New York #Jets BEAT Atlanta #Falcons REACTION (FULL BADLANDS)

New York #Jets BEAT Atlanta #Falcons REACTION (FULL 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. Postgame party, third time in five weeks. What is going on? The New York Jets win at the buzzer on a long Nick Folk field goal in the driving rain. 2724. CR, how you doing? How you feeling? The old postgame party. We’re being spoiled again. This was a an interesting game, right? It was kind of a really slow first half and then things opened up in the second half. A lot of special teams involved which has kind of been the New York Jets way under Aaron Glenn. Adai Mitchell with the 100 plus yard game was pretty cool. Obviously that was the story on offense but you know it’s at the end of the day they there are there are there are signs of improvement that matter, right? I’ve seen so much discourse whether it’s on Twitter, whatever it may be. Um there are, you know, it’s I I keep saying like you can’t just flip a switch. This team can’t couldn’t just win one or two games this year and then go into next year and be like, “Okay, now everything is going to turn.” Sure, it could happen, but you do need to kind of improve on the margins. You need to show that investments that you have made as a regime are going to pay off. And that includes Arman Meu and Mason Taylor and Aar Thomas and Malachi Moore and all the different trades he made and Aaron Glenn making smarter decisions and today I felt like he made more good decisions than bad ones but had a handful that he’s probably going to learn from as well. Obviously the challenge on the bad spot was was going with the one of the most hilarious flag throws I’ve seen in a while. So it’s just once again like we do it every show. But we’re never going to tell people had a fan. But this especially feels like what we were hoping for from the staff down this stretch where you’re going to win some games, but more importantly, you’re actually showing signs of why you’re the staff worthy of being handed all of these high draft picks over the next two years to develop. I think what’s been nice since the Dallas game is you’re starting to see consistency in what you’re getting every week. this team since that game, they’re going to show up and they’re going to be in every game. They’re not going to get ran off the field. Right. So, since that game, they’ve won three times. They lost a one possession game to a good Denver team, a onepossession game to a good Carolina team. And they were beat the Rams today. Yeah. And they were in one-score games in the fourth quarter against Baltimore and New England. Every single game was competitive. Every single game was a game through halftime into the second half. And this sort of feels like the standard operating procedure now where it’s still a flawed team. They’re still making mistakes in the game. They are still just don’t they don’t have the horses on defense. You look at some of the guys they were playing out there today. You’re like, who who the hell is the Nickelback? Like this who is this? And like that that’s going to lead to some problems when you mix that with how Steve Wils calls defense. But they what impresses me is that I’ve seen this so many times in the past when they go down 14-7 in that game. They go down uh 2417. You expect them to roll over and just lose by 10 to 20 points. That’s what we saw a lot of in the Salah era and this team just keeps getting off the mat and they throw a 50-yard touchdown to AD Mitchell and they drive down the field and Tyrod Taylor runs one in and the Jets get two stops in the final two minutes after not being able to stop anyone all game. They get backtoback spots. I know every Jet fan was thinking Atlanta was going to kick the game-winning field goal there and they forced two three and outs and they’re the team that actually goes down the field and kicks the game-winning touchdown uh game-winning field goal. And look, I’m not saying Atlanta’s World Beaters, but both of us thought they could win this game. I picked them to win this game. And I think they got a good chance to win at home again next week, too. Not because I think the Jets are some elite team, because I think that they’re closer to being a five and seven type team who really should have beat Denver and Pittsburgh than being a one and 11 team who just happens to be lucky to be three and nine. And I know people kind of keep I don’t know why people do this like, oh, they get they’re winning because of these like fluky special teams plays. It drives me insane. Being excellent on special teams is incredibly important and is something this regime should be commended for because they’re making all of us look like idiots. We were extremely critical of them bringing Isaiah Williams back. He’s one of the best returners in football right now. They