans, topping a team that could well be playing into February after watching the Patriots get erased from the playoff picture could’ve created rare tidings of comfort and joy. It was a feeling of watching your worst enemy have his gift of a PlayStation 5 taken away, but not before you get to use it for a couple of hours.

But, this being the year 2020 A.D., the sweetest of Sunday feelings, denied to the green New York fandom until the penultimate week of this cursed 366-day process, was viewed as the worst thing that could happen to an already star-crossed franchise.

The Jets’ victory in Los Angeles proved to be, in the eyes of some fans, an early Festivus miracle, as their feat of strength set off an airing of grievances unlike any other. Their triumph came at a price, the charge being lost real estate on the draft board in Cleveland. New York’s name now appears in the second slot, behind only the Jacksonville Jaguars, their compatriot in the brotherhood of 1-13 ledgers. Creating the imperfect, unholy trinity with the Lions and Browns has been no concern to the Jaguars, who have lost 13 in a row after winning on opening day. Their latest defeat was a listless 40-14 showing in Baltimore and they certainly won’t be favored in their final contests against Chicago and Indianapolis, each of whom harbors playoff dreams (the latter game could help the Colts win the AFC South). Jacksonville holds the tiebreaker with a worse strength of schedule.

The fear amongst Jets fans is that Jacksonville now has the inside track for Trevor Lawrence, who perhaps broke the hearts of two green teams in the span of a weekend. Saturday saw the Clemson quarterback solidify his status as the consensus top pick, torching Notre Dame for 412 total yards and three scores in a 34-10 victory in the ACC title game. Jets fans were willing to accept inclusion on the list of winless teams in NFL history in exchange for the glory of Lawrence. Now, Lawrence appears bound for Jacksonville, a five hour drive from Miami, where many believe he and the Tigers will be on January 11 for college football’s national title game.

But…it’s shocking it needs to be said, but hey, it’s 2020…what’s done is done. There’s no use crying over spilled Gatorade. The Jets won a game…and that’s perfectly all right.

Tank the Tank

The notion of tanking is ludicrous in all walks of life, particularly in a profession where you can be one of the 32 best people at your job in the entire world, and observers and supervisors alike will call for your axing.

To their macabre credit, the Jets rarely seemed to buy into the concept. Sure, there have been incidents where they might’ve been better off staying home…the brutal visits to Indianapolis, Miami, and Seattle come to mind…but one can look at the Jets’ 2020 schedule and find instances where, on paper, they should’ve come out with a win. Nothing more needs to be said about the ill-advised final blitz against Las Vegas, but they had control for a majority of prime time contests against Denver and New England. Even their first visit to SoFi Stadium could’ve gone worse, as they played the Chargers to a 34-28 decision.

Members of the modern Jets have been clear where their priorities lie. Spoiler alert, they’re not on the draft board.

“I don’t put my body through this, I don’t think anybody on the Jets puts their body through it, to lose,” offensive lineman McGovern said prior to the departure to Los Angeles, per Greg Joyce of the New York Post. “It might be easy for somebody sitting on the couch, eating pizza, chips, and dip, to say they should keep losing, but if they’ve ever strapped the pads on, that sounds like an impossible thing for me to do. I’m going to do whatever I can to win.”

Mekhi Becton, a rare Jet who has a spot on this roster beyond 2020, advocated that those rooting for losses should turn in their New York fan credentials.

“You ain’t really a fan if you didn’t want us to win, honestly,” Becton told Jeane Coakley of SNY. “I mean that in the nicest way possible. I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way. But I mean, if you wanted us to lose, you’re not a real fan, honestly.”

Even before the losses began to pile up, the Jets were made up of players who needed to prove their worth to build a long-term NFL future. That was apparent in general manager Joe Douglas’ free agent haul this offseason, where all but one signee (McGovern) was granted a contract worth one year or contained an affordable exit after 2020. To ask these players to toss away their final chances to impress, not only for the Jets but for the 31 other NFL squads as well, for the sake of a “reward” they maybe not even be around to witness is out of touch. For these players, these final hours could be the difference between another NFL paycheck or waiting for the XFL to come back in 2022.

Some of those holdovers are carving spots for themselves on a future roster. Midseason acquisition Ty Johnson earned the first 100-yard rushing game from a Jets rusher against Las Vegas and scored a touchdown on the opening drive against the Rams. Neville Hewitt is working his way toward another New York contract with 122 tackles. One can even point at Sam Darnold’s case as to why the Jets shouldn’t be tanking. He has, from at least a team standpoint, consequence-free opportunities to convince the Jets that he deserves to maintain his hold on the position.

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that people will go to great lengths to keep their livelihoods when they’re on the line. The Jets shouldn’t be faulted for doing so in a relatively harmless fashion.

Hold that Tiger

Lawrence mastery on Saturday might’ve been just enough for even the staunchest Jets supporter to consider wearing blue, cream, and yellow in support of the Rams the next day. There’s no doubt that whoever is getting Lawrence is getting an incredible talent on and off the field. His prowess on the gridiron speaks for itself and he became a strong voice of unity and leadership elsewhere. Along with Sugar Bowl opponent and likely fellow first-rounder Justin Fields of Ohio State, Lawrence was an advocate for both societal equality and safely finding a way to play the 2020 college football amidst the ongoing health crisis.

But for all his magic, for all his powers…even Lawrence is not a be-all, end-all, fix-all solution to the New York Jets franchise.

Sure, there’s plenty of time for the Jets to tidy up and make their organization attractive to a sought-after newcomer, be a rookie like Lawrence or a veteran free agent like Allen Robinson or JuJu Smith-Schuster. But it’s going to take a lot of work. The Le’Veon Bell case perhaps set the Jets’ transactional affairs back further than they could’ve imagined. What high-ticket free agent is going to look at the way the Bell situation played out, becoming a saga plagued by infighting amongst the team’s decisionmakers and leading to the post-draft firing of a general manager, and look to replicate that? The Jets certainly have a strong budget to work with (just below $73 million and potentially counting if they cut pricey veterans like Henry Anderson and George Fant), but they’ll need to do a better job building relationships.

At the very least, Douglas has made it clear that he has a plan, leaving traces of his blueprints across his transactions, even if they haven’t fully played out. When the quarterback needed blocking, Douglas traded for Alex Lewis and convinced Ryan Kalil to come out of retirement. With Darnold low on weapons, Douglas signed Breshad Perriman and found a day two gem in Denzel Mims in the draft. Noe everything has panned out on the field…Kalil failed to play up to his Pro Bowl form and Perriman has been inconsistent…but it at least showed that Douglas knew how to chase down a need position.

