After 2023 debacle, have the Jets built a disaster-proof roster?

Henry McKenna

AFC East Reporter

Someone in the NFL scheduling office must hate the New York Jets. The league has scheduled Aaron Rodgers & Co. to open their season on Monday night — and against a San Francisco 49ers team that now features pass-rusher Leonard Floyd.

Why does that matter?

Floyd, then with the Bills, sacked Rodgers during a Monday night game to open last season. And Rodgers tore his Achilles. That wasn’t so much an inauspicious start as it was a total disaster for 2023. For the entire year. Rodgers’ absence loomed over the team built for him. New York missed the playoffs. And now the Jets are — more or less — trying to run it back in 2024.

I’d say the season-opener is a fairly inauspicious start.

But it could still be their year.

On paper, the Jets should be looking at their division and seeing vulnerability. The Bills decided to clear out a number of veteran leaders: Stefon Diggs, Jordan Poyer, Micah Hyde, Tre’Davious White, Mitch Morse.  I don’t think the Bills got worse, but they definitely did not get better. The Miami Dolphins struggled to revamp their offensive line to the capacity that many felt they needed to do.

New York should absolutely be competitive in the AFC East — and in the AFC as a whole.

It’s just a question of whether Rodgers can stop the Jets from Jetsing. I hate to be so patronizing. I really do. This team has Super Bowl talent, on paper. But more years than not, the Los Angeles Chargers have had the same, whether they’ve had Justin Herbert or Phillip Rivers at QB. And the Chargers have just one Super Bowl appearance (and not with Herbert or Rivers). Some organizations just muck up a good opportunity. The Jets are one of them.

So will they muck up this one?

Last year, it felt like the Jets cow-towed their roster-building to Rodgers’ preferences. They hired his preferred offensive coordinator in Nathaniel Hackett. New York paid — and frankly overpaid — receiver Allen…

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Publish date : 2024-05-15 18:50:58

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