found a rookie punter who’s terrific. The decision to bring Nick Faulk back. He’s made every single kick this year except for one. And their coverage units are terrific. Stickers is one of the best gunners in football right now. He’s awesome. Being great on specials, that’s coaching. They hired, no one made them hire Chris Banjo. They didn’t do the brand boy or hold over [ __ ] that we saw for the last nine years. They went and made something really good and now you build around it. So, I say credit to this coaching staff, man. It’s not perfect. They made a couple mistakes today. They made that field goal far harder than it needed to be and we were all ripping our hair out, but it’s a different team since the Dallas game. I I’ve watched every snap of this season two, three times. They’re just a better team right now. And that’s why I’m not going to be surprised when they win probably another two games on top of the three they won already. Yeah. And there are things that I get the people that argue there’s never any carryover from season to season with the NFL. I don’t know if I fully agree with that. When you’re this young of a roster right now, confidence it building confidence. And here’s a perfect example. today. It felt like the fourth quarter was the first time I’ve seen Arman Meu look vulnerable as a rookie. Yep. And the rest of the team, Tyrod specifically with his mobility picked him up. And now for Meu, they’ll he’ll go back and watch that tape and be like, “Okay, this is what was giving me problems on the rush.” And you can build off of that, but he he’s probably so confident from the kind of season he’s had that it’s not going to sink him. Adnai Mitchell is another example of a guy, you know, when they acquired Adnai Mitchell, the conversation you and I had was, can this guy show enough to maybe be this vertical number three or number four wide receiver in the offense next year? He goes out and has a performance today that makes you wonder, can he be a number two? And I’m not going to get over my skis from one good week, but he has all the talent to stretch the field. And then when the coverage respects that so much, he starts to eat you up on the short and intermediate routes and Tyrod got him the ball on those. Something that Fields just a point I made today on SMY postgame very briefly that I want to reinforce here is and I don’t want this to be to pile on Fields, but what you saw today and it wasn’t a great offensive game for the but it was it was adequate. Yep. was enough is that the Jets didn’t put themselves in a ridiculous amount of third and longs or you know disadvantaged down and distance situations because the the speed out and the little intermediate outs was in the playbook where it was like just take the yards and then work from there and then balance the run game with Bree and make them respect the run game with Bree and then when the coverage is that thin you could attack and let’s not forget and this is pretty uncharacteristic of him. Mchi dropped a lot of balls today. Yep. That including a touchdown. Including a touchdown. Tanner Ringstrand’s scheming guys open and Mchi really that’s not his reputation. I think it was a bad day for him and he did catch one in the fourth quarter that it was nice to see them still go to him despite such a bad day. But Mitchell was really the entire pass game. Tyrod found a little youth in his legs in this one. The offensive line, the pass protection on the bomb to Mitchell was beautiful. I think that was Rucker actually on the right side that picked up and pass was just excellent. Fanu on the left side was amazing. And like you said it, the defense is kind of a skeleton crew. Yeah, that Justin Taylor is their starting nickel right now. Uh McCra Ball is playing major reps at linebacker and getting 15 yard penalties for fish celebrations. Right. you’re you’re you really are kind of this ragtag bunch that you know they’re playing as a unit and it’s enough. It’s not great, but it’s absolutely enough right now and you are getting some answers. I think Aaria is going to be a fine, we’ll call it number two corner in the league, which you find that in the third round like that’s that’s a win. getting a guy like Stiggers who I think is a good deep depth corner to be a high-end specialtamer that you don’t have to go out and pay for that guy. You have him under contract on a day three contract for the next two years after this one. You brought up Isaiah Williams who is really taking this second opportunity and run with it. But also just the fact that and I once again I don’t want to like overreact or anything but it feels like they actually are putting a little bit of a program in place now under Glenn where the special teams is really good. The offense is becoming competent. And it is funny to me how quickly I saw some