How Can New York #Jets Be Competitive? (BADLANDS)

How Can New York #Jets Be Competitive? (BADLANDS)

What’s up everybody? Welcome back to your favorite New York Jets subscription podcast, Badlands. I’m your host, Joe Caparoso, joined as always by Connor Rogers own five jets. We got a lot to talking about going into London week. I’m flying out in about 24 hours or so to see all of our friends overseas. I’ll talk through what we’re going to be doing and where we’re going to be hanging uh before this pod is over. Connor, how you doing? How you feeling? We’ve had 48 hours to digest everything, so now we get to talk about it again. How we feeling? Pretty good. I’m a little jealous of you guys going over uh overseas. That environment, I’ve done it once. I believe it was Bengals Rams at the time. This was years ago, maybe 2019. But either way, it’s such a unique trip. You see so many funny NFL jerseys. Uh the city is really into it. Obviously, there’s a ton of tourists there. There’s a ton of locals there. Everybody’s very fired up for American football to be in town. And you guys will have even more unique experience that it’ll be a giant Jets presence and the Jets fandom in Europe is amazing. Really is. It’s it’s actually mind-blowing as we’ve learned over the years while doing Badlands. So it’s now the actual game. It’s funny. This matchup feels so bad. It’s the worst possible matchup for them, right? where you like it’d be so funny if this is the game that they actually in the first half are neck andneck with the team because they man it’s I know it’s around a touchdown spread right now and it feels like there’s no spread that would be I mean Denver doesn’t really play a style of offense that blows teams out consistently but they’re the type of defense that they you could walk away and be and not even get the garbage time production the Jets have gotten. So, very, very interesting week. The vibes for the week around the actual event, very good. The vibes for the game, well, you kind of know how I feel. Yeah, this feels like I’m worried it could be the kind of game that before I leave I like tease Denver up to like minus 16 and a half and then the Jets like win or somehow close. I don’t actually think that that’s going to happen. I will ultimately end up picking them to lose when I make my You and I did that when the 2020 season we got the number two overall pick. Every week you and I would tease up the Jets to a double digit spread and every time. We were very rich men until the Rams game. Oh yeah, that I also got killed on a freezing cold takes on that one by making fun of Gase compared to McVey and then of course they the Gase wins that game. I’ll say and I I generally mean this ridiculous. I’ll gen like maybe this is just because I I’ve had a lot of good experiences traveling over there and I’m going for a few different things beyond our Jet Hangouts. Like I’m very excited for the trip. I’m excited to see everyone like Saturday and Sunday. It’s a lot of people that we’ve interacted with for a while that we don’t get a lot of inerson or any inerson time with and I’m excited to see a game in an international stadium that’s not Metife. So yeah. Yeah. I I’m going in with very tempered expectations for the product on the field for a multitude of reasons. Even if the Jets did not start strong, I just feel like a rookie coaching staff in an unconventional spot versus a veteran coaching staff is always a bit of a disadvantage. Never mind the talent discrepancy between the teams. So we’ll see more to come on the matchup later in the week. I think like I I rewatched the game and I tweeted about this a little bit today and this is after watching Pat’s Bills Sunday night and then re-watching our game in particular and what I was really struck by and what stuck with me the most from re-watching it. All the stuff that you’re not surprised by is still there. I think Will shared some really good stats about just how mathematically worse the Jets are when Clemens is on the field. Fine. Not a surprise. Tyler Baron can’t tackle. Fine, not a surprise. We knew that from the moment they drafted him. What bothers me and what hurts me the most about the culture and the core of the team is their defensive captain Jamian Sherwood does not look like he’s trying. Now, I don’t want to accuse him of not trying because he’s adapting to a new defense, but the tape that he put out on Sunday is among the worst tape I’ve seen from a Jets linebacker. And I watched Alec Ogulry on the 2020 Jets. I’ve I’ve seen some very bad linebacker play throughout the years here. And if that’s your captain and you could watch the effort be questioned and there’s some reps that are horrifying, man. I mean, again, this could be overthinking. This could be I’m in my own head, but you know, the long run, make mistakes going 100 miles an hour, don’t make mistakes looking like that. And if your captain is doing it on defense, man, that’s scary how it could trickle down to the rest of the unit. And then I was watching the Pats game, and you say what you want about Diggs. He’s a little bit of a maniac on and off the field. His energy on the sideline going person to person and player to player and not allowing them to like lose their focus or get out of that game. Now, obviously Drake May made some great plays, whatever. Hooray, the Patriots have this great win. Who on the Jets is doing that? I’m watching Diggs go up and down the sideline. I’ve seen a little bit of it from Garrett Wilson and John Simpson at times. A very little bit. Nobody on the Jets defense. Who breaks the Jets defense down before