New York Jets
It's fair to say that the two local New York NFL football teams have both had better days. The Giants are a proud franchise, having won many championships dating back to the 1920's, in the early years of the NFL. They won Super Bowls during the Parcells/Belichick era of the 1980's and early 1990's, and won two more Super Bowls following the 2007 and 2011 seasons. Meanwhile, the Jets once won in the biggest upset in Super Bowl history back in 1969, and one of the most memorable upsets in North American sports history, period. More recently, they were a consistent playoff team in the late 1990's and early 2000's, and made two consecutive AFC Championships Game appearances following both the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
Yet, they have been absolutely awful in recent seasons. In fact, the Giants are the worst team in the NFC in the past 10 years, with just a couple of teams below them overall, each on the AFC side. And the worst team in the league in the last decade? That would be the team that the G-Men share a stadium with, the New York Jets.
Yeah, it's been awful being a fan of those two teams in recent seasons. I mean, the Giants lost their season opener at home to the Cowboys, 40-0, back in September, and you just kind of knew it was going to be a long year. And as for the Jets, while they actually won their opener against the Bills (I'm still a bit shocked by that one), they lost their star quarterback Aaron Rodgers just four plays into the game. So it felt like it was going to be yet another one of those long years for fans of both of the local football teams.
Sure enough, it was. Both teams looked absolutely abysmal at times this season. And while both teams also had moments where they looked good - the Jets actually looked like they might make the playoffs for a while there, before going on a massive losing streak - they both ended the season with losing records once again.
So they appear to be two of the least successful teams in the past 10 years in the NFL. Makes sense, because I can remember only two playoff appearances during that time, both by the Giants. Big Blue made it to the playoffs in 2016, and last year, in 2022. In 2022, they finished with a 9-7-1 record, which hardly qualifies as a dream record, or anything. Don't get me wrong: I am not complaining. It felt good just to see them reach the playoffs again, and in fact, to win a playoff game (at Minnesota). Still, those two seasons were the sole exceptions. And the Jets have the longest active drought in the NFL in terms of qualifying for the postseason. They have not made it to the playoffs since the 2010 season, which in sports terms, was a long, long time ago. I don't believe that Gang Green has a single player left from that roster.
All of that makes this a particularly poor era for local NFL football here in the greater New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. Hopefully, things might change. It felt like the G-Men, under Brian Daboll, were going in a the right direction after qualifying for the postseason last year. True, they took a step back this past season, but that's no reason to completely abandon ship. As for the Jets, it felt like Robert Saleh also had the Jets on the cusp of a breakout season in both of the past two seasons. Only, they have not had much luck with injuries and such, obviously. But if they can put it all together, and do not suffer the enormous, crippling bad luck in terms of injuries that they have suffered in the past couple of years, might they not make serious strides towards improving, even reaching the playoffs? Remember, as foolish as it seems now, the Jets had apparently serious hopes of not only making the playoffs this past season, but of reaching the Super Bowl. Maybe their defense did not warrant comparisons to the all-time defenses, like the 1985 Bears or the 200 Ravens, as one member of the team suggested before this season started. Yet, they were still pretty solid, and have a chance to be just as good next year.
Let's see what happens. Apparently, it cannot be worse than what these two teams have produced now in the past 10+ years.
Giants, Jets have been the best at being the worst since 2017 By Matt Musico - 09/21/2023
https://elitesportsny.com/2023/09/21/giants-jets-have-been-the-best-at-being-the-worst-since-2017/
Inside the dysfunctional decade of New York Jets and Giants football - What went wrong, what's next? play Rich Cimini Jordan Raanan Dec 21, 2021,
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32822007/inside-dysfunctional-decade-new-york-jets-giants-football-went-wrong-next
Giants are NFC's worst team of the past decade John Fennelly February 2, 2024
https://giantswire.usatoday.com/2024/02/02/new-york-giants-are-nfc-worst-team-of-past-decade/?taid=65bcf7c11827f90001973bca&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter
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