There’s definitely hope on the horizon. Mims has shown flashes of brilliance despite bouts with injury and Becton has been everything the Jets could’ve asked for. But this group, particularly the offensive line, is very much a work in progress. Putting Lawrence behind the current blocking unit would be only asking for trouble. There’s time to improve between now and the spring, but, if things stay the way they are, the Lawrence era probably wouldn’t be that much different from Darnold’s.

But, contrary to popular belief amongst the pro-tank crowd, the draft does not begin and end once Lawrence’s name is called. At least 224 men will be added to NFL rosters in Cleveland, and the Jets will be choosing quite often. Cincinnati’s shocking win on Monday night over Pittsburgh, perhaps another victory seen as ill-advised by those who wish to tank, ensured that the Jets would choose no later than second overall come April. There’s plenty of other needs that can be immediately satisfied with the No. 2 pick, even if Lawrence is donning a Jaguars cap and jersey. The non-Lawrence quarterback would be well protected with the combined efforts of Penei Sewell or Rashawn Slater. He can throw to Ja’Marr Chase or Devonta Smith. The yearly couple against Josh Allen and Tua Tagovailoa would be easier to bear pass rushers Kwity Paye or Jayson Oweh if they trade down. Others from those positions (i.e. Azeez Ojulari, Wyatt Davis, or Terrace Marshall) could be available when the Jets choose later on day one with Seattle’s pick, obtained from the Jamal Adams trade.

It’s fair to mourn the loss of Lawrence in the early going…and even more so when rewatching the film from Charlotte on Saturday…but it’s a potential loss they can overcome with the right brand of drafting and scouting ingenuity.

New York Jets, Adam Gase
Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Change is Still Coming

The Jets might’ve been on the right side of the scoreboard after Sunday’s affair, but there were still plenty of reminders as to why they’re long eliminated from the NFL playoff picture. Inspiring and fun as the win may be…former Super Bowl offensive coordinator and Jets head coach Adam Gase remarked per The Post that “I don’t think I’ve seen a group more excited after a game than what I saw (Sunday) when talking about the postgame reaction…it’d be silly to believe that it’ll serve as the deciding factor as to whether some veterans stay or go.

From a playcalling standpoint, for example, there’s no reason to waste consequence-free games on giving the ball to Frank Gore 23 times a game while Johnson carried it only thrice (returning rookie La’Mical Perine didn’t get any). There was a chance for the Jets to build on a 13-0 lead going into the halftime break, but opted for short runs that allowed Los Angeles to get the ball back and add a triple. The defense took a notable step backward when an injured Quinnen Williams was forced to leave the game, giving up three consecutive scoring drives in the second half.

Another asterisk came in the form of the opponent. Rams rusher Cam Akers, fresh off a career-best 171-yard performance against New England, was affected by an ankle injury they stripped him of his true impact (though two long Akers runs, including a touchdown, were called back due to penalties in the second half). Even if the Jets did buy into tanking, Los Angeles almost wouldn’t allow it. Five of the first six Rams possessions ended in a punt, one of which was blocked by J.T. Hassell. The outlier in that group resulted in a Bryce Hall interception.

So, unless Johnson or Gore helped you win your fantasy football semifinal, only true football die-hards are going to remember this win. Change is still coming with to the Jets. Previews of the purge have been plentiful…just ask Bell, Steve McLendon, Avery Williamson, Pierre Desir, or Gregg Williams…but it should begin in earnest this offseason. If the Jets are truly on the fence about Gase, a December win against an opponent that was clearly not operating at top speed shouldn’t be enough to sway the pendulum back in his favor.

Douglas has a plan, picks, and prosperity through cap space. One win, even at the cost of one potential quarterback, shouldn’t be the force of destruction that upends it all.

It’s rare enough that the Jets earn a thrilling December victory in this day and age. If you’re a fan, you should feel no reservation toward celebrating it.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

Three reasons why a QB1 would want to come to the New York Jets

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New York Jets, Trevor Lawrence

Enough negativity, pessimism, and parody has surrounded the 2020 New York Jets. It’s time to focus on a (hopefully) brighter future.

It’s understandable to see why the 2020 New York Jets have become a bit of a punchline. The team appears to be the year 2020 A.D. personified, trapped for five more weeks in a season that will go down in infamy, even if the Jets (0-11) do manage to eke out a win before all is said and done. Their next opportunity to do comes on Sunday afternoon against the Las Vegas Raiders (1 p.m. ET, CBS). 

The Jets and their fans have been through untold amounts of gridiron catastrophe over the decades, but a winless season has avoided them for the time being. Either way, those who make football funnies, both through pregame shows and social media, have been granted a plethora of material by the Jets’ modern endeavors.

It seems like a tired tradition at this point, but Jets fans are looking toward the future with hope. The light at the end of the turfed tunnel appears to be the right to choose first at the 2021 NFL Draft come spring. It’s assumed by many that, if the Jets were to secure that pick, they would use it one of the passing talents at the top of the big boards.

But football comedians and analysts alike are seeking to deny the Jets even that simple pleasure. Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields are juniors, but very much expected to make the early leap to the NFL once this college football season ends (potentially in the College Football Playoff). But, if the horizon becomes a bit too scary, respective returns to Clemson and Ohio State for senior year, while seemingly unlikely, would be options that were indeed on the table. Amateur and professional pundits alike have openly taunted the Jets with the idea that one or both would go back to school, if only to avoid the ongoing cesspool of New York football and to take advantage of the time-honored tradition of harvesting clicks through the “LOL Jets” subgenre. Peyton Manning partook in a similar gambit in 1997, choosing to go back to Tennessee after the Jets chose not to commit to taking him with the top pick after the one-win disaster in the final year of the Rich Kotite era.

In short, many have asked: what could the hapless Jets possibly offer an accomplished college name, especially one with a viable option like the back-up plans Lawrence and Fields have?

ESM feels there’s enough negativity surrounding New York’s green team; here’s what they have to offer to their new franchise man.

New York Jets, Joe Douglas
 (Photo by Al Pereira/Getty Images)

There’s Plenty to Spend

Even if the Jets opt to move on from Darnold, this season has proven that a simple quarterback switch isn’t going to solve all of the Jets’ problems. But there’s another list where the Jets rank toward the top, other than the draft order: the 2021 cap space table.

This offseason, the Jets will have just over $82 million of cap space to spend, trailing only fellow early picker Jacksonville ($85 million). It’d be fair for Jets fans to ask if general manager Joe Douglas is willing to splurge; after all, Douglas was blessed with some extra funds late this summer but opted to mostly stand pat with the team he had (passing on signees like Jadeveon Clowney and Logan Ryan). Many of the free agents that did join up with Douglas haven’t truly panned out thus far, some through no fault of Douglas or their own, instead being lost to injuries. But in comments made earlier this year, Douglas seemed to hint that this prior offseason, defined by short-term deals and a sense of hesitation, could serve as a learning experience, potentially hinting at bigger things in the future.

