Jets React to Missing Playoffs, 'Disappointing' Performance vs. Seahawks

New York still holds the longest postseason drought in the NFL. They haven't made the playoffs since 2010.

Author:
Max Goodman
Publish date:
Jan 1, 2023 10:43 PM EST

In this story:

The Jets entered their bye week with a 6-3 record. New York was on the rise, a national story coming off a dramatic victory over the Bills in Week 9.

At that point, seven weeks ago, New York was a legitimate contender in the AFC, a team that was poised to move on from an everlasting rebuild and put an end to an 11-year playoff drought. ESPN analytics gave the Jets a 72 percent chance of making the postseason entering play in Week 10.

After a steep decline in the second half of the season—culminating with a 23-6 loss to the Seahawks—those playoff aspirations were officially put to bed.

New York was eliminated from the postseason picture in Seattle on Sunday, their fifth loss in a row and seventh in their last nine games. The Jets were held without a touchdown for the second game in a row, allowing several big plays on defense that gave the Seahawks an early and insurmountable lead.

Jets head coach Robert Saleh called Sunday's loss disappointing multiple times during his postgame presser. Wideout Garrett Wilson added that he never though the Jets would be in this position after the way they began this season.

"It stings. It's tough. It's gut-wrenching. All the above, whatever adjective you want to use to describe it," quarterback Mike White told reporters. "I think we're at the point where we don't care about moral victories, we don't care that we're playing meaningful games because we know we're capable of it. Now we need to win meaningful games."

As Saleh went on to put it, the Jets can list a million excuses for what transpired over these last few months. There were key injuries and New York faced several top-tier opponents, falling just short on multiple occasions. At the end of the day, however, this season will end in disappointing fashion because Saleh's squad failed to get the job done when it mattered most. Even if New York took huge steps forward as a franchise, this collapse could've been avoided.

"I feel like we're a better football team than this," Saleh said. "Obviously it starts with me. ... I promise you, no one is hurting more than the people in this locker room."

The Jets will look to respond and finish the season on a high note in Miami next week. A win will give them eight this year, the most this team has had in a single season since 2015.

Sunday's pitiful performance will stick with this club for a long time, though. Changes could be made this offseason to prevent a similar result at the end of next season.

"I know every single person in that locker room is going to use this game as fuel, myself included," White said. "We just didn't do what needed to be done. We can go game by game and all that good stuff, but at the end of the day, the job didn't get done. Whatever the reasons were—right, wrong, or indifferent—we just didn't get the job done. Plain and simple."