Breaking down areas of opportunity to address by the Jets in 2018

The New York Jets will have a lot of salary cap money to play with, a full NFL Draft, and also have many areas that need to be addressed. Here are some areas of opportunity that must be addressed in 2018.

When it comes to the New York Jets, one can sum up this season as a success. Don’t let the final record compromise what’s really happening behind the scenes. For the most part, the Jets have been a competitive team that was in every game they played with the exception of one blowout loss to the Denver Broncos.

The Jets are a young team with a leadership regime rebuilding everything the right way. Rome wasn’t built in a day as a successful rebuild takes at least three to five years for everything to come together. It involves making smart free agent acquisitions, successful draft classes, and having a culture of working hard for the team to win a plethora of football games.

2018 will be another big year for both head coach Todd Bowles and general manager Mike Maccagnan. They both just got two-year extensions so they won’t have to worry about job security at least for a while so they can continue with the task at hand. But what’s on the horizon for 2018?

Based on this season, here are the main areas of opportunities for the Jets based on their priority:

Offensive line
Quarterback
Offensive playmakers
Pass rush

It’s expected the Jets will address these areas of opportunities once the offseason arrives. It’s no secret that the Jets offensive line is in dire need of an overhaul, it needs a new center, guards, tackles, pretty much an entire facelift. They need more consistent offensive linemen and have players that don’t always get hurt.

Of course, the big elephant in the room is at quarterback. Your guess is as good as mine as to what the Jets plan to do with the most important position on the team. If I had to make a prediction, I’d say the Jets will more than likely cut Bryce Petty and keep Christian Hackenberg and Josh McCown as a veteran backup for insurance. The Jets would be wise to either acquire the best possible free agent quarterback or use their first-round pick on one. After they have their guy, they should have yet another open quarterback competition this upcoming Summer with the best quarterback earning the starting position.

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Besides quarterback, the Jets need to add more offensive playmakers to the mix. Adding some premier talent at wide receiver would work wonders to make the Jets offense even more effective. It would also help if they added a dynamic kickoff/punt returner that could have the threat of running one all the way back for a touchdown.

I can’t remember the last time the Jets special teams scored a touchdown on a kickoff or punt return and in today’s NFL, it’s a statistical category the Jets are terrible in which plays a big factor in football games.

Finally, the Jets need to bolster their overall pass rush to get to the opposing team’s quarterback. Either getting more sacks or at the very least, bring consistent pressure to make their presence known and getting off the field faster. So far this season, the Jets only have 26 sacks and that’s not enough to produce winning results. Whether the Jets want to add a top defensive end that specializes in getting after the quarterback or maybe bring in a faster linebacker to use in situational roles for this purpose, they need to get quicker and more aggressive on defense.

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