“I think we had a focus on what we going to try to attack in the offseason. That was on the offensive side of the ball with o-line and skill players. Ultimately, for a lot of different reasons, it hasn’t materialized this year on that side of the ball,” Douglas said, per notes from the Jets. “We’re going through this offseason, we’re going through what our processes were in the offseason and trying to figure out what we can do better moving forward.”

New York Jets, Mekhi Becton

A Blocking Revolution is Well Underway

If Douglas has succeeded in one area during his year-plus on the job, it has been in doing his utmost to make up for the relative offensive line negligence of the Mike Maccagnan era. His first moves at the helm were to trade a draft pick for Alex Lewis and convincing Pro Bowl staple Ryan Kalil to come out of retirement. Lewis has been effective but injured, while the Kalil experiment failed to yield positive results. But those moves foreshadowed the much-needed rebuild of the New York offensive line.

In April, Douglas used the first draft pick of his Jets tenure (No. 11 overall) on a blocker out of Louisville. Upon hearing his name, Mekhi Becton became the first New York lineman taken in the first round since the legendary D’Brickashaw Ferguson in 2006. His drafting has provided sweet relief in a lost season, with his results on Pro Football Focus (where he is one of 15 NFL tackles with a grade of at least 70 in both pass and run blocking) showing a promising return on investment.

“I think he is a player that is going to help us long-term,” Douglas said in notes and video from the Jets. “We’re excited about working with him every day, because you’re talking about a young man that loves football. He’s very smart, he’s tough as nails, and has a rare size and athleticism. And still, he’s just scratching the surface of what he can do physically. There’s a lot of desire from him to want to be the best player that he can be, so we’ve made it our mission to sort of bend over backward to try to help him reach his goals.”

Some of Douglas’ other additions have not panned out, and that’s apparent in the current state of the offensive line. Greg Van Roten has been durable but inconsistent and George Fant has been average, but other additions like Connor McGovern (the one Jets free agency signee from last season with no cap savings on a potential out) and Josh Andrews have been most disappointing. There’s little reason to doubt that Douglas will once again look toward the free agent front to find protection through both experienced (Alex Mack) and younger (Joe Thuney) options alike.

The idea of a blocking revolution doesn’t even have to have a new quarterback to protect. It instead could continue at the top of the big board if Sam Darnold rises to the occasion over the final games. If that’s the case, the Jets could perhaps opt to choose tackle Penei Sewell out of Oregon to help not only Darnold but what will likely be a new weapons package. Sewell opted out of the 2020 season but has already declared for the draft. He will bring the Outland Trophy and unanimous All-American honors with him.

 Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Weapons Are Emerging

No matter who Douglas chose with the 11th overall pick last spring, he was going to annoy some subsection of the New York fanbase. For everyone who wanted a blocker, there was another who demanded that Douglas dip his toe into the pool of receivers available toward the draft’s middle stages. The Jets will face one of those receivers on Sunday with Henry Ruggs partaking in the Las Vegas efforts. New York also passed on Jerry Jeudy, CeeDee Lamb, and Justin Jefferson in the process. A consolation prize awaited in the second round in the form of Denzel Mims from Baylor.

When it comes to Mims, it appears that Douglas’ patience is paying off. He had to wait a little longer due to training camp ailments but has since become one of the Jets’ most reliable receivers. Mims has since united with Breshad Perriman and Jamison Crowder to provide a spark to the New York offense. The two have played in each of the Jets’ past three games. In that span, the Jets put out a season-best 322 yards in Week 9’s Monday night loss to New England and their margin of defeat has trickled to an average of just over eight points. Without the trio, they were losing by an average of 18.

Despite some emergencies from de facto homegrown talent…rookie rusher La’Mical Perine was also starting to find a bit of a groove before landing on injured reserve…Perriman was added on a one-year deal while Crowder could be a cap savings casualty, so the Jets must take full advantage of their expanded cap space in an illustrious market. The team can probably get by with Perine as their top rusher (though an affordable, decently-aged veteran like Phillip Lindsay or Wayne Gallman could provide a nice compliment), but they must be ready to splurge in a crowded receivers’ realm. Allen Robinson will likewise be the top option alongside JuJu Smith-Schuster, whose rookie deal in Pittsburgh is set to expire.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

New York Jets: Three things to know about CB Bryce Hall

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New York Jets, Bryce Hall

With the release of Pierre Desir, rookie Bryce Hall will take on an expanded role in the New York Jets secondary.

Kids are running New York now.

The New York Jets bid another one of their veteran starters farewell this week, placing cornerback Pierre Desir on waivers. Desir joins Le’Veon Bell, Steve McLendon, and Avery Williamson as New York starters that have been sent elsewhere as the team sinks further into football oblivion.

With Desir’s departure, younger players will be expected to take on a larger role over the Jets’ remaining seven games. Cornerback Bryce Hall will be among the latest to step up, as he moves to the front of the depth chart with Desir seeking a new team. The Jets (0-9) hit the west coast to battle the Los Angeles Chargers (2-7) in their first-ever visit to SoFi Stadium on Sunday (4:05 p.m. ET, CBS).

Hall was the Jets’ fifth-round pick (158th overall) back in April’s draft, hailing from Virginia. The early portions of his season were spent on the reserve/COVID-19 list and later the non-football injury list, but he made his debut in the Jets’ most recent defeat at the hands of the New England Patriots. He would go on to earn two tackles in his first taste of NFL action. With Desir gone, and Bless Austin recently sent to injured reserve, Hall is expected to play a major role in the Jets’ defense in the final stages of this woebegone season.

“I attacked the rehab process just how I attack my preparation in playing this game,” Hall said this week, per Chris Ryan of NJ Advance Media. “The biggest thing that’s helped me is my faith and just having that positive outlook that I will be able to. I felt like God brought me here for a reason, so he’s like, ‘You’re gonna be fine. You’re gonna have an opportunity. Now keep you know just learn as much as you can, through that process.’”

ESM has a few things to know about the former Cavalier as his big opportunity awaits…

[EDIT: 11/23/20, 4:00 p.m. ET:] A previous version of this article referred to Bishop McDevitt’s nickname as the “Royal Lancers”, rather than the Crusaders. This has been corrected.

He Got His Start on Offense

It’s ironic that Hall has made his modern football living through making life miserable for opposing receivers, as his career began in the position he now neutralizes. He entered the national scene as a receiver at Bishop McDevitt High School, a parochial school in Pennsylvania, earning 2,386 yards and 35 touchdowns over four seasons. Afterward, he was offered two Football Bowl Subdivision scholarship offers, choosing Virginia over Coastal Carolina.

