NFL 2016: Regular season grades for every team
By John Buhler
The New York Jets had the worst season of any team in the AFC, comparative to expectations. It was embarrassing. After going 10-6 in 2015, the Jets did nothing but self-sabotage their entire 2016 campaign. The Ryan Fitzpatrick holdout pretty much foreshadowed the entire season: aggravating, caustic, and utterly disappointing.
New York had four quarterbacks and none of them were good. Fitzpatrick cratered, Geno Smith and Bryce Petty got hurt, and Christian Hackenberg needed a redshirt season in the NFL. The passing game evaporated once Eric Decker got hurt for the season. Brandon Marshall couldn’t do it all by himself.
Not only could the Jets do close to nothing on offense, their defense was largely subpar. Leonard Williams was fine up front, but Muhammad Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson regressed in the front seven. Let’s not forget how catastrophically cornerback Darrelle Revis fell off a cliff. Everybody now has a condo on Revis Island.
What really stings about the season for the Jets is that it was more of the same dysfunctional behavior we’ve come to know all too well with the AFC East franchise. This campaign was as chaotic in New York as it had ever been in the Rex Ryan era. While head coach Todd Bowles seems to be safe entering next season, he is at the very least on the hot seat. Nobody got it more wrong in the AFC than the Jets.