Why New York #Jets Can Improve THIS Season (BADLANDS MAILBAG)

Why New York #Jets Can Improve THIS Season (BADLANDS MAILBAG)

What’s up, War Room? Welcome back. Joe and Connor, fresh off a nice 32minute event on the main pod. We’re going Dr. Melie Mailbag here. We got a lot of questions. They’re mostly not positive, understandably. Most were sent watching the Jets drop to 0 and4 to the Miami Dolphins on national television. Connor, how you doing? It’s been a tough tough few days. I don’t want I don’t want to put salt I don’t want to put the salt in the wound with the Mets and the Jets in back-to-back days, but I I know it’s been a tough stretch. It has been like down horrendous. It’s hard to hard. Hockey starts soon. Yeah, hockey starts soon. I’ll put all my hopes into the Rangers. What can go wrong? It with the Mets. It’s It’s weird. They were just bad for three and a half months where I And trust me, I it was a horrible end of the season, but I that’s a long time to play poorly where you kind of sit there and you’re like, “Yeah, unfortunately, I should have kind of I did in a way see this coming.” Um, with the Jets, it’s just we said it so many times, it just felt like you were you were facing a team that is didn’t really have much left in them and to not and it’s just in my opinion when you just give it away. It’s it’s just so aggravating, like you said, as soon as Brilland Allen fumbled, you’re like, “Oh boy, this just turns all the tides right away because everything went exactly how you would expect and hope it would go.” And then you just and then you find a way to get back in the game and you have a chance to go on a possession to tie it and you fumble a kick return again. It’s just I can’t believe Nick Folk made that 58 yard field goal by the way with room to spare. Guy can barely walk at this point. His hat doesn’t fit in the helmet. He’s stumbling out there. I didn’t know he had that much leg left. But you know what’s crazy? I was thinking about because there’s so much bad with the Jets right now. It’s remarkable that things are this bad. And their rookie right tackle looks like the real deal. Yeah, he’s awesome. And Mason Taylor good last night. That was exciting. Taylor was really good last night. He was natural catching the ball. He falls forward. He’s got size. Yeah, it’s it’s pretty crazy that both those picks look fine and things are still this rough. Well, well, well. Let’s these questions could help unveil. I’m fascinated to see. I don’t look at these I do not look at these in advance. I’m fascinated to see what we got here. All right, from Steve Wilks. Steve Wils is looking every bit as horrible as a defensive coordinator, higher as Hackett was as an OC. Dan Campbell quickly remedied a mistake when he took over offensive play calling in his first season, then fired Anthony Lynn. Why is Aaron Glenn so willing to accept this level of coaching from Wilks or play from Clemens, Steven, Cisco Adams, etc. Accountability seems to be a buzzword than him. four games in, what are the parallels you see between Glenn and Gerard Mayo’s coaching situations? And could we be headed to a similar situation? Um, look, I think Wilks is going to be the sacrificial lamb, right? It’s we’re headed towards the spot where at the bye-week Glenn takes over the defense. That’s a public thing. And he’s the coordinator who gets fired after year one. That’s where we’re headed because I do think Glenn and Muji and most of the rest of the staff will be back in year two regardless of what happens this year. And I think that’s an important step for Aaron Glenn to make. I think he’s giving himself a kiss of death in year two. If the Jets are going to have the 32nd best defense in the NFL and they’re going to bring Wils back. It’s as embarrassing as it was when the Jets brought Hackett back. It it let you know they weren’t that serious about fixing the problem and they could leak. Oh, we were talking to other people. No one want to come here. End of the day, you brought Hackett back and that’s kind of what like bringing Wolkes back would be on the current trajectory that we’re on. Now, to this, we get this question a lot in this framing a lot because we both think Glenn’s going to get at least two years. I think we both generally agree that that’s fair. Uh, and hopefully it ends up being longer than that. But there’s always certain situations in the NFL that turn into sour milk situations. Draw Mayo, Jim Tomula. Um, there’s other recent Vance Joseph where it’s like it’s just that’s it. And like it’s one year and you’re done. I I don’t think this is a Gerard Mayo situation. also why that situation ended as quickly as it did. There was a unique situation with Rabel where they were they would have kept Mayo. I guess they would have kept fact if Rael wasn’t in wasn’t waiting for the job. Yeah. So if like you know uh Harbaugh gets fired from the Ravens and he wants to come to the Jets, fire Aaron Glenn and hire Harbaugh. Like there’s a chance. Yeah. So if that if that opportunity presents itself and the Jets continue on the trajectory that there are are go get Harbaugh. Uh, putting that aside, I I’m not ready to go there yet. Or say there is a world where they’re like, “All right, you know what? It’s just one and done. You’re you’re two and 15 and it’s