games? Maybe I don’t see the footage, but what’s what’s always stuck with me from the past few years is like they signed like Jaylen Mills off the street like a year and a half ago and within two weeks he was breaking the Jets down before the game and it was like what like where is that dog? Where’s that Where’s that energy? We’ve talked about this before and and just in seeing their captain play at that level, it’s like of course the rest of the unit is struggling with it. I also, to be fair, left with slightly more empathy for guys like Sauce and Stevens, who while I’m mad at Sauce, the effort is there and the physicality is there, at least for him. Stevens, it probably hasn’t been as bad as we’ve made him out to be the more I rewatch, like he’s still bad, but he’s since that Buffalo play, he’s flying around and he’s tackling. Like, I can’t say he’s not like moving and like trying. Some of the other guys, man, like the edge group in Sherwood, it’s it’s so hard, man. You have to like act I feel like you have to actively dislike your coach to allow him to have that tape. And if I was he won’t do this. If I was Aaron Glenn, I’d sit his ass on the bench this week. I wouldn’t bench him permanently. Maybe I bench him for the half. I would publicly make an example of that tape and say, “This is not to the standard. We’re going to play for this is not acceptable. I don’t give a you got a new contract. I don’t give a you got voted captain. You’re sitting down for the first half until you pick it up and I’ll just start Mark Robinson or Cam Jones or whoever else we have. It can’t be any worse than we’re doing right now because we have the worst defense in the NFL and hopefully he picks it up and gets better. I just feel like that’s the kind of accountability I’m talking about. Not cycling through the Williams of the week at returner who don’t know the rules. Like do something bigger like that. That was my main takeaway. I know that’s all defense and we’ll talk about some of the fields banter and discourse towards the end. What What did you think about all of that and re-watching the game again? Well, I think starting with the Sherwood point, both outcomes, whichever one it is, are concerning, right? Either the first outcome that you brought up that there it looks like there’s an effort issue. That’s wildly concerning. or it’s number two. He is so lost that it looks like there’s an effort issue, which is almost just as concerning because this is somebody that you just gave a massive contract to to be to bring some stability to the middle of your defense and you look at it and you go, “Okay, Quincy Williams is out and that’s how bad he looks when he doesn’t have Quincy next to him in that spot.” So, I think that honestly a lot of what you said is is extremely fair. I mean, there’s no way around it right now. It’s the fact that I do think that this team, you can kind of tell. I don’t know if it’s hard to tell if it’s effort slash them quitting verse they internally shut down or it’s a mental state that they’re like, “Oh man, like they take one giant punch to the mouth and it feels like they just stagger around the rest of the game.” And it’s crazy to see for an NFL team because NFL players are some of the toughest humans in the entire world with how fast and violent that sport is on a day-by-day basis, not just on game day, but during training camp and practice at times as well. So, it is it’s a weird one with this team right now. It feels like there’s a rot left over. I mean, and this is we’re trying to have distinguished conversations of, you know, reacting to just five games of a tenure verse a larger issue. Yeah. Because the five games of the tenure is Aaron Glenn and Darren Muji and trying to turn this thing around and we know it’s going to take time and blah blah blah and we get it and no one on this network, you know, thought the Jets would be what, 5-0 right now or anything like that. That’s just utterly ridiculous. But we’re talking about the basics. And I think sometimes it it becomes more alarming to you the more football you watch, right? And I understand a lot of people that are Jets fans probably mostly just watch the Jets at 1:00 on Sundays. And I totally get that. But watch Monday Night Football with Jacksonville. Jacksonville is far from a turned around project. Like the roster is not perfect. Trevor Lawrence isn’t really playing great, but you watch a gritty, gutty team with a plan on offense and with a plan on defense and getting more out of less and figuring out or finding out ways to execute and not making stupid plays and a game that looked like they were going to lose to the Chiefs. Just finding a way even when your quarterback didn’t have a great night. Yeah, he was using his legs. He made a couple throws. They draw a couple penalties and this is a leaguewide situation right now when you look at the Jets and you look at the new coaches around the league where you know the Jets were looked at as a roster that had talent that a new coach was inheriting some talent and it’s gotten so much significantly worse. So I I’m with you Joe. Like I’m at the point where I don’t care who makes what on this team. I really really don’t. If you are going to establish your culture and what you’re about, maybe you need to wake some people up and and cutting Xavier Gibson isn’t doing that, right? Xavier Gibson was a really nice guy, a nice story, made the team as an undrafted free agent. Had a punt return touchdown to win a game, but I don’t think that locker room felt in like on edge when Xavier Oh, they cut Xavier Gibson. like maybe I’m in trouble next. When