reactions today that was like the the Falcons defense is terrible. The Falcons defense the when they were hot in the beginning of the year was the talk of town. Y they’ve fallen off a cliff. The Jets let Jeff Hbrrick walk. Look at what he’s doing with Atlanta right now. Where’s that conversation? Absolutely. They they drafted two guys in the first round and it’s paying off. And th those conversations were fair at the time. They’ve just started to fall off a little bit. Yeah, I I think for me and I want to go back into the tape, but my early thing is I still want more out of Germaine and Will McDonald right now. They’ve been surprisingly quiet for the last couple weeks and um that Will McDonald had a great play in the fourth quarter that I know you highlighted, but yeah, want to see a little bit more out of them. still think they’ve been just okay in the middle of the field. Not great. Y, but they have a lot of draft picks and free agency money to button up those things where maybe they can get some more higherend playmakers there. I I just think the most important thing with this team right now is the infrastructure of the offense with a pretty good offensive line, a number one running back, a flexish number three, maybe number two wide receiver. That was a throwin. Garrett Wilson returning. Mason Taylor looking promising. Rucker becoming a role player. Not he kind of catches everything now. Like he just catches every time they throw it to him. He’s just a role player. Yeah. There are legitimate positive signs that you could start to carry over into next year. And like you keep saying, Joe, I think they’re going to win a couple more games where that conversation gets a little bit louder. Yeah. I mean, offensively, they scored 27 points today. They had a missed field goal and that she dropped a touchdown. And really on that drive when they were in the red zone after the Isaiah Williams return called the perfect play for Mason Taylor was a walk-in touchdown and Tyro just kept it himself and that’s gonna happen sometimes because there’s still limitations at quarterback but there’s people open and AD Mitchell in particular. What I like today of course the post route was great to see. I think it was his first career touchdown is him is him working in the short to intermediate passing game. And that’s not easy to like come in and just be the unquestioned number one receiver just like that three games in where late in the game they were only throwing to him on that final drive to set up the field goal. And you know he’s catching the 5-yard in route in the pouring rain at Metife in November. That’s not an easy catch for a guy who just had the drops two weeks ago and I think he had like I think he caught like seven of his 11 targets in this one which is a very encouraging sign. first 100 yard game for a Jets receiver. Bree was a good workmanlike game, right? I think he had 18 carries for 65 yards, had two catches, had a nice one on the sideline for like 20 yards. I’d love to see him more in the passing game. Still had some I think weirdish quotes after the game, but I think his heads and heart is in the right place where he’s trying to watch them though. I watching them was different than reading them. And I’m not blaming any reporter cuz you’re in the heat of the moment. It’s fast tweeting. He he was he was smiling. He was lighthearted. He was trying to emphasize that he knew his presence in their run game was going to open things up in the pass game and that they used that to take advantage of it. So for like the breeze meter of like cryptic on Twitter to happy breeze, this was much more on the happy breeze. Yes, he also had a nice target after quote tweeting one of Aaron Glenn’s quotes after the game about the team continuing to fight back, which is always good to see on our Twitter uh watching. You know, defensively, look, they’re they still got a lot of work to do at linebacker, right? I I would make a case. You watch a game today, you’re like, they need two new starters at linebacker. They just need different kinds of players, bigger players. They just make so many mistakes there. And they had a couple goofy mistakes today with the personal fouls. And Kyle Pittz ate them and they just they’re just they’re just so they’re so weak there. And you’re like you just watch it and I don’t even think sometimes it’s an effort thing. The guys just look lost. And I’m like, these just aren’t. And I’ve been more favorable of my Quincy coverage, but even today at times you’re like, I just don’t know if he’s a fit for what they’re trying to do. And you I think maybe from a style standpoint, Kiko’s closer, but he just doesn’t have the juice to be on the field that much. So they they probably need a free agent and like a meaningful draft pick to go there. Unfortunately, they have enough capital