MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Garrett Wilson leaned against a locker, clenched his fist and then unclenched it, again and again. He grabbed his left hand and ran through one finger after another, squeezing each one, making the veins pop. Wilson’s frustration has been brewing for weeks. He’s boiling now.
It took Wilson three quarters to receive his first goal Sunday against the Miami Dolphins.
“I’m aware of that,” Wilson said, cutting off a question before it was finished.
Across the locker room, New York Jets players lamented the team’s poor effort in the 30-0 loss. Wide receiver Allen Lazard went even further.
“I think they just played a better game,” Lazard said. “They outdid us, they outdid us.”
Effort. Scheme.
Wilson didn’t disagree with the assessment.
“Yes,” Wilson said. “If Allen said it, it’s probably true.”
Last week, the Jets snapped a five-game losing streak by beating the Houston Texans with a surprising 30-6 win, with all the points coming in an explosive second half for an offense that otherwise struggled all year . Zach Wilson had his best game. There was a feeling that the performances could save some jobs, securing them for 2024, when Aaron Rodgers would return to save the day.
The best-laid plans are ruined by explosions. Jets cornerback DJ Reed called Sunday’s effort a “good ol’ butt-kicking.”
Did Reed think the Jets showed enough fight? Not exactly.
“Honestly, I would say until the middle of the third quarter,” Reed said. “You could see the energy … and the emotion on the guys’ faces was a little down throughout the game. “I wouldn’t say I was too happy about it.”
The Jets are 5-9. Sunday’s loss, along with other results across the league, eliminated them from playoff contention for the 13th consecutive year, the longest playoff drought in any of the four major professional sports leagues. If Robert Saleh felt safe after last week, he should be worried now. There are the lost games, then there is the loss of the locker room, and Saleh is dangerously close to the latter. It could already happen.
The Jets were outclassed by the Dolphins, and it’s not the first time Saleh has been outclassed this season.
“You put together the best plan you can: sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not,” Saleh said. “But overall, from coaching to execution, everything on the offensive side wasn’t good enough today.”
Losing Rodgers four times this season to an Achilles injury was a difficult circumstance. Most teams struggle to survive without their starting quarterback, and much of the offensive line has also been decimated by injuries. But this is no excuse for this level of misery. The Jets started their 11th new offensive line in 14 games against the Dolphins, and it was a disaster from the start. Zach Wilson was bruised and battered all day, and sacked on the first possession. He was sacked four times in total, hit seven times and retreated to the locker room before halftime.
Wilson initially left the game due to “dehydration,” according to the CBS broadcast. After halftime, Wilson was ruled out with a concussion but had not yet been evaluated for a concussion, according to ESPN. Later in the game, Wilson was ruled out with a concussion. Towards the end of the fourth quarter, Atletico he saw Wilson enter the x-ray room. Saleh said after the game that Wilson was in concussion protocol. His status for next week is unclear.
Zach Wilson heads to the x-ray room. #Jet pic.twitter.com/Z4wr5H262b
—Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) December 17, 2023
When Wilson was initially reluctant to return to the starting lineup a couple of weeks ago, one of the reasons was the fear of getting hurt behind the offensive line. His fears were clearly realized. The Jets’ offensive line may have been the most obvious problem the team had Sunday, as Saleh pointed out multiple times in his postgame press conference.
“Yeah, when you get beat up in front, yeah, it’s not — you don’t feel good,” he said in response to a question asking whether Sunday’s performance was “embarrassing.”
But the problems run deeper. The Jets aren’t the only NFL team ravaged by offensive line injuries, or whose starting quarterback suffered a season-ending injury. The Bengals are 3-1 with Jake Browning since he was chosen to replace Joe Burrow. The Browns are 2-1 with Joe Flacco and 9-5 overall despite losing both starting tackles and their top backup tackle. Their center (Ethan Pocic) missed Sunday’s game and one of their starting guards (Joel Bitonio) left early with an injury.
The best coaches make the most of what they have and put their players in a position to succeed even when they are outnumbered. The Jets aren’t doing that, and that’s thanks to one of the best defenses in the NFL, an elite wide receiver (Wilson) and an explosive running back (Breece Hall).
