The Jets were eliminated from playoff contention after last Sunday’s 30-0 loss to the Dolphins dropped them to 5-9 on the season and their poor record has led some to call for the departure of head coach Robert Saleh, General Manager Joe Douglas and others come the end of the season.
Cornerback Sauce Gardner is not in favor of moves in that direction. Gardner said the team “did a great job at bringing a lot of important pieces in” before this season, but that injuries to players like quarterback Aaron Rodgers and offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker were “unlucky, unfortunate” developments that helped send the team down the wrong path.
“I don’t think we are where we are right now because of coaching,” Gardner said, via Brian Costello of the New York Post. “I’m a young player. It could be easy for me to say, ‘Yeah, it’s all on the coaching.’ But when I really thought about everything, it’s really like, bro, we’ve just been unfortunate. Injuries, penalties, so many things that could be avoided. It is what it is.”
Losing Rodgers four snaps into the season sent the Jets in a very different direction than they thought they’d take this year. They were able to weather things well enough to get to 4-3, but the offense was never good and it was barely functional during the five-game losing streak that followed that start. For the reasons Gardner cited, there hasn’t been much sign that the team is considering the kind of sweeping changes one might see bandied about on social media but we’ll be sure in a few more weeks.