to do that. Malachi Moore, I think, again, active. He’s everywhere. He’s not perfect, but you like the energy and intelligence he plays with for a guy that young. And another guy who just kind of keeps floating by under the radar a little bit is Brandon Stevens just playing good football like kind of quietly almost playing to his contract. And if you’re a corner like him, no sauce every week that passes that we’re not spending time talking about you. That’s great. I mean, you know, Mooney had a couple big plays last week against the Saints. He didn’t do anything today. What do he have? One or two catches. I, you know, it’s not like he’s Drake London. I get it. But Stevens, it’s now it’s a pretty big body of work. The Jets have played 12 games this year. And we’re not saying the Jets need a corner next year. They got Stevens, they got Thomas, they got Brownley who they had to play without today. I’m talking about them needing a safety next to Malachi Moore and needing linebacker and probably needing a little more juice at edge because McDonald showed up a little bit in the four fourth quarter. It was a quiet Germaine game and you just need somebody else, you know, make we finally saw Sam Paper Watts get active today, but there’s only so much he’s going to really be able to do. So, the needs on defense, I think, are pretty apparent. And with offense, I’ll say this, as excited as I am about what we’ve seen from both Matchy and Mitchell, you can’t have enough talent and you can’t have enough skill position players in the NFL, I’m not persuaded yet not to potentially draft a receiver in round one. Even if Mechie goes out, Matchy and Mitchell go out and continue to play well. And God, while I don’t want to push Garrett, I’m and I’m sure Garrett is dying to play behind the scenes. Wouldn’t it be interesting to watch this offense with all three of them at once with Tyron? I agree. I’m just fascinated to like you think the matchups that Mitchell can start to get across from Garrett and Garrett can get loosened up because Mechie’s operating in the slot. So, he’s got one game left on IR, so he’s not even eligible to return till the Saints game. And I don’t honestly know the severity of his injury. Normally in this situation, you wouldn’t think it’s like don’t even think about bringing him back. But I’m sure he’s pushing to play. And part of me is very curious to see what it looks like in that three wide because we just haven’t really got to see something like that in a bit. How I don’t know with this many games left, how do you see them handling his injury? And what else are you going to be continuing to look for offensively? Yeah, there’s a lot we haven’t known about this since the initial injury and then he came back and he didn’t look right in that Brown. He didn’t look right. So, if there’s any risk of reinjury, there’s no reason to play him. Yeah. Like even if it was 2% chance of you’re not there’s no reason to rush it. And NFL injuries obviously are notoriously rushed. It’s just that kind of league. Everybody’s almost playing hurt this time of year. So, but if he’s 100% and the Jets are kind of have some good vibes going, which I once again like I wouldn’t rule it out that, you know, can you have a strong start to strong finish to the year? Tyrod and Mitchell and me like Mitchell and Mchi kind of alternate weeks of who’s going the offense is adequate competent that maybe you you kind of want to get a look at what 11 personnel looks like with them and you like the fact that Mechie and Garrett you can kind of bounce you know in and out of the slot and Adnai Mitchell is just a and and Glenn says this a lot in his presser he’s just this big true ex receiver that can play on the perimeter and on the outside which we have been clamoring for the Jets to find. Obviously Lazard did was not that he had his ludicrous catch today Lazard on a ball that was not targeted. He was not targeted. You know I know it was very brief but there was a time where like Cory Davis was kind of that. Obviously you and I have been watching long enough as anyone listening to this probably has like Brandon Marshall was the pinnacle of that. Yep. So, I I think Brilen Edwards was a damn good one as well. So, that that matters a lot. It would be great to get a look at this offense with them, but yeah, I think they’ll be they’ll be careful, but if he’s cleared, he’s cleared. Like, football players, you’ve heard this from Jaden Daniels this week, Joe Burrow this week. Guys want to play. Guys want they want to give their team the best chance to win. They want to go get their numbers. They want to do everything they can to be on the field with their teammates. And you know, I saw Garrett tweeting today like he the guys love when the team wins and watching this team win and and want to believe in the staff and everybody