This team mostly had a stellar season with that defense, although the defense also struggled against Miami. Wide receiver Jaylen Waddle torched Reed on a 60-yard touchdown and finished with 142 yards. Running back Raheem Mostert scored two touchdowns and the Dolphins scored 30 points even without Tyreek Hill playing.
And then there’s Wilson, one of the NFL’s most talented wide receivers, who is wasting away. He watched from the sideline as Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel set up Waddle to open, something Nathaniel Hackett has failed to do for the Jets all season.
“I think they have a lot going for them that makes planning easier,” Wilson said. “Tyreek goes down, they put Waddle there and he goes 150 (yards). And this is the ball I grew up loving. But it won’t be like that. I have to figure out how to be better, walk better paths, be better in the boardrooms, figure out how I can get involved early and often. And how can we win games.”
Wilson has trouble hiding his frustration, especially Sunday, when he was targeted just four times and cameras caught him on the sideline becoming animated in his irritation.
Garrett Wilson and Aaron Rodgers have fun on the sideline pic.twitter.com/hgXZEMbn0f
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) December 17, 2023
“I mean, it seems like we’re not intentional, to be honest,” Wilson said. “This is my mentality. Is simple. I feel like it doesn’t have to be that way. But it was. I guess I’ll have to fix that. I need to figure out how I can get involved in the first trimester. Maybe he’s starting the practice quickly. I do not know. I have to show something, I have to do something. They have a good plan for us. They did a good job of following us and things made it difficult. That’s how it happened and I have to be able to adapt. I do not know. “I have to figure it out.”
It’s not Wilson’s job to figure that out. That’s up to Saleh and Hackett.
Now there are three games left in the season and the players are starting to say the quiet part out loud. The truth: The Jets were not prepared for Sunday’s game.
Against the Texans last week, the Jets offense was productive. Otherwise, this was one of the worst offenses in franchise history by most metrics and the third-worst offense in the recorded history of the NFL. At halftime, the Jets had accumulated just 4 net offensive yards and minus 10 net passing yards. By the end of the game, the Jets had gained 103 total yards, and Zach Wilson and Trevor Siemian combined accounted for 80 passing yards.
Think about this: Saleh has refused to (and will continue to) make changes to his offensive playcalling structure, where Hackett remains untouchable not only because of his relationship with Rodgers, but because Saleh doesn’t believe Hackett is to blame for the problems. of the Jets on offense. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles are 10-3 and just benched defensive coordinator Sean Desai for Matt Patricia.
GO DEEPER
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Those 103 yards by the Jets ranked fourth in franchise history, and three of the five lowest total yards came under Saleh’s control. Once Zach Wilson was sacked on the opening possession, it looked like it was going to be a long afternoon, and it was. On the next drive, the Jets attempted a fake on fourth-and-4, a direct snap to safety Ashtyn Davis, which predictably failed. When Wilson exited the game, the Jets were down 17-0. It was 24-0 at halftime and 27-0 after the third quarter.
“They executed more than us,” cornerback Sauce Gardner said. “I don’t know what to say. They executed us.”
It’s fair to wonder whether Saleh’s job will be on the line next week. If the Jets lose to a 4-10 Washington Commanders team, at home, it could truly be the end of the road. It would be difficult for owner Woody Johnson to justify bringing him back with this coaching staff.
“It’s disappointing,” Saleh said. “From the first series of the year until now, it has been a constant battle. I appreciate the commitment of our guys. We still have three games left to finish strong. As bad as we feel now, we need to remember that we felt pretty good last week too. “We have a good Washington team coming in that will be licking their chops, so we need to go take care of business and get ready to play them.”
When the Los Angeles Chargers lost to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 12, coach Brandon Staley said his team would be “thrown out of the stadium” if his message stopped getting through to the players, if he lost the locker room. A few weeks later, the Chargers lost 63-21 to the Las Vegas Raiders, and Staley was fired the next day.
So has Saleh lost the locker room?
Check back next week.
(Photo: Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
