Gang Green Nation
Lately I suspended the anti-game ball post after Jets losses. The team has being beaten so thoroughly that it was difficult to find any standouts. Pretty much everybody earned an anti-game ball. But after the Week 7 loss to the Carolina Panthers, I have decided that at least for this week we can give out some anti-game balls.
Justin Fields: There is no sugar coating it. This has been an ugly season for Justin Fields. After a spectacular Jets debut against the Steelers, Fields has fallen back to earth profoundly. It is to the point he was benched halfway through his sixth start of his Jets career. It isn’t likely that we will see him back in the lineup next week against the Bengals. You can’t always tell that a quarterback has lost all confidence from his demeanor. Sometimes you can, though.
You don’t need to be a body language expert to see that Fields is completely lost right now. It is every bit as rough as it was for Zach Wilson in 2022 and 2023 or Sam Darnold back in 2020. Sometimes a team benches a quarterback out of mercy. Fields was too indecisive to continue to run out there.
Aaron Glenn: I have to question how Glenn came to the decision to start Fields in that game. We knew that the quarterback was in a massive slump and had played maybe the worst game of his career in London against the Broncos. What we couldn’t know behind the scenes was how Fields was responding to it. What was particularly troubling in the Denver game was Fields’ lack of confidence. He was playing with massive hesitation, which won’t work in a league where passing concepts are intricately timed. We don’t know what went on behind the scenes, but Fields continued to play with a lack of confidence against Carolina, which to me suggests that Tyrod Taylor should have started the game.
Josh Reynolds/Tyler Johnson/Allen Lazard/Arian Smith: Maybe I shouldn’t blame these guys. They aren’t responsible for the sorry state of the Jets’ wide receiver depth chart behind Garrett Wilson. If the Jets gave me an opportunity to play in the NFL, I probably would take it. Still, these guys did not provide the Jets with much effective play in this game. You can excuse the first half away on Fields. In the second half, Tyrod Taylor was in the game. There were opportunities to make plays, particularly on deep passes to Lazard and Smith. No plays were made on either. Well, no plays were made at all by this crew.
Darren Mougey: I am taking the rare step of giving an anti-game ball to the general manager for subjecting us to that group of wide receiver. Mougey inherited Garrett Wilson. He gets no credit for Wilson being on the team this season. (I’ll give him credit for extending Wilson’s contract, but the extension doesn’t kick in for a couple of years.) The rest of the wide receiver room was...
