Robert Saleh - Jets could've done better after losing Aaron Rodgers - ESPN

From the hiring of a new offensive coordinator to the signing of free agents, the New York Jets tailored their 2023 blueprint around one player: quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

While coach Robert Saleh said he had no regrets even though he lost Rodgers to an Achilles injury on the fourth play of the season, he conceded Monday the team could've done a better job of adjusting without Rodgers.

«When you have a Hall of Fame quarterback, you're going to build it around his strengths, period,» Saleh said. «That's a very common thing throughout the league. It's not just a Jets thing. That's leaguewide.

»Could we have done things better? I'm talking about myself and the coaching staff, with regards to, 'All right, this is our worst-case scenario, now what?' Absolutely, and it's something that we will make sure that we do a heck of a lot better with in 2024."

At the start of the season, Saleh said the Jets were one of six to eight teams with a legitimate shot at the Super Bowl, but it unraveled quickly due to quarterback instability, injuries on the offensive line and a historically poor offense. The Jets improved to 6-9 on Sunday with a last-second 30-28 win over the Washington Commanders, but that doesn't erase two hard facts: This is their eighth straight losing season and their 13th consecutive season out of the playoffs — both the longest active droughts in the NFL.

Reflecting on the struggles, coaches and players have acknowledged that the offensive system was constructed specifically for Rodgers, who helped with the installation in the spring. When he went down, the operation went haywire and the team was slow to adjust. It went through an 11-game stretch when it scored more than 20 points only once.

The other lingering