NASHVILLE - The Jets notched their first victory of the season Sunday, a hard-fought 24-17 road win over the Titans. The Jets are now 1-1 and playing their first divisional game Thursday against the Patriots. Here are some thoughts and observations from Sunday's game.
1. Well if Haason Reddick has been hoping to gain some leverage with the Jets, he just got it. It appears Jermaine Johnson will be lost for the season with an Achilles tear. That leaves the Jets woefully thin at edge rusher, a position that makes this defense go. Right now, they have Micheal Clemons and Will McDonald as starters and Takk McKinley and rookie Braiden McGregor backing them up.
The defense that Robert Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich deploy is all based on pressuring the quarterback with the front four. They are not a heavy blitz team. If they can't get to the quarterback with their front, it will disrupt their defense.
That means general manager Joe Douglas should be on the phone Monday with Tory Dandy, Reddick's agent, trying to find a solution to get him in. The Jets are not going to give Reddick a long-term, big-money extension, but could they find a Band-Aid contract to make him happy? Can they give him a two-year deal and up his salary from the $14.25 million he is supposed to make into the $20 million range? Will Reddick relent on his demands, realizing that missing games is not helping him earn more money? This holdout has cost Reddick around $7 million already. Every week he misses a game, it costs him about $800,000 more.
It feels like the Johnson injury could spur action. It is time for the two sides to compromise and figure out a way to get Reddick in uniform. The Jets season might depend on it.
2. This was not the prettiest win. The Jets looked sluggish in the first half on both sides of the ball. But this is still a very, very good win for the Jets. For one, Aaron Rodgers showed the value he can bring in the fourth quarter. Rodgers did not put up amazing stats in this game (18 completions, 176 yards) but he delivered in the clutch with a game-winning drive.
Beyond just pulling it out, what stood out to me was the feeling that Rodgers would get it done. Once the Jets scored to open the third quarter, it felt like the Jets would win the game. You could tell the players and coaches felt that and I'm going to guess fans felt it too. That is so unusual for this franchise. Over the last several years, it always felt like you were waiting for the quarterback to make a big mistake. But Rodgers does not make killer mistakes. On Sunday, it was Will Levis, the Jets' opponent who made the big mistakes.
Watching Rodgers make those throws to Garrett Wilson and Mike Williams on the game-winning drive felt like an assurance that the Jets finally have a quarterback. Rodgers may not play to an MVP level this season (he looked skittish early) but the Jets don't need Rodgers to do that. If he protects the ball and can make plays in the fourth quarter, that will be enough for this Jets team.
3. Here is the other aspect of this win that feels huge: we are not talking about Robert Saleh's job right now. If the Jets had lost this game and gone to 0-2, Saleh's job performance and security would have been a point of debate for the next three days until the Patriots game. I think it is silly to discuss job security after two games but I also know it would have happened. Just look across town at the Giants. A loss would have made the pressure intense inside the Jets building this week. Instead, they can breathe and prepare for the Patriots without everyone speculating on the futures of Saleh and Douglas. The Jets needed this win for so many reasons, but I think the biggest was just releasing some of the pressure that was building after the loss to the 49ers.
4. The key moment in this game to me was the Levis fumble in the red zone. The Titans were driving in the second quarter and about to take a 14-0 or 10-0 lead. That would have probably changed the way the Jets had to play the game offensively. Instead, Levis inexplicably flipped the ball as he was tripping over Will McDonald. Quincy Williams recovered the fumble and the lead stayed at 7-0.
The Jets' defense should send a thank you note to Levis because they still look shaky and Levis bailed them out. The Jets defense was not great in coverage and Sauce Gardner was part of the problem, which is rare to see. Calvin Ridley put stress on the Jets and he is a good receiver but the Jets are going to face others in his class or better this season, so they need to figure things out.
They ended up with four sacks but they let Levis escape the pocket for long gains several times. They also committed some terrible penalties in the first half that gave the Titans first downs.
It was a better defensive performance than Week 1 in San Francisco, but there are still issues to clean up. The Jets believe they are an elite defense. They have not looked like one in the first two games.
The last time the Jets scored three touchdowns in consecutive games was in 2021 against the Bengals and Colts.
It looked like Xavier Gipson would be a big part of the offense in training camp, but he was invisible on offense Sunday. Gipson played just six snaps (11 percent) against the Titans. The Jets seemed to go heavy on tight end usage early in the game, but it was still curious to see Gipson play so little.
Braelon Allen is the first Jets rookie running back since Shonn Greene to score two touchdowns in a game. Allen, who is just 20, showed how powerful and quick a runner he is in this game. Allen and Breece Hall could give the Jets a really nice 1-2 punch at running back.