preparing them week to week. So, it will be interesting to see how they handle that. That’s definitely a big decision. And then, you know, going forward right now, it’s they they’re kind of, you know, they’re they’re kind of this they don’t they almost don’t know a lot of these guys like the Jets cloud hanging over them. Obviously, Tyrod’s been here now, but it feels like guys like Harrison Phillips and Jawan Briggs and Aaria and Malachi Moore and Membu especially and and Mitchell and Mason Taylor, like they they those guys don’t have that like, ah, here we go. We’re just always losing and everything’s terrible. It’s it’s odd because I’m not saying the Jets got better from the trade deadline from trading sauce and Quinnon. That would be egregious. Quinn’s been phenomenal for Dallas and he was a great New York Jet. You know, I hope Sauce is okay after that injury today, but it does feel like they have a little bit of a feeling right now. And yes, the schedule is softening them up. I’m not being obtuse to that, but there is a little bit of this feeling right now with this team is like they don’t know that they’re the Jets and they’re just supposed to lose every game and roll over and stink. They’re kind of going out there and like flying around and being like, why the hell not? Like we played football our whole lives to win. Let’s let’s keep winning right now. And Gl and to be fair to Glenn, Glenn deserves a lot of credit right now because you can see the energy in the locker room after once again where he he has them coming out of the tunnel that way now. Yep. What what do you think the line is for next week? Jets hosting the Dolphins who are now five and seven and still alive technically. So you have a chance to kind of kill shot their season, but what do you think the line is in this one? Uninspiring win by the Dolphins today. Yes. almost blew it. Uninspiring win over the Commanders in Madrid. They smoked the Bills. So, the Dolphins are on a three-game win streak since getting smoked by the Ravens Halloween week. I’m going to say Jets home, Dolphins favored by one and a half. It’s two and a half, which is which is what the Atlanta line opened up with last week. I actually think it closed at three, which I was surprised by. I thought it would get tighter and I did take the Jets money length because I stood by my bet. So, finally winning some money on the Jets. Usually, it’s the reverse way of teasing up how they’re going to lose. Uh, but a game that, and we’ll talk about it more in the midweek, I don’t want to overdo it, right? Miami’s five- seven. The Jets are three and nine. I think it’s important that Aaron Glenn wins a division game and shows he could win a division game and Miami beat the Jets earlier this year. It’s a game that we think if Brilland Allen didn’t fumble, maybe it goes a different way. Miami is still playing for something. Miami is still trying to make something of this season. Miami, I would say, is slightly better than Atlanta. The Jets have also never beat Tua, which is embarrassing. Like, come on. Like, get a goddamn win against Tua in your building. Uh, it’s December and we know how Miami and Tua usually are in the cold and it will probably be cold and miserable next week at Metife. So, I’m interested to see. I think that win potentially carries a little more juice with the fan base than beating Atlanta, but again, wins are wins. And you know, you zoom out on some of the bigger picture stuff here. The Jets, as it stands now, will be picking six because of course they are. And every Jet fan should expect them to end up picking six because they always pick six. So that’s probably how it’s going to end up shaking out. But the Colts, and we talked about this, have now lost two in a row. They’re not in first place anymore. The Jaguars are ahead of them. The Texans just beat them. Their remaining games are against the Seahawks, 49ers, Jaguars, and Texans. Um, I believe they have the Jaguars twice and the Texans one more time. And it is not at all out of the question for the Colts to miss the playoffs or to have that pick drop substantially. And the Jets may come out looking extremely smart in this trade. They already look smart in the trade in my mind, especially with what you’re getting from Mitchell. And as Glenn has kept saying, like this was not a throwin. We specifically wanted this player. Never mind the two first round picks you got. It’s just one to keep an eye on as a Jet fan, man. Because all of a sudden that Colt pick is like not 26, it’s 18. That’s a big that’s a big big difference in what we’re talking about. Even if the Jets pick, all right, it’s not three, it’s seven because they went five and 12 because they beat the Dolphins and the Saints and they end up around what we thought their total was going to be anywhere. And then I don’t want