Jets' 2022 draft class lacks wins despite individual success - ESPN

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — There was so much optimism in the New York Jets' locker room that wintry afternoon in New England — the final game of the 2023 regular season. With one win, they vanquished an old bully and celebrated their future.

It was a messy year for the Jets, who stumbled to 7-10 after Aaron Rodgers' season-ending injury in Week 1, but they ended a 15-game losing streak to the New England Patriots in Bill Belichick's last game as coach. After two decades of hoodie-induced torment, the Jets felt as if they had finally passed the Patriots, who finished last in the AFC East.

After all, Rodgers was on the mend from a torn Achilles and would be healthy by the spring. His anticipated return, combined with the maturation of their gilded 2022 draft class, was going to make the Jets a Super Bowl contender. That was the plan, anyway.

The '22ers — Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Jermaine Johnson and Breece Hall — played key roles in the 17-3 win, none more than Hall, who glided the snow-covered field like a slalom skier. He ran for 178 yards, still his career high. The four players were big reasons why Rodgers wanted to play for the Jets, why the Jets felt as if they were on the cusp of something special, on the cusp of ending the longest playoff drought in major North American sports.

«Once you put this uniform on, you're part of the history,» C.J. Mosley, a captain, said that day. «So it's our time to start changing that history and start moving forward.»

It turned out to be a snow job.

The Jets are 7-19 since beating Belichick, having replaced their coach, general manager and quarterback. Gardner is gone, traded last week in a stunning deadline move. Hall and Johnson wonder about their long-term futures, while Wilson —