“I think all those years playing receiver have helped with my understanding of what offenses are trying to do and with my ball skills,” Hall said in a pre-draft retrospective with Ron Counts of The Daily Progress. “It was funny because we were so raw in terms of fundamentals and technique. (I) really had to stumble into it and take in whatever the coaches were saying. After a lot of failing and getting roasted multiple times in practice, I started to find my way.”

The switch obviously played out for the better; Hall went on to lead the nation in pass defenses during his junior season in 2018 (21), an accomplishment that helped him earn first-team All-ACC honors at the end of the year.

He Nearly Played Basketball

Hall could’ve been donning the blue and orange threads of the Knicks rather than the green and white of the Jets had he had his way upon reaching the Wyncote, PA campus of Bishop McDevitt. It was the Crusaders’ head football coach, Jeff Weachter, who was able to convince Hall to trade the hardwood for the gridiron permanently after Hall was ready to hang up his helmet during his sophomore season.

“I said ‘You’re kidding. At best, you’re a Division II basketball player. You’re a D-I football player,’” Weachter said in Counts’ report, mentioning that Hall missed the Crusaders’ first scrimmage that season while tending to basketball matters. “He called me the next day on Sunday and said ‘Coach, I made a horrible mistake. Can I still come out?’ I said ‘Of course. But you’re not going to start the first couple games.’ I understood because that’s just Bryce. He wants to be perfect at everything he does, and he wanted to spend that time perfecting basketball.”

Only destiny and fate know how drastically Hall’s life could’ve changed with the decision. True to Weachter’s prediction, he earned a Division I invitation to the Cavaliers, where he not only earned the publicity that led to his drafting, but also met his fiance Anzel Vilojen, a former member of Virginia’s field hockey squad. Days after the Jets brought him to New York, Hall asked Vilojen to marry him in a successful proposal.

He Has Worked Through a Lot of Adversity

The Jets have added several veterans whom they hope can direct the team through these times of adversity, but the rookie Hall can serve as a strong source of inspiration, even as he enters only his second week of NFL action.

Some experts felt that Hall could’ve been a first-round pick had he entered the draft after his junior campaign. Athlon Sports, for example, had Hall ranked in the top ten of their premature 2020 draft rankings. Hall, however, opted to return for his senior campaign, a year that ended early due to a devastating ankle injury. The injury played a major role in his fall from round one to day three.

But Hall never came to regret his decision to return to Charlottesville. In fact, from the moment the injury happened, the defender was looking to glean the positives out of it.

“I feel like I’m already better from it now, because that’s the thing: When you go through difficult things like that, it really molds your character. It just creates something in you that wasn’t possible to be developed before, had you not gone through this process,” Hall said, per Jeff White of Virginia’s official athletics site. “Now I’m in a position where I’m becoming a better leader, and I’m developing different gifts that I feel like I’ve had in me but just haven’t come out, like speaking. I’m usually somebody who leads by example. Now, my voice is the only thing I have to help and encourage and communicate.”

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

Don’t fault the New York Jets for defying the “tanking” method

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Fans across the tri-state area admonished the New York Jets for the sin of playing better football on Monday night.

Let’s be clear from the get-go that while metropolitan fans have been forced to deal with a lot in the year 2020, it pales in comparison to the issues on a broader scale. If the biggest problem in your life is seeing Henrik Lundqvist in a Washington Capitals sweater or that the New York Knicks fell in the NBA draft lottery, you’re a lot better off than at least 99.999999999 percent of the rest of the world, especially in these trying times.

That being said, it was hard not to send at least a few sympathies to New York Jets fans on Monday night.

If only because New York City skyline shots are ratings gold, the Jets partook in their second nationally televised NFL game this season on Monday night, their AFC East showdown with the New England Patriots streamed to the masses of a football-loving public. Placing such a matchup in a national TV slot more or less explains why Hollywood keeps churning out gory, repetitive interations of franchises like Saw: they’re violent, often one-sided, and unpleasant from anything but a macabre sense, but people keep watching them, so the powers that be continue to make sure they remain in production. Since 2010, seven New York-New England get-togethers have been placed in either the primetime windows of Sunday, Monday, or Thursday night. The Jets have lost each of those meetings, including a 30-27 last-second defeat on the most recent edition of ESPN’s Monday Night Football. It’s the Jets’ ninth consecutive loss to New England and their ledger reads 0-9 for the first time in franchise history…a mark so dubious even Rich Kotite and Co. managed to avoid it.

Yet, when Nick Folk’s 51-yard triple sailed through the uprights as time expired, Jets fans throughout the tri-state area were…relieved?

Yes, the 2020 season has become so wretched for Jets fans that they are actually resorting to begging the Patriots to humiliate them. Such declarations are made in the name of tanking, the supposed art of intentionally losing games so as to secure a better draft pick. As the only winless team left in the NFL and only one single-win left on the docket (the hapless Jacksonville Jaguars), the Jets are well in position to secure the top overall choice, presumably to be used on Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Tanking has become a far-too-common entry in the New York sports ledgers recently. The Jets’ case to do only increases due to the NFL Draft’s straightforward method of sorting. Unlike their counterparts on the ice and hardwood, the NFL eschews a lottery system, merely ranking non-playoff teams from worst to best record in determining the first 18 picks. A lower strength of schedule serves as the primary tiebreaker. It’s understandable that fans comfort themselves through thinking of the future, whether it’s via endless visits to Tankathaon or rhyming/alliterating social media tags (#TheEndeavorForTrevor).

. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

The Jets have had to deal with accusations of tanking after eight straight defeats (with an average margin of defeat at three possessions). A mini fire-sale that bid farewell to touted names like Le’Veon Bell (released), Steve McLendon, and Avery Williamson (the latter two traded for day three draft picks) did nothing to ax those notions. Head coach Adam Gase, perhaps the most common name on the top of many Jets’ fan purge lists, insisted that it wasn’t a sign of a complete 2020 shutdown.

“I never look at waving the white flag. That’s not in my DNA,” Gase said earlier this fall, per Rich Cimini of ESPN. Regarding the departures, Gase noted that “I know it’s not always ideal, but that’s the NFL. That’s what it is. That’s part of what happens when you don’t win. We’re at a part of the season where we haven’t won a game yet, and things like this happen”.

But obsessively, almost masochistically, hoping your team loses is not the way to go.

For one thing, the unpredictable nature of the NFL Draft is too much to hinge every one of your future hopes on. One look at the countless montages all of the football rights-holders play on draft weekend showcasing the Jets’ high-profile misses should tell you that. Even if the Jets do earn the No. 1 pick and the presumed rights to Lawrence, he’s not going to wave a magic wand and make them into a contender again. It should be clear at this point that the Jets don’t seem to be making any major decisions when it comes to the beleaguered coaching staff, at least before the year lets out.

