You either love the Jets or you hate them. Nobody is ambivalent about this team. It’s easy for people to be casual about non-threats to their favorite franchises, or their hometown heroes. Someone who cheers for the Niners probably has no earthly reason to feel anything about the Bucs, for example.
But everyone hates the Jets. It might be time for us to stop.
That identity is very well deserved, but you might want to open your mind a little and try and get around your previous notions about this team. Part of making money as a gambler in the NFL is getting ahead of the curve. The Jets have a much more sound and reliable identity than anyone’s willing to admit. And no team can be successful in the post season if they don’t have some sort of identity.
To understand this concept, you simply have to start at the top. The New England Patriots are the unquestioned standard of the NFL. You may hate them, but you have to respect them. And even if you’re part of the faction that despises them, at least you know why. It’s because “the Patriot way” is an actual, tangible thing.
All of the top teams in sports embody some kind of personality. You have a vague sense of what the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors represent as basketball teams. You understand the on-field style of the Kansas City Royals. The Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Blackhawks are known commodities. Knowing who and what you are first and foremost is part of the process that makes champions in all sports.
Which brings us to the New York Jets, a team that has overhauled its identity so well in one season that they’re no longer the suicidal gaggle of idiots that we’ve pointed fingers at for the past decade.
It’s taken a lot to get there, and to shed the stink of being perpetual, eventual losers. Rex Ryan made his coaching tenure in to a grandstand that centered on his personality. Part of that was intentional as he aimed to take the focus off of a young quarterback named Mark Sanchez so the kid could have room to breath under the scorching spotlight of the New York media. But there’s no denying that Rex’s ego also needed to be fed.
Since the Jets co-exist in the AFC North with the New England Patriots, they’ve never been perceived as an actual threat, even when they went to back-to-back AFC championships. It wasn’t long before the downward spiral sank the team towards destiny, best epitomized by The Butt Fumble, a play so intrinsic in NFL lore that it has its own Wikipedia page.
That’s the Jets that we know, the second-class citizens of New York, who had to watch their division rival win a handful of championships. Then watch their New Jersey roommates win two other Lombardi’s. It’s been impossible to take this team seriously in recent seasons, and that stench has carried over to 2015.
The problem is that we shouldn’t be treating the Jets this way. They’re 8-5 SU and 7-5-1 ATS right now, and on the verge of breaking in to the playoffs, a feat that seemed unimaginable at the onset of the season.
This is a team built on misfit castaways, which largely defines them. They’re the ultimate team that nobody believes in. The Bears couldn’t put up with Brandon Marshall’s antics. A proven touchdown machine like Eric Decker wasn’t valued in Denver. Chris Ivory could barely find room to run on the Saints, and now he’s ranked 5th in the league in rushing. Then there’s Ryan Fitzpatrick, the very man who serves as the poster boy for journeymen in the NFL. It’s a combination of offensive talent that almost came together under cosmic pretenses. Nobody else wanted them, so they washed ashore in New York.
We were all familiar with Ryan Fitzpatrick’s typical style. He was one of the most non-clutch guys in the league; someone that fans couldn’t wait to get rid of. Yet here he is leading an offence that ranks 9th in yards gained and 10th in scoring.
And yes, it’s because of Fitzpatrick. We know this because of what happened in Week 8 following a heart wrenching loss to New England. The next week revealed some really strange, disciplinary issues with the Jets. Fitzpatrick dashed for a first down and injured his wrist on the opening drive of the game. In came Geno Smith, the guy teammates hated so much that one of them actually punched him in the face during the preseason, breaking his jaw.
You could tell immediately that the Jets weren’t interested in playing for Geno. They virtually gave up against an Oakland team who, at the time, were not a high scoring machine that people were scared of. The defence basically stopped making tackles, the clearest sign of “abandoned hope” that there is in the NFL. And yeah, the offence was pretty bad too.
I myself couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I talked to other writers and handicappers about it, asking the question that seemed most important on an intangible level: “Has Fitzy really become a rallying point for an NFL franchise?”
In typical Jets fashion, that question ultimately didn’t matter as the Jets would continue to lose games, sinking to a 1-4 SU and 0-4-1 ATS record. Nobody cared about them anymore. These were the Jets after all. It’s only a matter of time before they flush themselves down the toilet, right?
Well we were wrong. The Jets have ripped off three impressive victories (albeit against losing team) over the last three weeks, outscoring opponents by a +14.3 point differential; one of the best in the AFC over that stretch. They’re on the doorstep of the playoffs, with the Steelers and Chiefs standing in their way.
