SEPTEMBER 14: Flacco will indeed return as the Jets’ starter for a second week, according to ESPN.com’s Rich Cimini. The Jets did not give strong consideration to benching the 15th-year veteran for White. The team’s Wilson-less schedule stretch includes the Browns next.
SEPTEMBER 13: The Jets’ season began with a loss in which the offense delivered an underwhelming performance. As the team awaits the return of Zach Wilson, the question of who should start at quarterback in Week 2 has been raised. 
When speaking to the media yesterday, head coach Robert Saleh admitted that “everything is under discussion and under review” at the position (Twitter link via Connor Hughes of SNY). However, he reiterated his confidence in Joe Flacco, who played the entirety of New York’s loss to Baltimore.
The 37-year-old’s performance in the contest — 307 yards on 37-of-59 passing, with one touchdown and one interception — has led to speculation that the Jets could turn to Mike White moving forward. Saleh said, though, that “Joe has been very, very steady throughout OTAs, training camp. As of now, Joe is our starting quarterback.”
Since the midseason injury which ended his Ravens career in 2018, Flacco has made a total of 14 starts split between his time with the Broncos and Jets. He has won just two of those, both of which came in Denver. Despite the lack of success with the former Super Bowl MVP, the Jets re-signed him this offseason on a one-year, $3.5MM deal. That made him the likeliest candidate to open the season, with White operating as the backup.
Wilson continues to recover from his preseason knee injury; Week 1 was initially considered a possibility, but the Jets have understandably remained cautious with last year’s No. 2 pick. No firm commitment has been made yet with respect to a Week 2 starter, but Saleh appears prepared to maintain the status quo at the position heading into the team’s game against the Browns on Sunday.
Inept coaching staff. Asking their BU to throw 59 times? Guess that 2nd round RB wasn’t worth the pick then.
36 of those passes came after the Ravens made it 24-3 late in the 3rd quarter. He threw 30 passes in the 4th quarter alone.
It has nothing to do with their 2nd pick. They were losing big and it was late in the game so they were throwing it on every down as they should have. Nothing ‘inept’ about that at all if you watched the game.
Game flow would dictate the offense needed to be more pass heavy at that point, but you can’t just abandon the run completely. You need to sprinkle a few in just to keep the defense honest.
Why? Their only run in their last three drives went for no gain and burnt up 25 seconds. Ravens were playing prevent and giving passes underneath. No reason to run the ball if they’re gifting you 5-10 yard passes on every down. Take what the defense gives you.
24-3, then an inept D mastermind HC. Either way, it’s an ugly look for the coaching staff.
I don’t think too much should be made of opening week performances. The Bills and Rams are expected to be dominate teams yet they combined for 7 turnovers! If that doesn’t qualify as ugly, I’m not sure what does.
Good point. But I’m guessing the Jets are bottom feeders again.
This “bottom feeders” talk is for the barely-breathing tabloids. Did you see Green Bay struggle without Adams and Valdes-Scantling? Or Arizona without Hopkins? Or Dallas, with and without Dak?
Guess you’ve never seen AR play QB with this comment.
AZ is also another team expected to be in last place in their division, and Dallas was supposed to contend until Dak went out; then everyone said ‘season over’.
Do you really think the Jets are a good team? Asking a 37 year old BU that hasn’t started in years to throw 59 times is a winning formula?
didnt flacco start just last year?
you are totally clueless
About what? Knowing the Jets are having another losing season.
Seasons over
So says someone whose screen name has to do with baseball.
Looks like we’ve found another DC genius who can’t function as head coach.
He didn’t sign the QBs.
Is Saleh just trying to lose at this point?? Anyone who’s ever watched a football game can see Flacco is done, why can’t Saleh??
That doesn’t mean he has a better option on the roster.
It means the front office and staff ignored the problem all offseason.
Wilson got injured very late in the offseason. It’s not like they spent all offseason planning on Flacco and White as their two QBs.
