With their loss to the New England Patriots on Monday night, the New York Jets fell to 0-9 on the season, the 24th team to do so since the schedule expanded. However, out of the previous 23 teams, only two actually finished the season without winning a game, the 2008 Detroit Lions, and the 2017 Cleveland Browns.
Now, the Jets are bad, but are they worse than these teams? Well, they very well could be.
The Jets’ worst start in franchise history was previously 0-8 in their 1996 season and went on to finish that season with a 1-15 record. That team actually had talent, but they just weren’t maximizing it, as the next year they brought in Bill Parcells as their coach and went 9-7.
It’s hard to say that this current Jets team has any talent, maybe aside from a few guys. But, that’s not to say that coaching doesn’t play a part, since Adam Gase is arguably one of the worst coaches in NFL history, but he doesn’t have much talent to work with.
Comparing them to the Lions and Browns though, in multiple ways they are worse. One thing to point out is that through their first nine games, the Lions had a point differential of -126, and the Browns had one of -125. The Jets, -147. The Jets have also scored 121 points on the season and given up 268, far worse than either team.
While the Browns scored less, their defense also held up better. Along those same lines, both the Lions and Browns each had four one-score games in their first nine. The Jets have two, meaning only two of their games have been within eight points.
In terms of roster talent, the teams are very similar. By that I mean the Browns and Lions are very similar, and the Jets are worse. The Jets have a few guys that have star potential but none that are actual stars.
New York has guys like Quinnen Williams, Marcus Maye, and Mekhi Becton, who are all players on the road to stardom but just aren’t there yet. They still have much time to grow, though.
The Lions, on the other hand, had one star. Clearly, they needed more, but that star was one of the greatest receivers in NFL history, a man by the name of Calvin Johnson.
Though Johnson didn’t make the Pro Bowl that season, he still had 1,331 receiving yards and twelve receiving touchdowns. The Lions also had a guy almost rush for 1,000 yards, as Kevin Smith rushed for 976.
The Browns roster was a little better, as they had more than one young stud to build around. They had guys like Myles Garrett, Kevin Zeitler, Jabrill Peppers, and Joe Schobert, who actually made the Pro Bowl that season, as he was tied for the most tackles in the league. While they had their issues, they were better than both the Lions and Jets.
But, their biggest issue is the one that plagues most bad teams, the quarterback.
All three of these teams had/have quarterback trouble. The Lions had three starting quarterbacks, and all three were bad. The quarterbacks were Dan Orlovsky, now an analyst for ESPN, John Kitna, and former Pro Bowler Daunte Culpepper.
All three played horrible, with a combined stat line of 17 touchdowns, 19 interceptions, a completion percentage of 55.3%, and 3,160 passing yards. Obviously, these stats are putrid, but Deshone Kizer had a worse season by himself for the Browns.
Kizer started 15 games, and in those games, he had 11 touchdown passes to twenty-two interceptions. A touchdown to interception ratio of 1:2 in fifteen games started is beyond horrible. But, along with that, he had a completion percentage of 53.6% and totaled 2,894 passing yards.
Compare that to the Jets. Through nine games this season, Sam Darnold and Joe Flacco have thrown seven touchdowns and eight interceptions, have a completion percentage of 57.9 and have thrown for 1,704 yards.
In terms of quarterbacking, they are on pace to be the best out of these teams, which still isn’t good, but okay for them, considering the reward at the end of the season.
The team that has the worst record in the league gets the first pick the next season, and obviously, the Lions and Browns had the worst records in those respective seasons. They both took quarterbacks, as the Lions selected Matthew Stafford out of the University of Georgia. Stafford is the definition of underrated, as most seasons he had played like a top ten quarterback, but never gets recognized, probably because he plays in Detroit.
The Browns took Baker Mayfield out of the University of Oklahoma. Baker played really well in his rookie season but took a step back in his second season. He gets a lot of hate, but when he doesn’t have to force-feed the ball to Odell Beckham Jr., he is a very good quarterback.
Who will be the reward if the Jets get the first pick? Trevor Lawrence, a quarterback out of Clemson. From the minute he took the field in his freshman season, everyone knew he would be the number one pick whatever year he came out of college, as he is easily one of the most hyped-up prospects in NFL history.
Out of these three teams, the Jets are the worst. They have no real stars, the worst coach out of the three (yes, Adam Gase is worse than Hugh Jackson), and statistically, they are worse than both the Lions and Browns. While they may not be the worst team in NFL history, if they go 0-16, they will be the worst 0-16 team in NFL history.
Photo Credit: Bleacher Report