over.” Now, look, if maybe they go two and 15 and they’re like, “Look, you got to make some coordinator changes.” And Glenn’s like, “No, I’m not making any. That’s maybe how you get into that situation.” I I don’t think he’s that guy. I could be proven wrong, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. What do you think? It is the question specifically on if Glenn could be a oneanddone. I think it’s like a hybrid of how would you handle Wilks and does that how he handles that? Could that lead to him being a oneanddone type guy? It’s a weird one, right? So, one, as we sit here today, we we both don’t think Glenn’s going to be one and done. I think that would make this podcast, I think, has a reputation of of being as level-headed as we could be. Now, if if what we saw the last couple weeks is just the exact same script for the next two months, then it has to be a conversation because that that just means you’re an inept organization at that point. And it, you know, you start to get embarrassed. And like I said on the flagship show that you’re going to probably be picking one or two where you have to mold a quarterback of the future if you it it’s once again like the the CEO of the organization is not going to put their most important asset in the hands of people that isn’t trust. So that’s how you get there. But let’s stay with the now. I think it’s it’s a tough one, right? And I think we’ve all probably any of us that have worked in a corporate structure have probably been in an environment when the leader of the company puts someone in charge of your branch or whatever you want to call it and you know within a month if the person is is clueless. I’ve not recently, but quite some time ago, I’ve been in that situation where I sat down and after two meetings with the person, I walked out of the office and I was like, doesn’t get it. Like, doesn’t have a chance. I’ll give them a chance cuz I have no choice. And I’m sure everybody listening to this that’s been in that situation, the leader rides it out because the quicker they pull the hook on that person, the quicker the hook comes for them. Yep. And I think Aaron Glenn is no dummy. I think Aaron Glenn knows if I fire Steve Wilks after six games. Then if the defense has not improved when I’m taking it over, it’s the old you you point around the room so much until the finger comes back to you. So you need to be a little careful with that. It also makes you look reactionary. Y I sit here today and I think Steve Wils was a wrong the wrong hire when the and honestly like a little bit of going back to that moment that’s a little bit on me for he wasn’t really good his last couple stops and I think my reaction was well you do need a veteran on this staff if you’re going with Angstrand at OC so I get it and I really underestimated just how poorly it’s gone for him in this era of football the last couple jobs he’s had and that’s on me because now we’re kind of seeing it carry over. I think it it was the wrong hire. The thing is the flip side of it, like the ceiling of it, because that’s the the floor, which is pretty scary. The ceiling of it is you go, he doesn’t have it anymore, and I hate that I have to do this, but I have to move him off play calling. I won’t embarrass him and fire him, and we won’t move on until the end of the season. I don’t want to embarrass the guy, but there’s so many things we’re doing wrong right now that if I have the comms, they’ll fix it. and say the Jets do remove Wilks from running the defense and the last six games or whatever it is, the defense looks different and is a little innovative and shows some life. Well, then you go, okay, like that was a big big problem. So, it’s a it’s a really really tricky one, man, where you do need to be careful of how quickly you react. But, I think we’re all sitting here and we’re all watching the same thing. And we’re not going off four games, man. We’re going off this last half decade of what’s gone on for Wilks and I it feels like the odds will be heavily tilted that he is not the defensive coordinator next year. I think the real question is how reactionary does Glenn get when he watches this tape and sees the countless mistakes they keep making. Show me that clip of them defending the boot where Tyler Baron moves seven yards in the wrong direction along with the rest of the defense. I still haven’t seen anything like it. You could do I remember like Dable was accused of what was he accused of like surrendering play calling but then not surrendering it. You could do the quiet takeover where you don’t say anything, but behind the scenes, Glenn has his is really allocating 90% of his time to the defense. Cuz once like once again, these are men that respect each other and you don’t want to embarrass people because then when Glenn is looking to make veteran hires in the future, there’s people that respect Steve Wilks that’ll be like, I can’t go there after what happened to him. And yeah, so you know what I mean. So it’s a delicate dance. It’s a really delicate situation right now and that’s why I don’t think you’ll see action right away. Even though I will fully admit on this podcast action would be warranted. That’s how poor things have been. It’s been that bad. I this this tape is something. Um look like this, Joe. Right. It’s