Yes they did. White joined them in 2019 & Flacco last offseason. Their QB room didn’t change this past offseason. That’s on the FO and/or coaching staff. Most likely a combo of both.
No different than Dallas not having a quality backup.
That’s a little different. Dallas is a theoretical contender who could fall out of the playoff race by not having a capable fallback option for a few weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like the Jets to have a better backup than Flacco, but his primary purpose is to support Wilson’s development. This isn’t a contending year.
I guess my point would be why isn’t it a contending year? year 3 of the GM and 2 for the HC. How long are ‘rebuild’s’ supposed to take? It’s been 12 years since the Jets made the playoffs.
I went to DC for week 1. 1st offensive play for the Jags was a penalty. Drops, bad passes, & the D was moved backwards all game long. They didn’t look any different than last year. Doug couldn’t clean up the basics all offseason? That’s what he was hired to do.
This why I hate the term parity. Financially speaking, yes. There aren’t any Yankees buying playoff teams. But the same bad teams never change. That’s not parity; that’s bad management & coaching.
How fast are rebuilds supposed to be? They had a big hole to dig out of. Douglas is at fault for the 2020 draft looking bad, but they hired him right after letting Maccagnan bring in a terrible 2019 draft class and a disastrous 2019 free agent class, and he was also saddled with Adam Gase for 2019 and 2020, who he didn’t hire. He also inherited a mess at the QB position with Darnold.
Douglas’s 2020 draft class wasn’t much better, but he did a great job moving on from Adams and Darnold. His 2021 class looks very strong outside of Wilson. Wilson was awful last year, but it’s too soon to give up on him, and their defense already has more signs of life than last year, albeit with some notable holes at linebacker and safety. The cornerback situation looks the most promising it has in years, as do the defensive line and the receiver group.
Asking Saleh to completely turn around their defense in one season and then one game against a very good team is unreasonable. They won 4 games last year, they’ve already had some rough injury luck at tackle (not the most unforeseeable bad luck, but still bad luck), and they have a tough schedule–not to mention a tough road to the playoffs, given the AFC arms race. It was always going to look like a win if the Jets rounded out this year looking like they’re set up to make real noise next year.
The bad news is so much of that will come down to Zach Wilson, and that Wilson and Becton (and then Brown) put them way behind the eight ball to start the year. They need to show more. They need Wilson to actually play and show something this year. They need Tomlinson to play a lot better than he did Sunday. And I will never understand taking Becton over Wirfs (I swear it’s not just hindsight). But I like a whole lot of what Douglas has done to the roster the last two offseasons, I think they’ll look better as the season progresses if Wilson can get healthy, and I think asking them to jump from 4 wins to the playoffs this year was always an unrealistic ask.
And this largely focused on Douglas, who’s had more time on the job. Saleh has had one season and one game. Let’s see how he can shape this defense up now that there’s some actual talent on it, and let’s hope we’re not judging his head coaching acumen strictly on what he can do with the dessicated remains of Joe Flacco starting at QB.
Winning teams have 2 things in common; limited penalties & turnovers. That’s coaching 101.
Stats say the Jags committed 10 penalties and 4 turnovers. Meanwhile the Jets had 6 penalties for 81 years and 2 turnovers.
That’s not rebuilding, that’s sloppy football. And that’s why both franchises continually draft in the top 10, usually top 5.
15 teams had more penalties week 1, including the one coached by Mike Tomlin. Judging things by one week is silly, let alone judging by one statistic for one week.
We’ll see. But both the Jets and Jags lost. Penalties and turnovers certainly played a role in that.
I don’t buy into a rebuild needing multiple years. Cards are year 3 into their rebuild and still look awful to the casual fan. How many years do you give AZ to rebuild? Sincere question.
The Jets had one more penalty than the team that beat them. That’s not why they lost. They weren’t even in the top half of most penalized teams in 2021 either. You’re fishing.
As for rebuilds, it depends on what’s been inherited. For instance, the new regime in Chicago this year took one look at their roster and cap situation and decided to tear it all down. Not only do they have no chance of contending this year, but it’s hard to imagine it would be fair to ask them to next year either.
