It has been a long eight years Jets fans but we are still here…

Of the recent #Jets “drought” years (2011-2018), what would you rank the best and worst season? — Joe Caporoso (@JCaporoso) July 9, 2019

8. 2015 (10-6) – The FitzTragic Season

This season was fun as it happened but was always going to turn into a pumpkin at midnight because of who the starting quarterback was. The wild thing about this year in retrospect is if the 5-5 2015 Jets don’t go on a five game winning streak against four terrible teams and a wounded New England (Miami, Tennessee, Giants, Dallas), there is no way Todd Bowles and Mike Maccagnan last past 2 or maybe 2.5 years. Keep in mind they were 24-40 WITH that five game winning streak. Regardless, it was a fun five games, namely beating the Giants and Patriots…always a joy. Brandon Marshall was an absolute treasure this season, putting together one of the great individual offensive seasons in franchise history.

7. 2011 (8-8) – The Year The Swagger Died

After back to back AFC Championship Game appearances and a flashy offseason that included the additions of Plaxico Burress and Derrick Mason, the expectations were Super Bowl or bust for the 2011 Jets. They busted. After a 8-5 start…highly comparable to their previous two years, the Jets wiped out in their final three games highlighted by a humiliating loss to the Giants on Christmas Eve where Mark Sanchez dropped back 114 times and Victor Cruz scored a 114 yard touchdown. “Fat Rex” and the Jets “Swaggerlicious” defense era of football was brought to an abrupt close after two improbably successful years.

A weird season where the Jets started a rookie second round quarterback in Geno Smith and were widely projected to be the worst team in the NFL…yet managed to go 8-8. The record was a bit deceiving as the Jets point differential and DVOA was atrocious and they traded surprising, pleasant wins with getting absolutely steamrolled (49-9 to Cincinnati! 23-3 to Miami! 38-13 to Tennessee!). The Jets salvaged some meaningless late season wins to go to 8-8 and have an in hindsight hysterically sad Gatorade bath celebration over it.

5 – 2108 (4-12) – A New Hope

The third straight year of 5 wins or less led to the firing of both Todd Bowles and Mike Maccagnan but at least this awful season provided the hope of Sam “Please Be God” Darnold. My god look at him…almost makes you forgot they lost by six thousand to Matt Barkley in a home game with Josh McCown one hopping stop routes to Jermaine Kearse. This team was 1-0 and 3-3 before bottoming out by losing basically every game in November and December.

4 – 2016 (5-11) – The Beginning Of The Macc’ End

After a surprising and unsustainable 2015, the Jets doubled down on Ryan Fitzpatrick and the rest of their old roster…the results were not pretty as somewhere, somehow Fitzpatrick is still having interceptions ran back on him in Kansas City. Maccagnan’s first two picks in this draft were now Chiefs backup linebacker Darron Lee and AAF clipboard holder Christian “He Has The Look!” Hackenberg…he also used the Jets free agent money to invest in such gems as Jarvis Jenkins, Bruce Carter and Jeremy Ross.

3 – 2014 (4-12) – Planes, Billboards and Towels

The Jets were 1-0 and up 21-0 in Green Bay during week 2…look at this play on 3rd and short! What could go wrong! A Mo Wilkerson ejection. A Sheldon Richardson phantom timeout. A total choke-job. Multiple thrashings to other NFC North teams. A whooping in Detroit…to Buffalo. Mike Vick?!? Percy Harvin? CJ Spiller? A bumbling press conference. Planes. Billboards. 4-12. Everybody fired.

2 – 2017 (5-11) – Snooze Button

Nothing of meaning or consequence happened this season, hence I won’t even bother sharing a GIF for it. The wins were meaningless and cost the Jets draft collateral. The team was old and full of transitional players (they started Will Tye at tight end in week 1 and cut him a few weeks later, the offense was powered on Josh McCown to Jermaine Kearse micropasses). Let’s all just forget this ever happened.

1 – 2012 (6-10) – The Circus

A true all out, living up to the hype circus. The Jets paid Mark Sanchez a massive “apology” contract after flirting with Peyton Manning and then a few days traded multiple picks for Tim ‘Freakin Tebow. They started Greg McElroy late in the season and were regularly targeting luminaries like Jeff Cumberland, Jason Hill and Dedrick Epps

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