as we sit here today, if you and I just did this podcast and we had the Jets game going on, there’d be moments when we’re watching the game where we’d sit there and go, you know what, that’s something with the offense this year that is better than last year. I don’t think you’d have one moment like that with the defense. Maybe maybe the run defense in the middle, but it’s not like that’s really personnel. That’s not anything innovative. All right, another defensive question from Lost in the Sauce. Where did the pass rush go? I get that Baron McGregor and Clemens suck. They do. But both WND and Quinn were basically zeros tonight as well. I think a good time to, you know, this is a question we get a lot, right? Because we’re very bullish on Quinn. And I think every metric and every shred of tape shows that Quinnon’s playing really good football. And I I think McDonald, you know, we stand up for a lot because he’s a very specific kind of player who’s not always being used in a very specific way, especially when the script’s not friendly. I mean, what what have you seen what did you see last night from them and what have you seen holistically from them through four games? Well, I think one will the Jets are never in a script for a guy like Will to thrive. You know, as I said on the main show, he did have three pressures uh on just 14 pass rush opportunities and he drew a hold. He got tackled on another one. That was a So, he gets one of those a week. It feels like he does cuz he wins so fast that the tackles just they’re going they’re going to tackle the guys so the quarterback doesn’t die. So you have to take that into account with Will that based on opportunity Will’s been fine. I think the you know the issue at hand with Quinnon Quinn I think could be better as a pass rusher. I think that but Quinnon’s been so good against the run and he’s not a zero as a pass rusher. I just think that the problem is without Germaine, they get no pass rush from anyone else. They’re not pass rushers. Like they’re not guys built to win off the rush. And two, with the Dolphins specifically, they’re going to get the ball out so fast that those opportunities. If you don’t put the Dolphins in third and longs, they’re ne they’re going to go quick game on you so much or just roll Tua out and have so many. So the secondary is not giving them a chance to get home. So, I think it’s a combination that the pass rush is very shallow or thin and the little pass rush they have has so few opportunities that the Jets are not playing in a script ever where they can pin their ears back and the last time they were is when they were beating the Steelers and Will McDonald had two sacks. Yeah. So, pass rush is so script dependent. Yeah. I was I think they had what four sacks week one and since then it’s been it’s been quiet and they just still no turnovers. I don’t know what the NFL record is for games to start a season without a turnover, but we’re nearing history at the current rate that we’re going someone fall on a fumble. Someone I think Sherwood almost at the interception just wasn’t even looking for the ball just right off the face mask. Like they don’t even like comprehend that they could turn the football over. The fumble bounces are wild, man. That’s just like pure pure bad luck. Like they do they to be fair to the Jets cuz I never like to talk about this too much. They got completely screwed by the refs last night. It did not swing the game. The refs were the refs were I mean there was a couple calls last night that again to have even the broadcast team on ESPN be that aggressive to be like what is going on like it was horrific last night and the Jets need to be a pain in the ass to the league about it because it’s a recurring thing and yes it’s until you win you’re not going to get the benefit of the doubt but Jesus Christ last night was bad. Um, from Shogun, of the following players, do you think there’s a chance the Jets sign any of the following? AVT Simpson, Quincy Meyers. I don’t think with Quincy, I think he’s a guy that they could consider maybe shopping at the deadline. They just, unfortunately, they picked a linebacker they’re going to pay. They’re not going to pay two linebackers. Quincy’s also going to be on the wrong side of 30 soon. AVT. We got a couple questions um including from our buddy Dave about like do you pay him now and pay low and like buy low instead of you know taking advantage of his injury history to get him at a better price. I’m open-minded to it. I think it’s more likely they’re probably going to pay Simpson. Uh I’m not saying that’s the right or the wrong choice. Myers I think they have a one-year deal. Like he’s been good. Yeah, I could see him if he continues at the current trajectory. Can you get him on like another cheap two-year deal and keep him around because he can play and he’s playing well in the system? The AVT and Simpson decisions is a really interesting one because can you get AVT at like really advantageous money where you know what it’s like let’s roll the dice and hope this one breaks our way, which feels crazy to say as a Jet fan, but you’re not going to get someone as talented as him at likely a heavily discounted price. So h how would you handle that on the interior offensive line? It’s a really good question