The Cardinals are different. They’ve had the same GM since 2013, even though he might be the worst in the game. He rode the Palmer team into the ground, hit reset at QB, then hit reset at QB again the next year, all while drafting terribly for years on end. That’s a lot different than a rebuild needing to dig out of someone else’s mess.
The Jets lost because their D is horrible. 24-3 at the end of the 3rd? What happened to their D minded HC? Heaps of praise was thrown on him when he signed. Still nothing 2 years later? Just excuses for poor coaching. It’s not a lack of talent on the field. They multiple 1st round picks on that side of the ball. But hey, Robert still needs another year or two, sure.
Chicago did nothing to help their QB (stated by everyone in the media) and it’ll be a long year there. If they didn’t like Field’s, then trade him. But don’t say it’s a rebuilding year, when they went heavy drafting the D side. That’s a waste of either picks, or Fields, depending your opinion of the QB. Personally, I would have loaded up on O and see what you have at QB. Fields, by most tams, was considered a 1st round talent.
The Cards, are a laughing stock. I read Murray called better plays in preseason than the HC! And they have so little trust in Murray that they added, then removed, a study clause. That’s bad management all the way around.
To suggest losing is acceptable is why the same teams always lose.
The Jets have three first rounders on their defense, if you’re talking about guys they drafted, and two of them are rookies. Again, you’re judging the guy based on one season plus a whopping one game.
I agree that the Bears should have done more to support Fields, but of course they’re in a rebuilding year. If not, what on earth do you think rebuilding is? Their roster didn’t have nearly enough talent on either side of the ball, their cap was a mess, and they didn’t have a first round pick, so they accumulated 11 picks, brought in a bunch of talent, and got their cap situation in shape for next offseason.
At least Mike White won a game for them last year. I hardly think he could play that much worse
I think that game was a fluke and he absolutely could play much worse. His average depth of target in that game was 4.2 yards. He was dinking and dunking and still managed to get picked twice. It was a fun game and a fun story, but it’s not like he even looked like an adequate backup after that.
Still I would rather go with White. I have no confidence in either of them but I have no desire to watch what’s left of Joe Flacco ever again
The Jets have 3 1st round vet’s on D; S Thomas, Q Williams and Mosely. Add in 2 more this offseason. That’s half the D right. To go along w/ multiple 2nd and 3rd rounders as well. Just like every team in the league.
All this boils down to is you accept losing, I don’t. That’s it.
CJ Mosley was a first round pick by another team eight years ago. Now he’s an overpriced veteran who’s way past his prime. Solomon Thomas was a first round pick who busted for the team that drafted him, which wasn’t even his last team, and then signed as a depth piece for next to nothing this year. You’re coming up with ludicrous excuses to trash Saleh. You could simply say the team has performed badly on his watch and that if it keeps up like that for the rest of this year, he shouldn’t get a third season. That would be more reasonable than manufacturing arguments against him.
Always excuses with you! Now all of a sudden, 1st round picks don’t matter. Go take notes for your attorneys. I didn’t trade or sign those picks.
Saying the Jets defense should be better because they have Solomon Thomas is an indefensible position. It’s ridiculous nonsense. You’ve finally gone all the way to brownsbacker levels of intellectual dishonesty.
Not my roster. I just mock it, the coaching staff, and the GM. Dollar says another sub 500 season. Willing to bet on that? But keep praising ‘losing is acceptable…’. mantra. Sorry ‘rebuilding’.
When did I praise or even say losing is acceptable? When did I say they’d be over .500 this year? You can only take potshots and argue with straw men. Losing while executing a long term plan is better than destroying your cap to win a couple more games in the short term without ever sniffing contention. The last Jets regime did that when they signed Mosley and Bell. Gettleman did that twice.
Funny how even with hindsight, you can’t say what Douglas should have done differently. And just because the Jets are bad, that doesn’t make every criticism of them reasonable, as I’ve spent quite enough time demonstrating with yours.