Let’s keep in mind that the AFC is falling apart. Denver has the best defense in the league, but they’re crumbling at the seams thanks to an apparently blind Brock Osweiler and a decaying Peyton Manning. The Patriots have on-going injury concerns and nearly lost to the Jets in Week 7. The Steelers still have to prove that Big Ben can stay on the field for the important games. Indy’s a bust, and Jacksonville might catch up with them. The Bengals may have lost Andy Dalton for the season, even if AJ McCarron thinks he’s the next Tom Brady.
So why not the New York Jets? If you wipe your pre-existing prejudices about the franchise out of your memory banks for just a few seconds, you can easily argue that the Decker-Marshall combination is one of the best receiving tandems in the league (though I’d put Brown/Bryant of Pittsburgh ahead of them). Their defense ranks 4th in takeaways this season, notching 13 interceptions and 11 fumbles, and they haven’t even played close to their potential. This is a big play, turnover happy, hard-nosed, football team that does everything at above-average levels.
We should like them a lot more than we do. If they were wearing any other jersey, and Fitzy didn’t have the morbid history he’s had in the past, we’d be happily rooting for them.
Even in the AFC Championship futures, they’re an afterthought, posting a +25000 number that’s ridiculously far off of the +750 mark of Kansas City and the +375 number Pittsburgh is getting.
I’m not an idiot. I get why those odds exist. You’ll never put Fitz in the same conversation as Brady, Roethlisberger or Alex Smith. But there’s no way they should share the same number as Indianapolis (also +2500) when they’re handcuffed to 40-year old Matt Hasselbeck for the foreseeable future. Fitzy is better than that.
Coaching has everything to do with shaping the identity of a team. Just ask Pete Carroll or Belichick or Tomlin. Todd Bowles is a first year coach, and has taken his sweet time imprinting his style on this team.
There were obvious concerns about Bowles as a head coach as well. Lots of guys make for great coordinators but bad head coaches. Norv Turner and Ken Whisenhunt come to mind, and Bowles could’ve very well been one of them. You can easily make the argument that living in Bruce Arians’ shadow is one of the best gigs in the league because you can ride his coattails without assuming much risk.
But Bowles deserves more credit than that. It’s damn near impossible to take over a roster of players that aren’t yours, pick up Fitzpatrick as the best option you have at quarterback and slug your way through the season. Bowles is still regarded as one of the best defensive minds in the NFL and his stock is trending upwards.
Compare what Bowles received in New York to the hand that Dan Quinn was dealt in Atlanta. Like Bowles, Quinn was easily one of the hottest coaching names out there as the mastermind behind the Legion of Boom in Seattle. Everything started off freaking rosy for the Falcons, who have since reverted back to the same team we’ve known for the past three seasons. They’re the most untouchable bet in the entire league. You’d have to be insane invest in the Dirty Birds.
Are you crazy enough to bet on the Jets? These are not your grandfather’s Jets. These aren’t the team that always finds a way to lose. They have a coach who has been the inverse of Rex Ryan, Herm Edwards and Eric Mangini before him. He’s let his players enjoy and take center stage instead of trying to be the main focal point. It’s working. These Jets are coming to life at the right time. You could see it in the stomping they handed the Titans on the weekend. This team is having straight up fun.
The remaining schedule includes at Dallas in Week 15 and at Buffalo to end the season. Both are winnable games. In between, they get another crack at the New England Patriots and we will know then and there if that Week 7 performance was a fluke, or an actual, lost opportunity.
Trust me, if they win their next two games, the +2500 odds on them are going to slim down faster than you can spell J-E-T-S.
At some point, you have to be willing to let bygones be bygones and allow a team a chance to be something more than what it’s been. So many downtrodden franchises like the Dolphins, Browns, Bills, Titans, Lions and Texans can’t help themselves when it comes to being bottom feeders. It’s part of the team culture.
The Jets are not that team anymore. All of the pieces are there, from the head coach to the skill positions to the defence. And Fitzpatrick is enjoying his best season ever in the process, finally finding a team that believes in him. Very few people will do their best work when people are waiting for him to screw up, which is what happened to Sanchez (who brought it on himself to a certain degree). Fitzpatrick has put up numbers equivocal to Russell Wilson, Andy Dalton and Matthew Stafford this season. He deserves more credit than people around the NFL are willing to give him.
This whole team does. The question is whether you’re brave enough to admit that the Jets aren’t who we think they are. Maybe the better question is whether or not you believe in what they’re doing.
A lot of teams took chances to overhaul their identities this offseason.
The Jets are the only ones who seemingly pulled it off.
Like you, I’m having trouble believing it too.
