New York Jets 2020 Record: 2-14 Total DVOA: -30.5% (26) 2021 Mean Projection: 6.1 wins On the Clock (0-5): 44% Pythagorean Wins: 2.8 (32) Offense: -20.5% (31) Postseason Odds: 13.0% Mediocrity (6-8): 39% Snap-Weighted Age: 26.3 (19) Defense: 4.7% (21) Super Bowl Odds: 0.5% Playoff Contender (9-11): 15% Average Opponent: 2.6% (8) Special Teams: -5.3% (29) Proj. Avg. Opponent: -0.8% (20) Super Bowl Contender (12+): 3% 2020: Ooh, nothing’s going to bring him back (he’s gone for good). 2021: The first days are the hardest days (don’t you worry anymore). >>Welcome back to Fumblr, the NFL’s premier ser- his defense, letting Gregg Williams have free reign to call vice for shopping for quick turnarounds, anti- all the Cover-0 blitzes he wanted. He demonstrated terrible tanking supplies, and complete franchise refur- personnel management both by placing injured players in the bishments. Remember: If You They Want You To lineup and by continuing to run out ineffective elderly play- Cook The Dinner, At Least They Ought To Let You ers he was comfortable with. He lied to the media about who Shop For The Groceries™. was calling the offensive plays, out of fear it would make his assistants look more competent than he was. We called Gase a >>Welcome back, The New York Jets. While we horrible result of a muddled search when he was hired, some- value all our customers, it’s our regular return- one more concerned with protecting his power than running a ing franchises that help us make the offseason team. If anything, we undersold it. content machine run as smoothly as it does. While you’re here, we’d love it if you’d rate your previ- >> You have successfully added the San Francisco ous orders. How likely are you to recommend your Treat boxset to your shopping cart. 2019 purchase of “The Adam Gase Experience” to a friend or colleague? Teams looking to recover from a terrible coaching regime tend to zig as hard as they can in the opposite direction with >>I’m sorry; we can only accept positive numbers their next hire. The Jets went from a soft-spoken defensive between 1 and 10. Your attempted inputs of “neg- coach in Todd Bowles to an offensive disciplinarian in Gase, ative a zillion,” a frankly impressive breadth of and now have zagged back to the defensive side of the ball profanity, or a collection of rude emoji are not ac- with former 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh. But it’s ceptable responses. not just his on-field specialties that have made Saleh such a breath of fresh air. he failure of the Adam Gase era was more than a failure of T Xs and Os, though there was plenty of that to go around. >> View our recommended reviews for Robert You don’t go 9-23 by unleashing a high-powered, beautifully Saleh, from a wide variety of satisfied customers. schemed offense. The Jets lacked talent, for sure, but they also lacked an identity—neither physical nor finesse, without a key It is difficult to find a coach with more universal acclaim sense of logic or continuity to their play calling on offense. from his former players than Saleh. When the Jets made the The entire reason Gase got not one but two head coaching hiring official, it was greeted with showerings of praise from opportunities was based on the reputation he earned working Richard Sherman, Fred Warner, DeForest Buckner, Russell with Peyton Manning in Denver. With only six games with a Wilson, and more. Where Gase has left a trail of disgruntled positive offensive DVOA over the last two years, the fewest in players and bad vibes in his wake, Saleh has a track record of the league, Gase utterly failed at the one thing he could hang players singing his praises—Houston, Seattle, Jacksonville, his hat on. San Francisco, you name it. Saleh’s players would run through a wall for him, which would be convenient if playing football >> Your request for a refund has been denied. Be- involved running through any walls. At the very least, bring- fore making your next purchase, we advise you to ing Saleh in should create a less toxic environment around the read the user reviews from previous customers. team. They may well be a two- or three-win team again, but getting free of the toxic atmosphere surrounding Gase should But more than that, Gase brought with him the same dis- make being a Jets fan significantly more fun going forward. function and disorder that soured his time in