The macabre silver lining of such a woebegone record is the gift of consequence-free opportunities (at least from a franchise standpoint) for your team on game day, chances to work with research and development, see what works and what doesn’t. For their part, the Jets did seem to take advantage of this dark gift and played their best game of the season on Monday night. Sure, the Tom Brady-free Patriots aren’t what they used to be, but the fact that the Jets put up a good effort against a desperate divisional foe should be inspiring to whatever fans have opted to stick around for this.

Yet, what could’ve been a night of hope and inspiration was instead one of fear for the fanbase for the majority of the evening. The mortal sin of a New York sports rooting for a Boston team is often only applied in “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” situations. There were probably New York Yankees fans that secretly clamored for the Red Sox to top the Mets in the 1986 World Series. The New York Giants’ faithful donned a new shade of blue for Super Bowl LII, unsuccessfully getting behind the Patriots’ championship cause against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Fans must realize, though: even if games have no consequence in the long run…box scores from the final seven games might week be erased from the New York archives at the end of the season. But to these players, Monday’s game in New England…and the final seven games overall…mean everything.

A combination of health and social factors have served as reminders that these athletes are human. These are not interchangeable parts. Living, breathing men and women partake in these games for our entertainment, a form of amusement we, the sports-loving people, have turned to in these times of turmoil. The dark side of it is that careers and livelihoods are on the line. For some on this Jets roster, it could be the last time they see their names on an NFL depth chart. To tell these players to toss a game aside so your team will be on the clock sooner…potentially taking that player’s replacement…is naive. Tanking is a ludicrous notion in any sport. Asking players to do so in the 16-game nature of the NFL makes it even more callous in the wider picture.

Take, for example, Folorunso Fatukasi. A native of Far Rockaway and now-defunct Beach Channel High School, Fatukasi has been on and off the Jets’ active roster since joining the team as a sixth-round pick in 2018. There was promise on display from Fatukasi last season after missing all but one game in his rookie year, but perhaps nothing to truly solidify his status for the Jets’ future. His case, and perhaps many others, was perhaps hurt by a lack of preseason games, exhibitions canceled in the wake of the ongoing health crisis. The casual observer might not be able to tell whether Fatukasi was more likely destined for the Jets or, say, an XFL roster in the future.

But with injuries and the ongoing purge taking over, Fatukasi has pounced on his newfound opportunity, particularly when McLendon was dealt to Tampa Bay. His Monday output (7 tackles, including a big fourth-down stop that eventually led to a Jets field goal) added to his impressive 2020 resume, one that has him ranked in the top ten of Pro Football Focus’ interior defensive lineman ratings.

Do you really want to tell this guy to quit now for the mere possibility of hope later? Fakutasi admitted that the situation is far from ideal, but he and his fellow Jets are committed to figuring things out immediately.

“It is frustrating,” Fatukasi said, per Neil Greenberg of the Washington Post. “But we’ve still got a lot more work to do and guys are going to make sure that we’re encouraged to get this thing turned around somehow.”

Even before his big Monday night moment, Fakutasi was adamant that tanking wasn’t in the Jets’ vocabulary, without ever having to say those cursed words.

“It is Monday night football, but at the end of the day it is another game, another opportunity,” Fatukasi said in a pregame report from Jack Bell of NYJets.com “My biggest objective is to go in and play as hard as I can with my teammates, rally with my teammates, and play a good game.”

“This is what we play for…to get a W.”

Do you really want to tell a guy like that to lose on purpose? Do you really want to tell the Jets’ upcoming free agent group, consisting of 28 players, some of whom will be biting and crawling for a chance to stay in the league, that their futures mean nothing? If and when Sam Darnold returns, shouldn’t he get seven final opportunities to prove he’s the Jets’ franchise man?

The sheer quality of upcoming opponents may wind getting the Jets the top overall pick their fans so desire. Five of the Jets’ final seven adversaries are either in a current playoff spot or at the very least tied for one. The exceptions are a Week 17 rematch with the Patriots in New England and their next immediate game against the Los Angeles Chargers following their bye. Los Angeles is only two wins up on the Jets, but, unlike New York, the Bolts at least seem to have some semblance of hope. Justin Herbert appears to be their franchise man and the six losses on their slate have come by a combined 24 points.

Realistically, the pro-tank party’s philosophy could be the talk of the team as they freefall toward an imperfect season. That outlook involves embracing the positives gleaned…and one could look at young developments like Denzel Mims and smile…while thanking the football gods that the Jets did just enough to add another tally to the right-hand side of the win-loss column. 

But you can be assured that the Jets won’t buy into the tanking philosophy. If postgame comments from Monday’s aftermath ring true, they’re focused on November/December 2020…not April 2021.

At least in the grand scheme of things, Jets losses are heartbreaking again. Guard Greg Van Roten made of this change in a report from Brian Costello of the New York Post. Van Roten made it clear that the best way out of the Jets’ current woes it to go out and win a game.

“A loss like that is heartbreaking because it’s ‘Monday Night Football’ and it comes down to the very last play of the game,” Van Roten said. “I felt like we played well enough to win and just didn’t finish. You lose and you come in on a day like today and everyone’s spirits are down. You have to watch the film, see what you did well and build on that, see what you did not so well and correct it and you have to move on. We have a bye week to kind of recover a little bit, get healthy physically and mentally and hit the ground running when we get out of the break and just go win a game.”

“In this league, you have to play with confidence,” quarterback Joe Flacco added in the same report. “The more you lose, the harder it is to do that. The more you win, you expect to go out there and run for 200 yards and throw for 350 and score five touchdowns. You expect to do that. Right now, the way we’re playing, we’re trying to convince ourselves that that’s going to be the case. We don’t really know. We’ve just got to go out there and continue to believe, continue to take it day by day.”

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

New York Giants: Pros and cons of a potential Kevin Zeitler trade

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The 2020 NFL trade deadline is right around the corner. The New York Giants have already gotten active, trading away edge rusher Markus Golden to the Arizona Cardinals for a sixth-round draft pick. The Giants have had a few other players’ names come up in trade discussions, too. Veteran wide receiver Golden Tate is a trade candidate whose value is increasing. Offensive guard Kevin Zeitler is another name that teams have called about.

Kevin Zeitler was traded to the Giants in 2019. Since then, he has started in all but one game for the Giants. Zeitler has been one of the team’s best players since his arrival in New Jersey. But with the Giants sitting at the bottom of the NFC East with a lowly 1-6 record, there is a chance they start to sell off their best players to the highest bidders. How would the Giants benefit from a potential Kevin Zeitler trade?

Pros

The Giants are a young, rebuilding football team. They invested heavily into their offensive line this offseason, particularly through the 2020 NFL Draft. New York drafted two offensive tackles and one interior offensive lineman in this year’s draft. That interior offensive lineman is Shane Lemieux out of Oregon, and he would be the new starting right guard if Kevin Zeitler were to be traded.