to, you know, I don’t want to scratch the wound a little bit, but two things I haven’t heard much about lately. how dumb the Jets are for letting Aaron Rogers walk, who is hurt and playing terrible football. And here’s my thought exercise. Aaron Rogers is six and six on a Steelers team that has Mike Tomlin, TJ Watt, DK Metaf, an infrastructure of a team who makes the playoffs every year. If he’s on the Jets, what are they right now? Maybe I’ll be generous and say they’re five and seven. Do you think that organizations trading S Gardner and Quinn Williams and Aaron Rogers last year without it being a whole [ __ ] storm internally? That’s right. It’s the whole combo. So what? So all of a sudden, did the Jets look stupid for letting him walk? So they couldn’t be five and seven and have a huge fight internally about selling at the deadline on two trades that likely are going to look very smart. Also not hearing as much about how awesome Detroit’s defense looks without Aaron Glenn after they got completely sliced up on Thanksgiving and are struggling after trusting John Morton to be their offensive coordinator. I’m just saying Dan Campbell had to take over play call. Yes. I’m just saying let’s let the season play out with some of these narratives before we immediately rush to bury the Jets. I’m aware the Jets are three and nine more. Justin Fields is terrible and doesn’t even want to play as a gadget player. I’m not naive to that. I’m just saying let’s let the full season play out. And I’m very interested to see how the Jets can now potentially show up at home against Miami next week. Do they have another twoame winning streak in them? Can they be feisty against a Jaguars team who’s good right now but can be a little all over the place? and then you play a Saints team that you’re better than. So, I don’t know. It’s just very interesting in my mind. It feels like the tale of two seasons. Like, it’s kind of was the tale of two off seasons. The team that we saw go 0 and five and just totally quit against Dallas. That’s not the team I’m watching anymore. And now it’s been enough games where the fact that in this season I could confidently pick the Jets to win and then they win against anybody when I thought they might go 0 and 17 a few weeks ago is a pretty big change. So what what are you thinking bigger picture now? Jets are picking six. You’re coming off an interesting weekend in college football. We’re going into a pretty goddamn important game if you’re a Jet fan who’s draft watching, right? with Indiana, Ohio State upcoming because I’m pretty sure every player on Ohio State has been linked to the Jets at some point. Mendoza seems to be the clear clear number one quarterback right now with Simpson being a little erratic. Most people thinking Moore is going to stay in school. How you feel in bigger picture with everything right now with the Jets sitting at three and nine and pick six overall, right? Well, you look at the Jets schedule. Let’s say they win two more games, right? And they’re sitting there. That would have them with five wins. I don’t know. say that puts them somewhere from what 7 to 12 something like that picking I because everybody will pull up tankathon but ths have to play each other that are bad so these teams are also going to win two and also the Jets might not win two games I think they’re going to win two out of these last five but we’ll see I think that one I’m I’m infatuated with the and it’s very small which is good the portion of the fan base that has a nuclear meltdown every time the Jets win a because of the draft positioning when I have no idea who they want to tank for right now. We don’t know if Dante Moore is in the draft. We don’t know if Tai Simpson’s in the draft. We I if you like Fernando Mendoza that’s fine. I think he’s I for those cuz I get more Mendoza questions than I’ve got about the anti-Mendoza guy. So we we did a episode of Stock Exchange Stockwatch on Wednesday and we opened with the quarterbacks and I think I started with Mendoza. So if you go to that on YouTube, you can hear all my and I just pray did nothing but praise Mendoza by the way. For the leaps he’s taken from my summary vow to now. Do I think he’s a bonafide number one overall pick still? No. Um let’s He has a big game against Ohio State. Like that would that would really really wow me. So let’s get there when we get there. But there’s a lot of things to like about him as a prospect. But with that being said, you know, the reality is right now for this team, whether they’re picking at four or whether they’re picking at 12, there’s going to be a really, really good player there that is a fit and a need for this team. My my like easy take right now is I need one of these players from Ohio State to be on the Jets next year with one of the one of the draft picks. Whether that