You are a Jets fan. You have been experiencing a wide range of emotions the past few weeks — actually, that’s not quite true; you do have many emotions raging inside you, but most of them reside in the same family, “anger” mixed with “rage” tempered by “fury” fused with “frustration” laced with “dejection.”
Your football team is 0-3. If it were possible to be worse than 0-3 after three weeks, they would be. You have heard all of the easy jokes about the bye week this Sunday: Hey! At least you guys can’t lose! (cue laugh track) — except nothing about that is funny.
It really is the best bye week ever.
Still, even as you are preparing the bunkers for the rest of the sky to fall in, here is something to consider: As steadfast as this narrative seems, as dug-in as the Jets seem to be idling away the weeks to 2-14 or 3-13 — best case! — there is something to be learned by what happened in your own market across the past week.
Because those dark cloud that strangle you now?
They didn’t just form in the skies above New Jersey this week. They’ve merely moved about a half-hour southwest from where they floated a week ago. Yes, it seems hard to recall, but this time last week it was the army of Giants fans who were mulling mutiny, and the Giants who seemed on the verge of conceding whatever meaningful portions of the season remained.
Then a funny thing happened.
Daniel Jones started slinging the ball around in the dying sunlight at Tampa Bay. The Giants’ defense — which has been every bit the piñata the Jets’ offense has been — made a couple of big plays, then was bailed out by the fickle finger of fate. The Giants got a win nobody saw coming, and it was the most effective cleanser on the market.
The Giants really aren’t all that better today than they were this time last week.
But it sure doesn’t feel that way, does it?
Look, the Jets aren’t likely to replicate 1981 and turn a genuinely horrific 0-3 start into 11-5-1 and a playoff berth. It’s a different league than it was 36 years ago, and though there is still room for some teams — like last year’s Colts — it’s harder to pull off, especially since that 0-3 already includes 0-3 in the conference and 0-2 in the division.
But here’s the thing: The Jets weren’t a playoff team this year, anyway. They won four games last year. They added some nice players, but not nearly enough to strengthen depth that has been compromised by years of poor player selection prior to the present regime. The realists understood: This year would be measured in increments.
And still can be.
And if Sam Darnold really is going to return to the lineup Oct. 6 at Philadelphia, then the season will officially feel like the lights have been turned on again. This season was always going to be about seeing what progress Darnold could make, especially with his new coach, the QB Czar. That partnership got off to a poor start in Week 1, though it’s certainly likely Darnold was already starting to feel the effects of the mono that sidelined him.
He isn’t the only New Kid in Town now, with Jones having joined the party. Good. Let’s see what happens when Darnold is back behind center. Let’s see what the Jets look like once their crowded pile of injured and suspended players wearing civvies slip into their uniforms again: C.J. Mosley and Quinnen Williams and Chris Herndon.
The record is still going to get worse before it gets better — at Philly, home for Dallas, home for the Pats is some kind of gauntlet — but, again speaking reasonably, if things had gone perfectly from the start, what would the record have been after six? Maybe 2-4? Maybe 1-5?
But then the final 10 games: two with Miami. At Jacksonville and Washington. The Giants and Steelers. Only road games at Baltimore and at Buffalo appear daunting. But again, if the Jets get to six wins, or seven, that won’t feel like a step in the right direction to you?
And if the quarterback can come back looking as he looked in preseason, as he looked during his best moments of 2018 … that won’t clear the clouds away?
All it takes is one good reason to change the narrative, even as it threatens to crush a vulnerable team. The Jets have several good reasons coming. You are a Jets fan. You have to believe that’s not a mirage. You simply have to.