#This silence should terrify Jets

Perhaps the most stunning part of Sunday’s 40-3 Jets loss to the Seahawks was just how little it stunned anyone.

Losses like this have become expected and accepted for the Jets now. That is the state of this 0-13 team. The Jets can get their doors blown off and look completely uncompetitive and we shrug. It was not that long ago that a loss like Sunday’s would elicit rage among the fan base. They would be calling for the coach to be fired before he could get to the airport. They would be screaming for the backup quarterback.

Now? Ho-hum.

In fact, there is now happiness among the fan base after these losses. The loss moves the Jets one step closer to Trevor Lawrence. And those who are not celebrating the loss are at least numb to it.
The only sound that should scare team CEO Christopher Johnson more than outrage from fans is silence. The Jets have become Rutgers, at least when Greg Schiano is not around. The expectation is for them to lose each week and when they play a quality opponent, the expectation is a butt-kicking. When the Jets are competitive, that is the surprise these days.

All of it has led us to sort of gloss over just how really, really, really bad this team is. We’re talking historically, epically bad. You know the Jets are on their way to becoming the third team ever to go 0-16. The sting of that humiliation should run deep for anyone inside the organization. The fans can take solace in the prospects of having Lawrence on the team.

But dig on just how bad these Jets are, and a case can be made that they are one of the worst teams ever to wear shoulder pads. Their point differential stands at -210 after Sunday’s debacle. Only 38 teams since 1940 have a worse point differential. The Jets have three games to go, so they can pass many of those teams. Their average loss has been by 16.2 points this year. If they stick to that average over the final three, their final point differential would be -258, tied for the fifth worst in the history of the NFL. They will likely move past the 1976 Jets (-214) this week for the worst in franchise history.

The thing about these Jets is they do everything poorly. One person can blame the offense. Another can blame the defense. Everyone would be right.

The Jets have scored just 183 points this season. It is going to be a contest to see if they can fall short of the 220 points the 1992 Jets scored. That is the franchise-low for a team in the 16-game schedule era.

On defense, the Jets have allowed 393 points. The 1996 squad, the former worst Jets team ever, gave up 454 that season. The Jets are allowing 30.2 points per game, so they are on pace to blow that mark away.

The Jets have been a bad team for the last decade. They are 57-100 since the 2011 season. Their postseason drought is at 10 years and counting. But they have not been this bad before. They have never been so bad that no one blinks when they lose like they did in Seattle. Think back to even last year when they lost 33-0 to the Patriots on a Monday night. There was a huge reaction. There have been losses in recent years that have enraged fans. Todd Bowles was finished after his 2018 team lost 41-10 to the Bills.

The first rumblings to fire Bowles began in 2016 after another 41-10 loss to Andrew Luck and the Colts.

None of those teams were good, but an NFL team should not get blown out and those losses drew the appropriate reaction. The 2020 Jets have lost by 20 points or more five times.

Most fans started dreaming of 2021 months ago. Maybe that is why the reaction to these losses is muted. Adam Gase has been a dead man walking for weeks. Sam Darnold has seemed destined for a new team since before Halloween.

Still, it should be troubling for those running the Jets that this is what this team has become. When they lose by 37 points, it elicits shrugs instead of screams.