is Arll Ree, whether that is Carnell Tate, the great wide receiver, whether it’s Kaden McDonald, the massive defensive tackle, who’s probably like, if I had to pick one, I have this weird feeling the second firstrounder is just going to be Kaden McDonald’s because he’s massive. That’s what Glenn likes on the Dline. He’s like 335 lbs. He’s got long arms. He’s a monster against the run. Um Caleb DS, who is probably going to be too rich for their blood, which pains me because he’s amazing, but I get it. So Sunonny Styles, another offball linebacker that’s just big and fast and awesome. The the Jets continuing to get talent from Ohio State would make me a very happy man next off season. But yeah, I think at the end of the day because here here’s the thing, like the Titans really really stink. So they’re not winning another game the rest of the year. They stink. Yep. Um so they’ll they’ll probably be open for business because they believe in Cam Ward and if the Jets love a quarterback and they want to give up capital, which I don’t love the idea personally at all, but then they can go up and and go to that spot. But my take is like the Jets are better than the Saints. The Jets are better than the Raiders. Those teams need quarterbacks and they’re are going to be ahead of the Jets. And that’s just the reality. Let me ask Jets fans this. Would you rather be the Saints or the Raiders right now? Because the answer to me is [ __ ] no. If you’ve ever watched any of those teams play this year, the answer is absolutely not. You have no idea. Like the Pete Carol staff, my god, it is unreal how bad it is. And the roster is horrible. The Saints are just so weird because they act like every year in free agency and trades that they’re kind of in, but they don’t have a lot of answers. I don’t even know how to evaluate that coaching staff. I I don’t think they’re nearly as bad as what the Raiders are dealing with, but they’re just not a good team and they have bloated contracts and they’re in cap hell and it’s it’s not pretty. So, I it’s funny for me as a draft guy. I just can’t get hung up in this. Like, no, we need to lose every single game and pick second and hope that this guy declares and then that like just get to the draft, see where you stand, do the evaluations rather than just reacting to one throw or one quarter or one game of a 21-year-old and then see where the chips fall, right? And how many years of this do we have to see to understand that it’s the number one pick is not the only road to finding your franchise quarterback. So, and hey, god forbid the Jets end up with five wins and this quarterback class is really thin because guys don’t declare and they take two really good players in the first round and they need to find an actual bridge quarterback that works for a year and then go into 2027. So be it. I’m not gonna sit here and stomp my feed or say, “How could they not have a young quarterback on the roster for next year?” Because here’s the reality for the people that are like, “They can’t wait till 2027.” And I get part of the argument. Unless you take Mendoza, Simpson Moore are not ready to play week one next year. Okay. So, it it’s just, you know, I’m not trying to sound like arrogant or or snarky or anything like that. It’s just I think these in the- moment reactions are are becoming so extreme. And I think that the little incremental progress of the Jets as a football team and organization step by step combined with the capital they have is the best thing that can go for them in this moment and then cross the bridge when you get there at a free agency draft when the chips fall the way they will. Is there anything because we get this a lot too, right? I think most people are starting to see that it’s going to be really hard to get a quarterback in the top of the first round with how this is likely to play out. Is there anything to the late first round, early second round crop of potential options? People ask us all the time about the USC kid, about Matier, about Nusmeer. I don’t know if Sellers is coming out or not, but we got a couple questions about him today. Is there anything to that route in the let’s call it 25 to 45 range where you have enough collateral knocking around where you could theoretically do what the Giants did to get Jackson Dart last year, right? The discount rack is is on the discount rack for a reason. And you know, Dart’s a weird one because I remember the first quarterback rankings I did in December, so almost a year ago from now since the preseason. We usually do summer scouting rankings, early quarterback rankings around new year, and then final quarterback rankings. I I was wildly impressed with Dart in December. I think I had him as like QB4 when like people he wasn’t being discussed a lot yet. And then I kind of did find myself picking holes in