Heading into Sunday\u2019s Week 18 matchup, the Jets are on the brink of history \u2026 just not the kind anyone wanted, or even the most pessimistic fan could have reasonably envisioned.<\/p>\n
As things stand, the Jets have recorded zero interceptions this season. They already etched their name into the record books by becoming the first team to go interception-less through 16 games of a season. Now, they have a chance to finish the entire year without a single pick. The previous low-water mark belonged to the 2018 49ers, who managed just two interceptions. Unless the Jets intercept Bills quarterbacks twice on Sunday, they will stand alone in NFL history.<\/p>\n
Interceptions, frankly, have been a foreign concept for much of this Jets roster throughout their careers. Among the 11 projected defensive starters this week, the group has combined for just four interceptions total across their entire NFL tenures. Quincy Williams has one, which came in 2023. Jermaine Johnson has one, also in 2023. Brandon Stephens accounts for the other two which again, both occurred in 2023. Even when looking at the backups, Ja\u2019Sir Taylor has a single interception, coincidentally from 2023 as well.<\/p>\n
To be fair, this defense is made up largely of young players with very limited starting experience. That said, it\u2019s hard to ignore that the veteran presence on this unit has also struggled to generate turnovers at virtually any point in their careers.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve talked before about the intrinsic nature of turnovers. There\u2019s typically a strong luck component involved, which explains the year-to-year volatility in interception totals across the league for teams. But when you reach an extreme edge case like this, it\u2019s clear bad luck is not the lone culprit. Skill limitations, coaching, or something else entirely are playing a significant role. While it\u2019s almost a lock that the Jets will record more interceptions next season, meaningful improvement is going to require real work from a personnel standpoint.<\/p>\n
From a free-agent perspective, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising if the Jets aggressively pursued defensive playmakers. Safeties like Bryan Cook, Jaquan Brisker, and Jalen Thompson all have career interception totals that exceed anyone currently on the Jets\u2019 active roster. One particularly interesting name is Geno Stone, who has piled up 14 interceptions over the past three seasons. Stone is still squarely in his prime, though he\u2019s also shown some real struggles in Cincinnati when he isn\u2019t taking the ball away. If the Jets are chasing turnovers purely because of their randomness, that approach could very easily backfire.<\/p>\n
Regardless, it\u2019s obvious something needs to fundamentally change in this area next season. If the Jets want to be a physical, tough team to play, a positive turnover margin is a requirement for winning. Right now, the Jets aren\u2019t even in the same zip code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heading into Sunday\u2019s Week 18 matchup, the Jets are on the brink of history \u2026 just not the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[7,226,1917,255,84552,2321,2097,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-651384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jets","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-jets","12":"tag-new-york-jets-analysis","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkjets","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115832731990222952","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}