Let’s be honest . . .

Let’s be real folks . . .

The Jets are starting two cornerbacks who wouldn’t start on any other team. Not being flippant, just keeping it real. They are both athletic, but neither has starter instincts. Neither displays sophisticated eyes in coverage.

This isn’t second-guessing. I wrote in this premium section over and over in the spring and summer that Roberts doesn’t have starter traits and I wasn’t sure they were rolling with him as a starter, and they made decision pretty early, that Roberts and Trumaine Johnson would be the starters.

As for Hairston, as I’ve said before, teams don’t trade difference-making corners, especially in August. If anybody thought the Colts were going to send the Jets an answer at cornerback in mid-August, they were mistaken. It doesn’t work that way – there is a cornerback shortage, so why would you send a good one packing?

Look, it’s hard to criticize Joe Douglas for making the Hairston trade. He inherited a bad cornerback situation including one of most overpaid players in NFL history.

Douglas won’t be able to fix this cornerback situation until next off-season.

Making the Jets cornerback situation worse is their almost non-existent pass rush, so over-matched corners are asked to hold up too long in coverage.

And the Jets have plenty of company in the league. So many teams have bad cornerback situations because there is a shortage at the position. A perfect illustration of the problem took place today in the Oakland Coliseum where the Raiders beat the Detroit Lions 31-24, and neither team could stop the other through the air . . .

I am not here to defend Adam Gase. That’s not my job, and while it’s hard to find many things to praise about the job he’s doing, he was dealt a pretty bad hand.

I mentioned the awful cornerback situation and lack of a pass rush which leads to opponents putting up too many points, with puts too much stress on the team’s young QB to match big numbers on the scoreboard.

And speaking of that quarterback, the narrative that Gase was inheriting a franchise QB when he took the Jets job was hyperbole. He inherited a young, developmental prospect with potential, but somebody who too often locks on is first read and telegraphs his passes. Gase can teach him to go through his progressions in meetings and on the practice field, but it seems in real game action, he rarely turns his head away from his primary read. Not much Gase can do about that. You can’t force a QB in game action to turn his head.

Also, Gase has highly paid running back, who people in the media said they need to get more involved (what a joke that narrative was), who is doing a very poor job in blitz pickup, and this is hurting the Jets’ offense.

This team has no pass rush, bad corners, a QB who was over-hyped by the media and the Jets’ social media department and a highly-paid running back whose phoning it in on blitz pickup.

And Henry Anderson, who was given big money in the off-season, is being wasted as a 4-3 end in Gregg Williams system. Basically Mike Maccagnan wanted the new coaching staff to say in the 3-4, drafted and signed players for it, and then when he got fired, they stopped running it. Anderson probably wouldn’t have been re-signed if they knew they would switch to a 4-3 in June.

Making the GM change in June, after the former GM handled the draft and free agency, has turned into an unmitigated disaster. The current coach and GM have to use players, many of which they don’t want.

I’m not getting into whether Gase should stay or not because I don’t like to suggest anybody should be fired in print. I just don’t do it.

The only thing I will say is that I believe Gase should give up offensive play-calling for the rest of the season, let Dowell Loggains do it, and focus on coaching the entire team. If you are going to evaluate whether he’s the answer, get his head out from behind that laminated offensive play-sheet, and see what he does coaching the entire roster.

He also needs a FOOTBALL boss over him who he should reports to. The current Jets’ football structure doesn’t work.

But the only thing I will say in Gase’s defense – man is this roster terrible.

October 3, 2019

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