his game throughout the spring, blah blah blah, whatever. But the league obviously did the same thing. But Dart played some really good college football and was coming off a really good year at Old Miss. This feels and same for Shuck, who had a long injury history, was older, and played at a lot of different programs, but he was coming off a good year. This year’s a little weird because it’s actually the opposite. It’s guys that lost momentum. Nusmeer got benched. Yeah. Drew Aller, who’s not going to be in that range. He’s going to fall further than that. Had a season ending injury and wasn’t playing that well. Sellers, horrible year. You know, there was over the summer people thought he’d be a top five pick. I didn’t think he would be, but I thought he’d be better than this. And he’s a total project right now. Matier, Matier came out hot, got hurt, he’s come back, he hasn’t played very well, and he he’s not playing like a pro. He’s doing a lot of the Zack Wilson like let me run myself out of problems and leave pockets and kind of throw the ball up. So when you hear all that Nus Meer and Aller are going to be in this draft, but they’re reclamations. Sellers and Matier have to go back to school and if they don’t I’d be like I wouldn’t even I really wouldn’t want anything to do with them. My is a different case. MABA is the only one that you can you can go the Jackson Dart argument and be like he’s playing his best ball. He got better year after year. He looked really calm and confident in that offense. He’s a big guy, not a power arm for a big guy. But is there the ceiling of an NFL starter is what people are going to try to figure out. And I don’t know if I’m there yet. So that’s kind of the tricky part of all of this is that, you know, once again, it’s the discount rack for a reason. And we’re going to see how this season finishes out and who’s in it. But it it does feel different from last year’s draft where everybody knew Cam Ward was going number one overall and then there was this cluster of Shuck Dar and Shadore that could go all of them could go anywhere from like 20 to what was perceived as the third round end up being the fifth round and Shadur did not go in the fifth round based off of talent. There was obviously reasons teams weren’t comfortable with taking him. But yeah, so I I just I think we’re it could change, but it just feels like a thin quarterback class. There’s just not a lot of guys and that is kind of the nature of how the college game is structured right now. Guys to stay. A nice little preview of what our next few months are going to be like along with free agency. And you know, again, to put a bow on today, a game that I think for a few weeks we kind of had in our mind the Jets could win and they went out and won. And I think next week will be a baby step up in terms of a challenge. Jacksonville after that will be a meaningful step up. And you you take it a week at a time. And I’m curious to see how this team shows up because not winning division games and not being able to beat mediocre quarterbacks in your division has been a long-standing problem. And the Jets are, I want to be clear again on defense, they need to change defensive coordinators and I am still concerned they won’t. They are playing with some guys right now that are just not NFL caliber players and that’s going to continue to be a problem. But, you know, you look at you look at this offense with Tyrod, it you know, 27 30 points like that’s not something we’ve become accustomed to seeing. And can guys like Mitchell and can Mchi bounce back from a bad game? Right. Can Mitchell string together multiple consistent good games? Can Breeze have another breakout game? He’s heading towards knock on wood. He stays healthy. His first proper thousand yard season. Mason Taylor’s at 40 catches now. Can he get up over 50 as a rookie, which is pretty damn impressive thing for any rookie, never minding this offense. And there’s plenty of little things like that to watch, including this offensive line continuing to stay cohesive and and moving the line together. So, New York Jets 3-9, 3-2 in their last five games. There you go. That’s stretching it out. Could I dare I say they could be four and two in their next six after last week. It’s Jets Dolphins week. So, uh we’ll be back with a full week of content. It is the last day of November as of recording this. We’re going to be in into December into holiday month into off-site planning month. It’s only only so many games left, so many postgame parties or therapies left. So thank you everybody for listening and we’ll talk to you soon.

Joe and Connor react to the Jets 27-24 win over the Atlanta Falcons, discuss the gradual improvement since early in the year and implications for their draft options…

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