End of Season Report: New York Jets
Last Season's Report
This will be an exercise in "what did we do wrong?" I'm curious to see how differently I played from Season 1 to Season 2 and how that may have hurt my overall success.
Record: 8-8 (S1 12-4), 3-3 division record, 6-6 conference.
Offense:
25.8 ppg (10th, S1 10th)
332.9 ypg (5th, S1 14th)
246.6 passing ypg (3rd, S1 15th)
86.3 rushing ypg (21st, S1 12th)
I put up almost the exact same PPG, but lost 4 more games. We'll get to the defense soon enough, but as you can tell right now my offense was not very balanced as my passing yards went way up and my rushing down.
Passing:
Mark Sanchez - 234 for 450 (52%), 3,890 yards, 34 TDs, 32 INTs, 77 QB rating (10th in league)
I threw it 114 more times this year and my completion percentage suffered 5 points likely because of it. I added an extra 1k yards, but threw 10 more TDs and 10 more INTs. Essentially Sanchez improved upon nothing and regressed in his accuracy. Oddly enough, he moved up 3 spots in QB rating but maybe that's just more of a testament to how hard it is to pass this year.
The goal was to throw it more, but Sanchez was supposed to improve enough to make that a good idea. He didn't (I didn't) and the results weren't pretty.
Rushing:
Shonn Greene - 138 carries, 921 yards (6.7 ypc), 9 TDs
Bilal Powell - 41 carries, 321 yard (7.8 ypc), 2 TDs
Greene saw himself lose 52 carries last year thanks to the pass happy attack. Despite that, he had 2 more TDs and increased his yards per carry by almost a full yard.
As I said in my last report, I expected Powell to fill in the LT role and he did just that. He had almost the same number of carries, but with even better production. The Jets might lean on him more going into Season 3 if he can continue to prove he can be more than a change of pace back.
Receiving:
Santonio Holmes - 51 catches, 953 yards (18.7 ypc), 11 TDs
Dustin Keller - 51 catches, 715 yards (14 ypc), 3 TDs
Delency Kilgo - 43 catches, 781 yards (18.2 ypc), 7 TDs
Jarvaris Belton - 36 catches, 566 yards (15.7 ypc), 5 TDs
Keller missed the last 3 weeks of the season and had injury issues in-game throughout the year. The Jets got lucky when they drafted Belton as he helped ease some of the pain of missing the Jets top target last season.
Holmes, meanwhile, stepped up in Keller's place as well but also became a favorite target in the new pass attack. He almost doubled his receiving yards from Season 1. Holmes, however, slowed down considerably as he never cracked 100 yards after Week 8 and actually only cracked 50+ twice in that same span.
Rookie WR Kilgo showed flashes of dominance in the slot and in the #2 WR role after Plax was dealt, but injuries turned a potential record-breaking rookie campaign into a quiet success. A healthy season for both Keller and Kilgo will go along way in keeping the passing game consistent in Season 3.
The Jets right now have 4-5 slot WRs with the mid-season addition of Tate. Kerley (448 yards, 4 TDs) never saw much action after that trade so perhaps Kilgo, Tate or Kerley could be dealt before the new season.
Defense:
28.6 ppg (23rd, S1 7th)
322 ypg (24th, S1 9th)
189.4 passing ypg (13th, S1 10th)
132.6 rushing ypg (26th, S1 6th)
Yikes. Teams dropped 10 more points on the Jets this season. They gained an additional 80 yards per game, and rushed for 50 more yards per game. That is rough. The only positive that you might be able to take from this is that the pass defense was about as good. You want to know what caused the 4 game swing between S1 and S2? This is it.
My goal last season was "less shootouts." I'd always find myself fending off last minute comebacks in S1. This year, the Jets let teams run all over them from the start and they didn't have the fire power to keep up.
Cromartie led the team with 6 INTs, followed by Wilson's 5. Most of those INTs happened in the last few games though. Actually, ALL of Cromartie's INTs came in the last 3 games. David Harris led the team in tackles easily with 50. The team had 27 sacks (8 more than last year), so there's that.
By the end of S2, Pouha departed as the nose tackle. Starting outside linebackers Pace and Thomas were both regulated to minor roles. Smith was benched in favor of free agent Chinedum Ndukwe at free safety. 5 out of the front 7 are now under the age of 25. This unit could very well struggle again in Season 3, but with progression and learning how to better use these younger players maybe they can turn it around.