New York Jets Problems Run Much Deeper Than Just Quarterback

Michael Vick. Geno Smith. Doesn't matter.

Sure, the New York Jets (1-8) may be a little better if they held a true quarterback competition this offseason, but they would be a losing team regardless of who had started a majority of their first nine games of the season. 

Of course it would help if the Jets had someone like Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning or New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady under center—what team wouldn't be better with one of those two? But the Jets proved from 2009-10 that a team can be competitive, even with subpar quarterback play, if the rest of the roster is able to pick up some of the slack.

With an offense playing as poorly as the Jets, it's hard to get a good evaluation on a quarterback.

"If it was just him making mistakes and all that type of stuff, then we might have a different solution there. But I don't believe it rests on one man," Rex Ryan said after the Jets' Week 4 loss to the Detroit Lions.

He may have said that more than a month ago, but it still holds true today.

Smith has had 13 of his 233 passes dropped, which is 5.6 percent of his attempts. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), that's the 11th-highest percentage in the NFL. 

And if the Jets have a plan to fix it, they certainly aren't letting anyone in on their secrets.

The Jets are running the ball effectively, with an average of 139.9 yards per game (eighth in the NFL) and 4.7 yards per attempt (fifth in the NFL), but the offensive line has struggled in pass protection. Smith has been pressured on 103 of his 266 dropbacks (40.6 percent) and Vick has been pressured on 37 of his 108 dropbacks (34.3 percent), for a team total of 140 pressures on 374 dropbacks (37.4 percent).

That would put the Jets on the list of the 10 worst offensive lines for pressure percentage in the NFL.

Even when the offense has given them a passable performance overall, the Jets still can't seem to find a way to win. For the second time in three weeks, against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Jets offense outgained its opponent and did not produce one turnover, yet the team still lost.

For years, the Jets defense was their calling card. Even when the offense was a tire fire, the defense kept things from getting too ugly. This year, the defense has been a mortal embarrassment and is devoid of any discernible traits that were present when they were a dominant unit.

Even Ryan clearly knows this. How could he not know it when his team has allowed a league-high 24 touchdowns, a league-low one interception and has gone a league-worst four weeks without generating a single turnover?

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Look at this soft coverage from the Jets secondary against the Chiefs. The Chiefs passing offense has been about as explosive as a sparkler this season, with only 18 pass plays of 20 yards or more (second-fewest in the NFL). Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith has hit on only five passes that traveled 20 yards or more through the air, and has only even attempted 11 such passes. Yet here are the Jets, playing eight to 10 yards off the receivers. 

There were some times where the Jets corners got in the faces of the Chiefs wideouts, but regardless of technique they couldn't get stops.

Due to injuries and a failure to make significant additions to the secondary in the offseason, the Jets are on their third-, fourth-, and fifth-string cornerbacks. Things have gotten so bad that it is now a news item when safety-turned-cornerback Antonio Allen is benched six months removed from the position change.

Player	Cmp	Att	Cmp%	Yds	Y/A	TD	Int	Rate
Kyle Orton	10	17	58.82	238	14	4	0	142.8
Philip Rivers	20	28	71.43	288	10.29	3	1	125.3
Peyton Manning	22	33	66.67	237	7.18	3	0	117.9
Matthew Stafford	24	34	70.59	293	8.62	2	0	116.4
Aaron Rodgers	25	42	59.52	346	8.24	3	0	109.8
Alex Smith	21	31	67.74	199	6.42	2	0	106.8
Tom Brady	20	37	54.05	261	7.05	3	0	103.5
Derek Carr	20	32	62.5	151	4.72	2	0	94.7
Jay Cutler	23	38	60.53	225	5.92	2	0	94.7

The Jets have faced some great quarterbacks and some average quarterbacks this season, but they've made each of them look like stars. No quarterback has earned lower than a 97.4 passer rating and only three quarterbacks have been held to lower than 60 percent completions.

Their upcoming slate gets worse before it gets better, with the Pittsburgh Steelers and red-hot quarterback Ben Roethlisberger coming to town next week. Roethlisberger has thrown 12 touchdowns over the past two weeks, setting a new NFL record and becoming the only quarterback to ever throw six touchdown passes in consecutive games.

Roethlisberger's 12 touchdown passes in the past two games are four more touchdown passes than the Jets quarterbacks have thrown all season. What would the Jets give for a quarterback with those numbers? 

That's the kind of production they would probably need in order to tip the scale heavily enough to make a difference. 

Sure, Roethlisberger has a deep group of pass-catchers at his disposal, but so do the Jets. With wide receivers Eric Decker, Jeremy Kerley, Percy Harvin, and tight ends Jace Amaro and Jeff Cumberland, the Jets have plenty of weapons at their disposal, too—and that doesn't even account for the Jets' running game, which is more effective than Pittsburgh's. 

The success of the running game is nearly enough to lead one to believe that the quarterback is worthy of more blame than anyone else on the roster. But the problems at other areas are significant enough that even with an upgrade at quarterback, the Jets would still have work to do in order to build a winning team.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained via team news release, and advanced statistics provided by Pro Football Focus or Pro-Football-Reference.com.

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