NFL Week 4: Winners and losers

LOSER: New York Jets and Rex Ryan

There’s a lot to unpack here.

The high points (maybe low points) are a struggling quarterback who cursed out a fan Sunday (per Rich Cimini of ESPN), an offensive coordinator with a baffling propensity for strange plays at bad times, a defense which has some issues in the secondary and a head coach who seems to only be involved in one side of the football.

I actually feel for Geno Smith, as I have heard what fans yell at players and can only think the single reason no player has waded into the stands is the wall separating them from the masses. Still, it’s not a good look and ultimately it’s probably reflective of an overall feeling about the team.

Ultimately this falls on the shoulders of one man, head coach Rex Ryan. In the five years he has been with the Jets, the offense has never once been able to settle on a long-term strategy. Now sure, the offensive coordinator position has been a carousel, but that falls on the head coach as well.

Ryan has never really seemed to be able to get on the same page with his offensive coordinator and while it might have changed, the portrait painted in the book Collision Low Crossers by Nicholas Dawidoff is of a guy who just wasn’t involved in one side of the ball.

Which makes some of the defensive breakdowns even more egregious. A little blame must be levied at GM John Idzik, who watched as a lot of good defensive backs signed elsewhere, but ultimately it’s up to the head coach to make it all work. There is talent on the defense, even in the secondary. The job is just not getting done.

The Jets are struggling and part of that is the schedule—about as tough an early slate of games as you could ask for. Part of it is the continuing issues on offense which have now gone on for half a decade.