If Zeitler were to be traded, the Giants would be able to give Lemieux a starting role for the final 8 weeks of the season. This would allow them to have plenty of NFL film on Lemieux going into the offseason before deciding whether or not to sign or draft another offensive lineman.

Best case scenario, Lemieux impresses and instills confidence in the Giants that he can be a long-term starter at offensive guard. Worst case scenario, Lemieux struggles and proves not to be the long-term answer, indicating to the Giants that they need to find a new offensive guard in the offseason.

Regardless, Kevin Zeitler is not a long-term answer at offensive guard. He is 31-years-old and has not been the same player this year that he was the seasons prior. Moving on from Zeitler would also free up $10 million in salary cap for the Giants (Spotrac).

Trading away Kevin Zeitler would likely acquire the Giants a day-two pick in the NFL Draft. He is their best offensive player and most valuable trade asset. The Giants would be able to gain draft capital and give Shane Lemieux valuable game experience. These are great benefits to trading away Kevin Zeitler, but there are drawbacks also.

Cons

If the Giants do trade Kevin Zeitler away, their offensive line will be going from bad to worse. The Giants’ offensive line is one of the worst in the NFL despite having Kevin Zeitler in the starting five. Taking him away would put Daniel Jones in harm’s way.

Additionally, taking Kevin Zeitler out of the starting lineup and thrusting Shane Lemieux in there could be bad for the rookie out of Oregon. Lemieux was a mid-round draft pick that is being developed behind Kevin Zeitler at the moment.

If he is ready to take on a starting role, then the Giants would probably be excited to get him out there in some capacity. But Lemieux has not lined up at offensive guard once this season, just a few snaps at fullback. If he is not ready to play, the Giants might risk stunting his growth by forcing him into the starting lineup to face tough competition.

The Giants have about a week to get a deal done if they plan on trading away Kevin Zeitler. Zeitler is a valuable and talented player, but if Gettleman and the Giants want to play the long game, they might benefit from moving on from the veteran offensive guard.

New York Giants have best chance of landing number one overall pick, according to ESPN

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New York Giants, Daniel Jones

Once again, the New York Giants are the talk of the NFL Draft less than a month into the NFL’s regular season. After an abysmal 0-3 start, Giants fans have lost hope in their team and have begun looking ahead to the offseason. According to ESPN FPI, Giants fans have good reason to look ahead to the draft.

The New York Giants have a 27.8% chance of landing the number one overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, per ESPN FPI. This is just ahead of the New York Jets, who have a 27.7% chance of landing the top pick. Right now, it appears that the race for the first pick will be between the two New York teams.

The Giants and Jets have a much higher chance of picking first overall than any other team. The team with the third-highest chance is the Jaguars, at only 8.2%.

The Trevor Lawrence Sweepstakes

There is one player that will be targeted with the number one pick in the 2021 NFL Draft: Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Few “generational” quarterbacks have entered the NFL. The prospects that get the “generational” tag are Peyton Manning, John Elway, Andrew Luck, and now Trevor Lawrence. That is elite company that Lawrence is consistently brought up with.

The team that secures the number one overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft will, far more likely than not, draft Trevor Lawrence. Even the Giants will need to give fair consideration to replacing Daniel Jones in that scenario. Jones has flashed great potential in his first 15 starts, but he has been far from perfect. If the Giants do end up with the first overall pick, it would be an indictment on Daniel Jones. The only way the Giants implode like that is if Jones not only fails to progress but actually regresses between now and the end of the season.

So, in that scenario, Dave Gettleman would be fired. Daniel Jones is Gettleman’s (and Pat Shurmur’s) quarterback and, without Gettleman, there are no ties necessarily keeping Jones with the organization. A new general manager would come in and likely consider Trevor Lawrence too good to pass up.

The same goes for the New York Jets and Sam Darnold. Darnold was an excellent prospect coming out of college who has looked impressive at times but has yet to put it all together. Trevor Lawrence, being an infinitely better quarterback prospect, might be the only sensible selection for the Jets at first overall.

Whether it is the Giants, Jets, Jaguars, or someone else picking first overall, the selection will be Trevor Lawrence. Of course, a team like the Jets or Giants could trade down for a king’s ransom if they believe enough in their young quarterbacks. But Trevor Lawrence’s ceiling is too high to pass up. He is a must-pick prospect for whoever lands the top selection in 2021.

New York Jets’ Sunday loss in Indy shows how far they’ve fallen since 2018 trade

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It’s hard to blame Darnold for it, but there’s no denying the New York Jets are no better off since their fateful 2018 trade with the Colts.

The NFL Draft has transformed from a single, fleeting weekend in April to a 12-month, 365-day affair that dominates the football landscape on both the professional and amateur levels. Part of the reason for this evolution is the lasting relationship the draft holds with the concept of “what might’ve been”. Fruitful and ineffectual Sundays in autumn have fans constantly asking questions in spring retrospect.

The New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts will be linked by this bond for the foreseeable future. Two years, five months, and eight days before their Sunday afternoon meet-up at Lucas Oil Stadium, a 36-7 Indianapolis shellacking, the two sides agreed to a trade that altered the selection board of the 2018 NFL Draft. New York (0-3) sent four picks to Circle City to move their first turn up three slots. Such a move allowed the Jets to be around for one of the top quarterback choices available in the 2018 proceedings.

The Jets and Colts also engaged in several draft day deals since then, but none have been more vital than the swap that indirectly dressed Sam Darnold in green.

“(New York) had an interest to move up to (No.) 3 and kind of went back and forth for the last four or five days,” Colts general manager Chris Ballard said at the time, per ESPN’s Rich Cimini. “(We) talked to a couple other teams, but we still wanted to stay in position in that top 10 where we could still get a premium player. We feel like at (No.) 6, we’ll still be able to get a premium player.”

At the time, the Jets were actually stocked on the foreign concepts of hope and momentum. They had gone 5-11 the year before but were energized by a young unit overseen by the reasonable reliability of placeholder quarterback Josh McCown. USA Today had the Jets winning a single game in 2017, but McCown and company conjured up five (including one over future AFC finalist Jacksonville), providing some rare positive vibes in green New York circles.

Trading four picks to move up three spots was risky no matter how it was sliced, but, in this NFL era ruled by offensive heroics and a fantasy football deity, a true franchise quarterback was vital. 2018 was the year to find that man, with Darnold, Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen, and Lamar Jackson all entering the professional ranks. Then-general manager Mike Maccagnan knew just how important being in prime position to welcome one of those names to New York was, telling ESPN Radio’s Humpty and Canty “If (there) was a player we felt strong about, we would have no qualms of potentially trying to go up and get him”. With the third selection in hand, he was guaranteed at least one.