Miami. He alien- In fact, the last time you could find a sense of negativity ated his locker room, feuding with players in the media and surrounding Saleh was among San Francisco fans in 2018. alienating stars such as Jamal Adams. He practically ignored When Saleh took over the 49ers’ defensive coordinator job, he 192 NEW YORK JETS 193 2020 NYJ DVOA by Week 2021 Jets Schedule 100% Week Opp. Week Opp. Week Opp. 80% 1 at CAR 7 at NE 13 PHI 60% 2 NE 8 CIN 14 NO 40% 3 at DEN 9 at IND (Thu.) 15 at MIA 20% 4 TEN 10 BUF 16 JAX 0% 5 at ATL (U.K.) 11 MIA 17 TB 6 BYE 12 at HOU 18 at BUF -20% -40% -60% inherited a woeful team lacking talent on all three levels, and -80% he was no miracle cure. The 49ers ranked 26th and 24th in de- -100% fensive DVOA in Saleh’s first two years, and there were some calls from outside the organization that the team should move on and find someone else; it clearly wasn’t working. Then, in 2019, Saleh adjusted his scheme, switching the defensive line to using more Wide-9 with a focus on penetration rather than placement a high-priced free agent and some odd- reading and reacting, and switching to a Cover 2-based system ly shaped pieces? in the secondary. It also helped to add Nick Bosa and Dee Ford to a line already bursting with first-round picks, but don’t While the difference between a 3-4 and a 4-3 front is over- think the 49ers’ defensive improvement was solely due to per- blown, there’s no denying that Robert Saleh’s aggressive 4-3 sonnel. Dragging the 49ers’ defense to a sixth-place ranking in makes for a clunky change from Gregg William’s hybrid sys- 2020 despite leading the league in defensive adjusted games tem. Going from a two-gap to a one-gap scheme will change lost may well have been the coaching feat of the year. The responsibilities of linemen, alter the reads for the players be- 49ers had a different defensive starting lineup in all 16 games hind them, and so on and so forth. Some early growing pains last season; they were forced to put 37 different players on the are to be expected. field, second-most in the league. An average performance out Further complicating matters is the fact that the preexisting of that lot would have been commendable; gluing together a strengths of the Jets defense don’t line up with what Saleh very good defense out of that mess deserves an award. asks his team to do. The interior line trio of Quinnen Wil- liams, Foley Fatukasi, and John Franklin-Myers did some >> Please allow 12 to 18 months for delivery. great work for the Jets last season, but only Williams has an obvious place in the system. Williams fits perfectly as the Saleh’s no one-year wonder, but Jets fans hoping for a mira- DeForest Buckner-esque 3-technique. Saleh’s Wide-9 front cle turnaround in just one season are setting their expectations puts the edge rushers outside the tight ends, forcing the of- poorly. All else being equal, bad defenses with new schemes fensive line to slide outside to handle them and opening up tend to improve less than bad defenses in their second or third gaps inside. Williams was already fourth in ESPN’s Pass Rush year of a scheme. And all things are not equal in New York. You Win Rate among defensive tackles; giving him more isolated could make a strong argument that the Jets ended the 2020 sea- “don’t think, just go” snaps one-on-one with guards could see son with the least talented roster in all of football. Saleh and Joe his production soar even higher. Douglas did a good job this year finding talent in free agency The other interior lineman usually plays the 1-technique, and the draft, and the Jets could be significantly better at pretty and that’s a problem for both Fatukasi and Franklin-Myers. much every position this season. But considering the starting Saleh asks for speed and explosion from his interior linemen, bar was so low, there’s a lot of climbing to do before the Jets while Fatukasi is more of a power and timing guy. Sheldon approach respectable, much less good. Considering that mod- Rankins, despite being comparatively undersized, is more erately useful players like Tarell Basham and Jordan Jenkins Saleh’s traditional type. Meanwhile, while moving inside were let go, replaced by lesser-proven players who may be bet- helped Franklin-Myers excel last season, he’s not a fit for the ter scheme fits, it’s also not a clear progression forward. This 1-tech role at all.