because the conundrum for ABT is it feels like Tibman has played well at right guard. Yeah. Where they might look at Titman now and really like him there. So then your pathway is like, oh, did this just become clear where we’re gonna bring Simpson back because we want the stability at left guard and then our line that has been fine and has a higher ceiling because they’re young players growing can be the same. That’s the tricky part. You almost wonder they I think if they were signing both Simpson and ABT, they’d have to be comfortable with Titman at center and it feels like they like Titman at guard. So the idea in theory makes a ton of sense without being able to nail an exact value because there’s a limit. You’re not going to over like you’re not going to pay ABT this crazy deal just because you want to keep him there and you don’t really have a plan. But ABT also might want to just do his rehab with the Jets and be comfortable with his life with the Jets and and rather go that route. So, I’d say it’s on I’d say it’s on the side where I think there’s a higher chance that unless you know what’s foolish of me why I’m saying this though, ABT played on the left side in college. So, it if they just like ABT better and they think Simpson is going to get a bag, there’s a world where they do pick ABT and just play him at left guard again. And that’s not the same as the old like moving him around a million positions. He’s a guard. So, now he’s a guard. So, yeah, there’s definitely a chance. It’s just going to come down to how the smarter decision of how they financially allocate their money. I don’t think it would be a bad move if if Simpson like looks around, he’s like, “Man, I’m going to go get 18 mil a year on the market.” Like, good for you, man. Go get that. Then you maybe save a little money on ABT and you take a guard in the third round where you have a little insurance in case something happened to AVT again. That could be an option. But if they just love Simpson as a player, then you just pay Simpson and go with what gives you the higher floor. All right. From Switzer 15, a lot of negative right now. are going to try to be positive. I thought last night was a good angstrand game. How many times have we seen coordinators abandon a game plan? Yes, I guess he could have gotten the ball to Garrett earlier, but they were running the ball so well. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think there’s promise with him and with this offense if we could clean up some of the small problems. I don’t disagree. I I still think Angstramm on the whole through four games has been more positive than negative for a first time play caller with some of the limitations the Jets have with having no receivers except for Garrett Wilson. I think you’re going to see the rest of the year um a lot of Mason Taylor. I think you’re going to start seeing him catch five, six passes every week as the clear number two to Garrett Wilson. They need to come up with a solve at wide receiver, too. You know, Josh Reynolds could line up. He could block, but he’s just not a threat as a pass catcher, which is a problem if you’re a wide receiver. Alazard, I’m not going to talk about him anymore. Arian Smith. I again I’d like to see them try some kind of role for him that just get him a couple deep targets where it’s not so obvious. It’s going to require some creative thinking and how you do it. Uh and I do wonder with the break I mean I don’t know how many weeks he’s going to miss with an MCL maybe two, three, four. How does that change how they use Bree and Isaiah Davis? And do we get some more pony looks? Do we see more Davis mixed in not just on third down? I mean, they’re playing a couple defenses that are going to be ripe for the picking with Dallas and Carolina and even Cincy. Like, these are three pretty damn bad defenses of their next four games. Like, they should be able to move the ball. What I would ask of Angstrom is what we talked about last night and talked about earlier, like just let Fields throw. Let him play quarterback. I mean, he makes mistakes, he makes mistakes. You just can’t you can’t just keep defaulting to the third and six handoffs. You you just got to play normal football sometimes. And I would still, not that I think this is going to change everything, try some of your other big tight ends in the pass game. Try Smart. Try Galani Woods. Don’t make Galani Woods be the next Rogers. Like, try him. I I It’s better. Like, if you’re going to throw passes to someone besides Garrett and Mason Taylor, it’s better than Reynolds and Lazard targets. Like, try a couple vertical shots with size. Go for verse with Smart and Woods going down the seam and Taylor and Garrett on the outside. I don’t know. try something like that down the field. And they’ve ended the um Tyler Johnson experiment. It’s a short short really roller coaster. He didn’t make the team. He’s on the team. He’s got a 30- yard catch. Then you get the drop and that’s it.

Joe and Connor answer all of your Discord mailbag questions on the Jets including discussions on the pass rush, Quinnen, Will McDonald, what players the Jets should consider trading, Engstrand’s offense and the state of college quarterbacks headed into the 2026 NFL Draft…

FULL episode at www.patreon.com/BadlandsTOJ