Jets head coach Aaron Glenn is aware of all too effectively what a chronic dropping streak to start out a season seems to be like.
Glenn was a cornerback on the 1996 Jets workforce that began 0-8, after which the defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions workforce that started 0-8 in 2021.
So how is Glenn processing his Jets’ 0-6 begin this 12 months in his first season as head coach?
“The same way I processed it when I was in Detroit,” Glenn stated after Sunday’s 13-11 loss to the Denver Broncos in London. “It is what it is. You’ve got to keep working. No one’s gonna feel sorry for you. … It’s not like this hasn’t happened to other teams before.”
Certainly, that is the third time in Jets historical past that they’ve began 0-6, following within the unenviable footsteps of the 1996 and 2020 groups.
Glenn and his gamers stress the necessity to maintain preventing, as they need to, but when the Jets’ earlier 0-6 begins are any indication, they’re possible in for one more lengthy season.
Not a lot of a turnaround ever got here for the 1996 Jets, who completed 1-15, or the 2020 workforce, which ended up 2-14.
These stay the 2 worst data in franchise historical past.
The 1996 workforce shared some similarities with this 12 months’s Jets. After going 3-13 in 1995, the Jets launched a big-name veteran quarterback in Boomer Esiason and signed a free agent from the Pittsburgh Steelers, Neil O’Donnell, to switch him.
In fact, this 12 months’s Jets launched Aaron Rodgers within the offseason, then signed Justin Fields from the Steelers to switch him.
The Jets began 0-6 beneath O’Donnell, who suffered a season-ending shoulder harm whereas warming up earlier than Week 7. Frank Reich took over at quarterback and endured two extra losses earlier than main the Jets to their one and solely win in Week 9.
Wealthy Kotite, who was in his second 12 months because the Jets’ head coach, introduced his resignation two days earlier than the season finale, and the Jets ended the 12 months on a seven-game dropping streak.
The next offseason, the Jets employed Invoice Parcells as head coach. They famously eyed Peyton Manning with the No. 1 total choose within the 1997 NFL Draft, however Manning returned to Tennessee for his senior season, and the Jets finally traded down.
O’Donnell returned because the beginning quarterback, and the Jets went 9-7 in 12 months 1 beneath Parcells.
The 2020 season got here with a distinct set of circumstances.
After a sizzling end led to a 7-9 file in 2019, the Jets had some cause for optimism in 2020. Former No. 3 total choose Sam Darnold was coming into his third season. Head coach Adam Gase was going into his second on the helm. And the Jets had simply made a well-regarded basic supervisor hiring with Joe Douglas.
As a substitute, the season was an unmitigated catastrophe as Darnold handled regression and harm and Gase’s seat bought hotter and warmer.
The Jets began a woeful 0-13, however the silver lining was that Trevor Lawrence was draft-eligible and regarded a can’t-miss prospect at quarterback.
However in a closing intestine punch, Darnold led the Jets to 2 out-of-nowhere victories in Weeks 15 and 16, costing them the No. 1 total choose.
The Jets fired Gase within the offseason and employed Robert Saleh to switch him, then traded Darnold to the Carolina Panthers.
After the Jacksonville Jaguars drafted Lawrence first total, the Jets’ comfort prize with the No. 2 choose was Zach Wilson, who lasted three seasons with the workforce and went 12-21 as a starter.
The Jets have the fourth-easiest remaining energy of schedule, in response to Tankathon. Their subsequent three video games are at house in opposition to a Panthers workforce (3-3) that’s winless on the street; on the street in opposition to the Joe Burrow-less Bengals (2-4); and again house in opposition to the 1-5 Cleveland Browns.
But when this season continues to spiral just like the 1996 and 2020 ones did, wholesale modifications might be on the horizon.
“We’ve got to keep going,” Fields stated. “I mean, there’s no other option. There’s, what, 11 games left? That’s the only option.”