it you sit down a guy that you’re committed to financially for the next two years, really big money, and you put a C on his chest, the thing is that I think the crossroads of this is for Aaron Glenn to do that kind of stuff this early because they won’t even sit Clemons. Yeah. Right. Let’s let’s be real. Like sitting Sherwood with no linebackers that they have right now and the money they owe him, they won’t even sit Michael Clemens. I think there is a situation with the Jets right now that if this effort that we saw against the Cowboys continues, the Jets will basically have a choice at the end of the year and once again like people can’t people need to evaluate this combo. When we sit here and say if this goes on the rest of the season, we’re talking about a one or two win team that looks as the worst team in football and significantly regressed. We’re not talking about five games right now we’re saying fire Aaron Glenn. No one is saying that on this podcast. But fast forwarding, if this is the same issue, then the Jets as an organization need to figure out, is this a personnel issue and Aaron Glenn needs to turn over this roster and get his guys or is his message not ringing through to anybody? Y because some of these guys are also guys that they chose to pay. Y Brandon Stevens, who’s been a little better the last two games, not up to the contract standards, but better than what we saw the first couple games. But, you know, they chose to pay Garrett Wilson who’s done his part. Absolutely. They, you know, they brought in some guys. You You got to figure out like why isn’t this message going through right now? Is this a coaching staff problem? Is this an Aaron Glenn problem? Do we not have the players? The truth always kind of lies somewhere in the middle. I think this is a pretty bad roster after you get through the first wave of players. Yeah. Especially on defense without JH and Quincy. It’s It’s right. All the guys that they brought in as their second wave that have to start now are playing very poorly. There’s just no way around it. You brought up Baron who’s one of the worst players in the NFL. Clemens, one of the worst players in the NFL. These guys are start playing starting reps. Kiko, on and on it goes. I mean, you signed Cisco Stevens. But you have to figure out, right, like what’s wrong with the messaging here? Because it’s one thing to be bad, it’s another thing to be embarrassing. Sure. And there was a lot of moments against Dallas that were embarrassing. They’ve seeped into the national discourse now, which is early for that to happen. The product they put on the field week one was more than acceptable for this season. Every fan could watch that team every week and they could go eight and nine or four and 13. If they were playing like that every week, everyone would have been completely fine with it. 100%. The product the last four weeks, save for like Will McDonald’s play is of a different level. It’s of that 2020 level where if you have people like Brian Baldinger and like some of the random other national accounts being like, “Man, this team is like noticeably really poorly coached.” Like worse than everything else we’re seeing. People know the talent discrepancy on on some areas. That’s fine. We we all know and see that. But they’re noticeably very poorly coached. That’s something you got to get right. And that goes down to the details. That goes down to knowing situational football, knowing when not to punt, knowing to tell your returner to take a knee because of the new kick return rules. These sound like little things, but they’re not. And you need every little yard and advantage you can get when you’re bad. And I this sounds like a ridiculous thing to get frustrated about, but I think every spot in your organization is valuable. And Isaiah Williams embarrassed the Jets on prime time and they brought him back to their practice squad. Why is he a future de? Like what? Why? Why? Very bizarre. Is there anyone else that we could try to develop? Is there anything else that we can try around the league that adds a little more credibility to your roster so you could put out a product that is not embarrassing? And for this regime, which I do fully expect to be back in year two, they have two national games left. They have one coming up against Denver. They’re where they’re really overmatched. And they have one against New England, which New England looks good now. And that loss is always going to be magnified or felt if you get embarrassed in that situation by everyone from ownership, from everyone in the fan base. And if you’re like Aaron Glenn and you’re hearing this noise, like you got to find a way to not get embarrassed. You go out, you play Denver tough and you lose by 8 to 10 points, like that’s okay. Whatever. That’s football. They’re better than you. They’re going to be in the playoffs this year. The Jets are not. You go out, you go to New England on Thursday night after like, I don’t know, going one and one against the Panthers and Bengals and you lose a close game when you’re like six-point underdogs. people could understand that where the oneanddone conversation comes from is if you are a national embarrassment and everyone is talking about it even outside of the wider Jets media ecosystem that becomes a situation where there’s a difference between the 2021 Jets and the 2020 Jets. I do think people forget just how bad the Jets were in 2021 in Robert Salah’s first year. They won four games and look at the context of those four wins. Like they were worse than you remember. I promise. Man, there was some real bad ones. Yes. And