After Mayfield and running back Saquon Barkley respectively went to the Browns and Giants, the Jets took Darnold with the third overall pick. Everyone involved knew typical green growing pains were ahead, but the Jets’ perpetual rebuild had perhaps his brightest glimmer of hope since the Tim Tebow circus tent deflated.

Meanwhile, Indianapolis quietly made its selections, preparing for a future that would presumably be led by their own prized franchise man. Andrew Luck had missed all of 2017 with a shoulder injury (leading to the Colts’ high draft slot), so Indy was abuzz on what would be done to protect him. Ballard acquiesced by draft Notre Dame guard Quinton Nelson with the sixth overall choice brought in from New York. The next day, another Jets selection (37th overall) was used to take another interior man, Auburn’s Braden Smith (one choice after the Colts used their original second-rounder to take future All-Pro linebacker Darius Leonard). The final Jets choice from 2018 was traded to Philadelphia, but the Colts used the last of the bounty to choose cornerback Rock Ya-Sin 34th overall in the following year’s selections (Ya-Sin missed Sunday’s game due to injury).

Nelson and Smith (who later moved to tackle) joined a veteran group headlined by Peyton Manning-era holdover Anthony Castonzo and veterans Ryan Kelly and Mark Glowinski. Upon Luck’s return, he was sacked only 18 times during the 2018 campaign, slicing his takedowns by more than half. The Colts immediately returned to the playoffs and earned an upset win over divisional rival Houston in the wild card round. Not only was Luck never sacked, but Colts rushers also tallied 200 yards, 148 coming from Marlon Mack.

Indianapolis eventually bowed out to top-seeded Kansas City, but the reformed line earned rave reviews.

“They’re blue-collar work guys,” former offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo said in a 2018 report from ESPN’s Mike Wells. “These are the guys that dig holes. They work with jackhammers every day. There’s no glory for these guys. If it weren’t for them, nothing else happens.”

“Every team in the league has physical talent, but the mental makeup of this group top to bottom is by far the best I’ve been around,” retiring guard Matt Slauson said in Wells’ story. “The way they’re able to take coaching and immediately apply it is huge. It allows for in-game adjustments to happen real fast.”

Luck’s abrupt retirement prior to the 2019 season somewhat derailed the Colts’ resurgence plans, but the team has remained competitive under placeholders Jacoby Brissett and Phillip Rivers. They’ve only allowed 35 sacks over the past two seasons, good for eighth in the NFL. An uncanny ability to stay healthy has likewise been impressive. Sunday’s tilt against the Jets marked the 19th consecutive game that the Colts rolled out the same unit in front of the quarterback, which might as well be an eternity by NFL standards. The unit has been overseen by former playoff hero and strong offensive mind Frank Reich, who has worked with coordinator Nick Sirianni since their days with the Chargers’ franchise (2013-17).

To say Darnold has been lacking that kind of stability would be the understatement of this infantile season.

The USC alum can certainly be held accountable for the alarming number of mistakes he has made in the fateful third season, like the three Sunday interceptions into crowded coverage that yielded 14 Colts points. But the fact Darnold has managed to showcase some flashes of brilliance despite an ever-changing roster. Whereas throwers from Indianapolis have enjoyed continuity in their protection and receiving, Darnold is working with an entirely new offensive line from last season and not a single catcher remains from his rookie season.

The transition and turnover has not been limited to on-field personnel. Darnold has had to go through two different coaching staffs, and a third could be on the way if the Jets opt to move on from head coach Adam Gase. While Reich oversaw an offense that consistently racked up yardage in San Diego and Los Angeles, the 2020 season has been full of evidence against Gase. Ryan Tannehill has emerged from quarterback purgatory to become one of the game’s more consistent passers. Jets management, namely CEO Christopher Johnson, has offered a vote of confidence to Gase, the “offensive genius”, but the Jets appear in the 30s in numerous stat categories in a 32-team league. Funds and picks to help Darnold have gone toward acquisitions that have been disappointing (Breshad Perriman, Ryan Griffin, Quinnen Williams), injured (C.J. Mosley, Denzel Mims), or both (Le’Veon Bell).

Sunday was more or less a culmination of the Jets’ woes against a team with whom they collaborated with in managing their future. The Colts (2-1) are a team that’s still figuring things out. Rivers is clearly not meant to be the quarterback for any lengthy period. Longtime prime receiver T.Y. Hilton has struggled to post the number expected of him. Tannehill and the undefeated Tennessee Titans have control of the AFC South. The horseshoe helmeted squad might be able to take advantage of the expanded wild card picture, but no one’s expecting them to rep the conference in Super Bowl LV.

Against the Jets, however, it might as well have been the Manning/Edgerrin James/Marvin Harrison days all over again.

The Jets earned only 15 first downs and 260 yards on offense, failing to reach 300 for the third consecutive week in an NFL where such a concept is commonplace. Even brief moments of joy, like a 7-7 tie in the first quarter via Darnold’s rollout strike to Braxton Berrios, was offset by calamities both unforced and beyond their control. In the case of the latter, a rare step in the right direction, Mekhi Becton, was lost to an injury that cost him the entire second half. His prescience was best on display when his replacement, Connor McDermott, missed the block on Justin Houston that led to a Colts safety in the fourth quarter, more or less solidifying the case that the Gase-era Jets are football’s version of Murphy’s Law. Gregg Williams’ defense could provide no silver linings. True to form, the Colts’ blockers allowed no sacks on Sunday.

This brutal display simply personified how little the Jets have moved forward since that fateful trade in 2018. The Colts were the perfect team to expose such flaws. If anything, the Jets have only taken several steps back.

“I just got to play consistent,” said Darnold of the loss, per Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. “I’m not playing consistent enough to play well in this league. Make the plays when they’re there. When they’re not, just get rid of the ball. Check it down. Do all the right things I need to do.”

Thirteen harrowing weeks remain on the Jets’ ledger. The lone positive to glean from Indianapolis is that a short week ensures that no one will have to watch the game film for too long. New York returns to action on Thursday, as an American public desperate for football will endure a test in endurance through a Jets tilt against the equally woebegone Denver Broncos (8:20 p.m. ET, NFL Network). While the thought of the playoffs conjures up only Jim Mora-style tirades, much of the Jets’ personnel, including Darnold, could well be playing for their New York futures.

The Jets are next scheduled to face the Colts in 2021, also at Lucas Oil Stadium. It stands to reason that a majority of Indianapolis’ haul from the trade will still be playing when the matchup arrives. Thanks to both personal and team-wide issues, Darnold’s status could well be in doubt as well.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

New York Jets: Drafting Trevor Lawrence won’t help anyone

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Premature mock drafts have Trevor Lawrence donning New York Jets green. But subjecting the college legend to this wouldn’t benefit anyone.

The New York Jets previously stunk for Sam. Now, the early stages of the 2020 season have them going on an endeavor for Trevor.

