Have the New York Jets been bad or have their opponents just been good?

The hope was that the New York Jets would sit at 4-1 or better through 5 weeks.

The reality is that the New York Jets are 2-3 through 5 weeks, and they have looked lifeless enough that their head coach has already been relieved of his duties.

It’s still early in the season. A lot can explain a bad start, including a tough slate of games. From an optics perspective, the Jets have not exactly faced a who’s who of NFL powerhouses, but according to one analytics evaluation that perception may undersell how the Jets have been playing.

To interpret the plot, the further right a team is then the better their offense has been relative to their schedule; placement on the vertical line implies they’ve done about as well as other teams have against their opponents on offense. Similarly, the further up a team is then the better their defense has been relative to their schedule; placement on the vertical line implies they’ve done about as well as other teams have against their opponents on defense.

For the Jets, they fall pretty close to the middle, implying that they’ve playing at just about the level that an average team would against their opponents to date. More specifically, their offense seems about dead average whereas their defense is about 20% better than average.

Obviously, average was not the hope for the New York Jets in 2024. However, perhaps this could imply that some positive regression is coming, which could hopefully turn around their sinking season.