For the first time since 2003, the Jets and Giants will enter Week 17 each having been eliminated from the playoff race.
Both teams have big questions to answer this offseason, but it’s the Jets who are faced with the most critical issue — deciding the fate of head coach Rex Ryan.
The Jets will miss the playoffs for a third consecutive season, but have overachieved and would finish at .500 with a win in Miami on Sunday.
“When the season started, most people thought that this team was in a rebuilding mode, especially on the offensive side — starting a rookie quarterback, a lot of injuries as far as receivers go,” said Herm Edwards, the former Jets coach and ESPN NFL analyst. “For the most part, Rex has done a really good job. [But] can Rex develop a quarterback? That’s going to be [a] critical part.”
Second-round pick Geno Smith has started every game this season, as he was thrown into the fire after Mark Sanchez suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the preseason “Snoopy Bowl” game against the Giants.
Smith has had his ups and downs, mixing flashes of effectiveness with stretches of turnover-prone football. He has thrown 21 interceptions against only 12 touchdowns, but has stabilized somewhat in recent weeks, throwing for four touchdowns and just two interceptions in his last two games.
Edwards said people who were expecting Smith to burst onto the scene and put up outstanding numbers were only fooling themselves.
“We got spoiled last year watching Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, Colin Kaepernick, and Russell Wilson,” he explained. “You watched all these guys’ form and think that every quarterback that comes out is supposed to perform that way, and that’s simply not the truth.
“You look at Cam Newton, and he struggled his first year. Geno Smith is going through a development phase. At times, he looks like ‘I’m the guy.’ You’re not going to know for three years, and then that’s the problem when you make a change.”
Edwards cautioned if the Jets fire Ryan, the new coach could possibly bring in a new offensive coordinator, which would stunt Smith’s development.
“If you say you’re going to make a change, then all of a sudden, the new guy changes offenses on this guy again,” he said. “Remember, that’s kind of what Mark Sanchez went through.”
Meanwhile, when it comes to quarterbacks, the Giants don’t have the same worries with Eli Manning, despite his league-high 26 interceptions against only 17 touchdowns.
Edwards believes the problems lie more with Manning’s supporting cast.
“When you win Super Bowls, you think that a guy is supposed to be playing at that level,” he said. “But [with] Eli, like so many other quarterbacks, it’s the people you build around him. The offensive line has struggled, the receivers have been hurt, no sign of a running game. [When they won], they ran the ball, their defense played well — they played complementary football. They’re not doing that now.
“They’ve got a philosophy built on defense, that they’re going to have a dominant front four, and they’ll have some athletic linebackers,” Edwards continued. “On the other side of the ball, they’re going to have two running backs — they’re going to pound you with that. We know they have a quarterback. They have an offensive line that can generally protect the quarterback, and it’s easier to protect when you can run it. They’re going to get back to that. That’s who they are — that’s who they’ve been. When they’re successful, they do those things very well.”