Jets offseason is filled with red flags that can easily sink what little hope there is for 2025
We all have that one friend who ignores red flags when they are right in their face. For me, it was my brother in his dating life when he would ignore red flag after red flag and wonder why someone threw a brick through his window at the end of a relationship. He once dated […]
We all have that one friend who ignores red flags when they are right in their face. For me, it was my brother in his dating life when he would ignore red flag after red flag and wonder why someone threw a brick through his window at the end of a relationship. He once dated a girl that refused to leave his house for days and later, he wondered why it ended poorly. We would ask him if he didn’t see it coming and he would always say “how could he have seen it?” The red flags were there, he just ignored them.
The Jets have become my brother in this scenario, constantly ignoring red flags with the bad of idea of thinking they don’t mean anything. I'm not talking about the challenge flag stuffed in the socks of the head coach either. I'm talking about warning signs of impending disaster.
The most important hire Aaron Glenn had to make was his offensive coordinator. For the job he hired Tanner Engstrand. Engstrand might be the next Sean McVey, but he comes with a lot of red flags. Ben Johnson didn’t want Engstrand to be his OC with the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions didn’t want to keep him around to be their OC after losing Johnson opting instead to go outside the organization. Red flag.
The red flags aren’t only for hires I wasn’t too excited about either. I think Steve Wilks is a fantastic hire, but he comes with his own red flags. He led the San Francisco 49ers to the third best points per game in his lone season as their defensive coordinator but was fired after one season. Niners coach Kyle Shanahan explained the decision to fire Wilks by saying, "It just ended up not being the right fit. And it hurt for me to do this, but that's exactly why I had to." Red flag.
The Jets hired an offensive line coach in Steve Heiden who never played, nor coached the offensive line in his career. He was a tight ends coach in Detroit, but he always wanted to coach offensive line. Red flag.
The Jets QB coach Charles London has been on NFL coaching staffs since 2007. He coached wide receivers, running backs and quarterbacks. None of the QB’s he coached were better than they were prior to his arrival. Despite being an offensive coach for almost two decades, he was never an offensive coordinator. Red flag.
On the roster, the New York Jets signed Justin Fields to a two-year deal to be their starter. Fields was drafted in the first round out of Ohio State and many had high hopes for him. But in four years he has 14-30 record as a starter. He was traded away by the Chicago Bears after they had an opportunity to get Caleb Williams. Fields was then benched by the Pittsburgh Steelers despite having a 4-2 record at the time. The Steelers, who still don’t have a quarterback, made no real effort to bring Fields back.
In fact, with Justin Fields, the Jets seem to be signing Justin Fields for he did at Ohio State. Not what he has done in the four years since he has attempted to be an NFL QB.
Red flag.
Brandon Stephens is the guy new GM Darren Mougey signed to play opposite Sauce Gardner in the Jets defense effectively replacing Pro Bowler D.J. Reed. Stephens has been thrown at more than any other corner back in the last two years and gave up 31 first downs in 2024 alone. Red flag.
The Jets options at wide receiver two? Either Allen Lazard who formally requested a trade, but nobody wanted him, or Josh Reynolds who has never been anything more than a number three receiver in his eight-year NFL career. But they can block, so they are going to be fine, right? Red flags.
The Jets have a glaring hole at right tackle and the one guy they signed to play the tackle position quit on his team after one half of football last season and was cut by the organization. Red flag.
There are individual excuses that could explain a lot of these issues away, and some of them might be valid. The fact remains the Jets are a team full of red flags and to ignore them would be a big issue.
Woody Johnson’s latest comments prove that he will never change his awful ways as Jets’ owner
There is ignorance. There is stupidity. And then there is willfully ignorant. Woody Johnson had previously dipped his toes into the first two categories, but now it seems like he is doing a full-on cannonball into the “willfully ignorant” pool. Back in February, the NFL Players Association released its annual report card where the players […]