they they were not as bad as they were in 2020. The team that was 2 and 15 and started off 0 and4. You can live with your coach having a 2021 year to start. You really can’t live with a 2020 year where you’re making history. The lack of turnovers and everything that goes with that. So, there’s nothing to say. I mean, I I kind of feel like I’m yelling into the wind with some of these changes every week. Try some different linebackers. Try Malachi Moore at safety, not slot. Try Brownley at slot. On offense, try Stone Smart and Galani Woods. Try Aaron Smith and some of the Josh Reynolds reps. Throw to Isaiah Davis a little more in the running game. I mean, there’s not there’s only so much you can do. Like Hughes Fields as a runner, coach more aggressive. Hopefully, you check some of those boxes. And if you can do that, maybe you steal a couple games when you’re playing some of the other teams who are at this point better than you, but are not much much better than you. And you know, just be a normal bad team. And that’s all this regime really has to do. If they’re a normal bad team, there’s no discussion and they’re going to be back. If they’re a historically bad team, it’s fair to open up the can of worm on the broader worms on the broader discussion, which sucks to have it to be talking about after five games. I don’t I don’t think Aaron Glenn is like I don’t think he’s this bad. But I could be wrong because I did hear some of the stuff in the press conference and I’m like I don’t know if he gets it yet. But I will be fair and patience patient with him for the rest of the year cuz he can’t be this bad. It may be good. I just I I don’t know. It’s hard for me to believe that this coaching staff won’t get outside of Wilks won’t get 10 to 12% better at least the rest of the year. But we don’t know yet. We don’t know. Yeah. I think that it’s true. Number one, this conversation just sucks to have like the last thing we wanted to be doing is sitting here and going, “Wow, like this is as as bad as we’ve seen a start ever.” I think what we’re bothered by is they’re they’re just not a very smart team. Yes. Which is preparation to me. You brought up the returning issue. It’s a different thing every week, right? Whether it’s catching a a fair calling a fair catch at the two yard line, taking a ball out of the end zone when you can just start at the 35, the fumbles, and we talked about the breeze play a lot. That’s not what we’re mad about because that was an amazing play. It just happens. But before that, like the fumbles on kick returns, it’s just they’re just not a very smart team. And in the midst of all of that, they have a quarterback that is playing with a very slow internal clock. Yes. That it’s very hard to execute a a drop back passing game early in the game. You could do it during garbage time against a soft zone because you could see a guy open and throw the guy, but you can’t do it in the first half when things are tighter because you have to throw the guy open or anticipate and throw with anticipation. It’s two totally different things. That’s why when people post that like, hey, it’s not that Fields is the problem, but Fields is one of the problems and he’s not in an environment that can lift him up right now. The Jets just have so many larger glaring issues that, you know, it just comes down to it. What why Aaron Glenn is being so heavily criticized that I think is fair, right? There are things that aren’t fair, but things that are fair are that this defense is atrocious. And when you’re hired with a defensive background, it doesn’t matter if you’re calling the plays or you chose to hire someone calling the plays, that is your responsibility. And it feels like we’re about a week away. Like if Bo Nicks goes off against them and Bo Nicks has missed a lot of throws this year. He’s played good football when they need him to at most for the most part. But like watching every game, he misses a lot of throws. If Bick just goes off against this and Shawn Peyton will have the goods cooked up to go off against this Jets defense, you have to start to ask yourself, am I going to allow my organization to be embarrassed by the Panthers and the Bengals and the Browns and the Saints? Because that that’s what you’re teetering towards. Yeah. At that point. And it’s also a test, right? When you’re tested as a coach, there’s the part of the test that you you can’t just fire Wils after three games because that’s an overreaction. But there is a fine line of and they’re not going to fire Wils if they they’d remove him from calling plays and you you might not even know it, right? Like it’s one of those things. But there is a test because he he’s kind of failed a couple tests already. Yeah. Like this the Michael Clemens stuff is at the point where everyone’s laughing at you. Like credit to Shotti for running that jet sweep right at him and giving us all the laugher highlight reel to start the game. That’s what that was. Baron that they traded up for and burned future capital. I don’t care how small of a draft asset that is. Burning future capital for a player that shouldn’t have been drafted and shouldn’t be playing right now. That’s a really bad sign. Yeah. It’s not about the player, it’s about the process. It’s about the process. That’s exactly right.

Joe and Connor discuss the horrors of rewatching Jets vs. Cowboys, defensive changes that need to take place, the debate around the Jets offensive “production” and how the team avoids getting embarrassed overseas…

FULL episode at www.patreon.com/BadlandsTOJ

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