Fans and analysts alike have begun to turn on Darnold after a dismal start to the new decade. Through two weeks, Darnold ranks 28th amongst quarterbacks in yardage (394), 24th in completion rate (62.7 percent), and 26th in passer rating (82.6). Those numbers are bad enough from an established veteran thrower, where the modern struggles on the bottom of today’s quarterback ledger boil down to two cases: either the player is clearly past their prime (Tom Brady, Drew Brees) or is kept safe by a massive contract that makes them immovable (Kirk Cousins, Matthew Stafford). Those are issues that keep you solidified in the present, with the team around the thrower talented enough to keep modern affairs afloat.

But Darnold’s struggles have the Jets tensely monitoring the past, present, and future.

There’s no use in worrying about the past; Scott Lang isn’t coming to the gate at One Jets Drive with the secrets to time travel. The Jets can only take care of the present and the future. While the Jets (0-2) are already fading from a crowded AFC playoff picture, the next 15 weeks will be crucial for players and coaches seeking to earn spots and longevity, and to at least make a lost season look respectable.

As for what’s to come, plenty of prognosticators, amateur and professional alike, have opted to play general manager.

One of the greatest marketing moves the NFL ever made was evolving its from from a single spring weekend a year-long affair. The early stages of the regular season are no exception, as mock drafts for 2021 are already hitting the internet after the first two weeks of the season. Such premature projections have the Jets in the top spot after the brutality displayed in their first couple (though draft order haven Tankathon currently has the Jets picking 11th, with Carolina getting the top choice).

The name in that slot is none other than Trevor Lawrence, the Clemson legend in the midst of what’s confirmed to be his final collegiate campaign. Lawrence’s on-field prowess was already well-known, but the lead-up to a most unusual kickoff exposed his strong leadership qualities through his involement in both the push to play the 2020 season and the social issues gripping the country. Uncertainty peppers the future American landscape, but one of the strongest certainties seems to be that Lawrence will be the No. 1 pick next spring.

Clamoring for the consensus top choice is common and understandable amongst fans; it’s cheaper than therapy and a good hashtag earns valuable social media currency of likes and shares. But it’s not just the fans who envision Lawrence exchanging orange for green.

Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports has the Jets picking second, but with his top choosers in Cincinnati set with Joe Burrow, the Jets get a different kind of Tiger in Lawrence. Cory Kinnan of Fansided’s NFL Draft site had the Jets taking Lawrence as the first name outright. Noted stats and data site Pro Football Focus went so far as to give fans a visual aid, digitally placing Lawrence in Jets equipment.

If Mike Tannenbaum was still the Jets’ general manager, Lawrence’s surname might already be stitched into replica jerseys. Tannenbaum certainly knows about the trials and tribulations of franchise quarterback hunting in New York. His seven-year tenure (2006-12) oversaw the high-profile acquisitions of Brett Favre and Mark Sanchez.

“Trevor Lawrence is very similar to Andrew Luck. He’s a once-in-a-generation talent. And I don’t know how any team with the first pick wouldn’t take him,” Tannenbaum said on ESPN Radio’s Keyshawn, JWill, & Zubin. “Now you get into this discussion of ‘What could you get for Sam Darnold?'”

For all the athletic silliness New York sports fans have had to deal with, their patience has been rewarded by so-called “once-in-a-generation” talents through premium draft picks. Just ask New York Liberty fans about the all-too-brief Sabrina Ionescu experience this summer. The New York Rangers are projected to go through the same process after the branded ping-pong ball bounced their way, with Alexis Lafreniere expected to don Broadway blue at next month’s draft.

But, at this moment, a Lawrence-Jets merger would do neither side any good.

When one looks at the Jets’ offense, a unit that ranks in the depths of most, if not all, major stat categories, one would wonder exactly what exactly is the selling point. The 2020 offense is a culmination of modern and throwback negligence, one that finally may have found a cornerstone blocker in Mekhi Becton at the expense of generally disregarding the skilled weaponry. Would-be saviors Breshad Perriman and Denzel Mims have dealt with injuries, as has reliable slot veteran Jamison Crowder. Tight end Chris Herndon has struggled to recapture the spark of his rookie season. Pricy rusher Le’Veon Bell has likewise dealt with injuries and the potential cap savings stemming from a hypothetical release ($5.5 million) may be too tempting to pass up next offseason.

It’s not like Darnold’s time in New York has been a total loss. Even with relatively little help, Darnold has managed to churn out the occasional masterpiece. A visual silver lining of Darnold’s escape from the San Francisco 49ers’ pass rush turning into a scoring strike to Braxton Berrios has made the rounds on social media this week, for example. It’s certainly possible for Jets fans to both call out Adam Gase and his coaching staff and hold the fan-favorite Darnold accountable for his own mistakes.

 Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

But with management, namely team CEO and chief decisionmaker Christopher Johnson, seemingly sticking to the “brilliant” Adam Gase, subbing Darnold for Lawrence would make the offense only marginally better and perhaps end a promising career before it truly begins…perhaps emulating the current, scary process Darnold is working through now. Lawrence’s ideal destination is a team that’s the proverbial “quarterback away” from truly contending. The Jets are many, many, many moves away from being a quarterback away. Subjecting Lawrence to this perpetual rebuild, especially one mored in a particularly scary brand of football, seems like cruel and unusual punishment.

Obviously, there’s plenty of time to make moves to further accommodate Lawrence, if the Jets find themselves in the Tiger sweepstakes. The team is blessed with one of the better cap situations in the league (set to work with just over $72 million at the onset of the 2021 offseason) and granting Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy a long-awaited, long-deserved head coaching opportunity would be a point of interest for outside help.

But, as Tannenbaum noted, the Jets arranged Darnold’s development years to be overseen by Gase, the alleged quarterback guru. While it’s possible one of them could survive a potential purge, it’s looking more likely at least one of them could be exchanged by 2021.

“The whole decision-making process was the Jets saying Adam Gase and Sam Darnold are going to be tied to the hip,” Tannenbaum noted on the ESPN podcast. “That’s our franchise for the next 10 years.”

That’s what makes the final 14 games so important for Darnold, who may be playing for his grip on the franchise quarterback role. He needs to make sure the Jets don’t even consider drafting someone like Lawrence. The Jets are blessed with an extra first-round pick over the next two seasons thanks to the Jamal Adams bartering with Seattle, but it would a major victory if they didn’t have to spend any of those premiere selections on yet another franchise quarterback. Granted, the Jets have dealt with so many calamities that one more would be relatively easy to deal with. But the very last thing a rebuilding team needs…other than a sense of hesitation that has been far too common over the first two games…is a franchise quarterback controversy.

The Jets already have enough to deal with, having dug themselves into an extensive hole as is. It wouldn’t be fair to drag Lawrence down with them.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags