New York Jets: Top 3 takeaways from Week 2 loss to the Cleveland Browns

The New York Jets lost for the second consecutive week, and once again in embarrassing fashion. Here are three takeaways from the team’s Week 2 loss to the Cleveland Browns.

The entire New York Jets organization is in a state of disarray at the moment. And thinking back to just two weeks ago, it’s hard to have imagined a worse start to the year.

Countless injuries, illnesses, and suspensions have stripped the roster of some of its top talent. We’re talking players like Sam Darnold, C.J. Mosley, Quincy Enunwa, Chris Herndon, Quinnen Williams, and Jordan Jenkins — among others — who are currently out.

Some will be gone for extended periods of time where others will hopefully return as soon as next week. But the unbridled storm of misfortune that has swept through the Jets organization has truly been something to behold.

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That said, the Jets issues are far from solely external. Poor roster formation, lackluster play-calling, and a shoddy offensive line have also been major factors in the team’s struggles so far.

And those struggles reared their ugly heads during the Jets Week 2 embarrassment of a loss to the Cleveland Browns. Ignoring the obvious Trevor Siemian injury, there were plenty of takeaways from Monday night’s defeat.

Let’s take a look at three of the most prominent takeaways from their disappointing defeat.

Next: 3. Cornerbacks surprisingly played well

3. Cornerbacks surprisingly played well

For the sake of sanity, let’s at least start with a glimmer of optimism.

While seemingly everything that could have gone wrong on Sunday did, one unit that surprisingly exceeded most people’s expectations was the team’s cornerbacks.

One major change was made to the unit with former Indianapolis Colts defensive back Nate Hairston receiving the start opposite Darryl Roberts on the boundary.

This sent former prized free-agent signing Trumaine Johnson to the bench where he would remain for basically the entire game.

And surprisingly, Hairston actually managed to play pretty well in his place. Being matched up with Odell Beckham for much of the game was hard enough, but he had tight coverage on most plays and delivered a devastating hit to tight end David Njoku on a pass breakup.

Roberts too played much better than he did in Week 1 and slot cornerback Brian Poole had a strong showing for the second week in a row.

After struggling in Atlanta over the last couple of seasons, Poole has been a solid addition to the Jets cornerback depth chart and an improvement over the departed Buster Skrine.

Expect Hairston to once again receive the start next week as it’s safe to say that he outplayed Johnson. Where this leaves the Jets resident $72.5 million-man is unknown.

But if the trio of Roberts, Hairston, and Poole could play like this next week, then the Jets may not have as big of a problem at cornerback as they previously had thought.

Next: 2. It hasn't been a good look for Adam Gase so far

2. It hasn’t been a good look for Adam Gase so far

Unfortunately, that’s about it for the positivity — unless we’re going to make an entire entry dedicated to Sam Ficken‘s 46-yard field goal or Luke Falk‘s surprisingly adequate performance.

And if we’re going to start with the negativity, it’s hard not to talk about the offense. In this case, we’re going to talk about the guy calling the shots on offense.

Through two games, first-year Jets head coach Adam Gase has done himself no favors as a play-caller. Granted, he hasn’t been dealt a very promising hand.

That said, he also hasn’t made the most of the cards he has been dealt — to continue with the poker analogies.

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Gase has seen his team’s shoddy offensive line get dominated for two weeks now. He saw left tackle Kelvin Beachum get manhandled by Myles Garrett this week. And yet, his hesitation to regularly keep in extra blockers is astounding.

You have one of the best pass-blocking running backs in the league in Le’Veon Bell and capable blockers at tight end in Ryan Griffin, Daniel Brown, and Trevon Wesco — the latter of which can’t sniff the field.

And yet, only a handful of times were they used to assist the offensive line in pass blocking.

That’s inexcusable. Almost as inexcusable as his lack of creativity on offense.

Some of that is the fault of a poor offensive line which always limits the playbook, but his use of each of the members of the Jets offense so far has been questionable, to say the least.

He should be cut some slack for dealing with a struggling offensive line and a third-string quarterback. But even a healthy Sam Darnold and an adequate offensive line wouldn’t succeed in this offense.

Gase is going to need to adapt moving forward and work with the talent he has on the roster. But through two weeks so far, the Adam Gase era hasn’t exactly gone according to plan.

Next: 1. The offensive line is still a mess

1. The offensive line is still a mess

Just as we touched on in our last entry, the Jets offensive line is an absolute mess right now. And not the mess it’s been the last few years — we’re talking a much bigger mess on our hands.

The five-man unit of Kelvin Beachum, Kelechi Osemele, Ryan Kalil, Brian Winters, and Brandon Shell looked promising on paper. However, the execution has been a disaster as a complete lack of chemistry has essentially derailed the Jets offense.

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But at this point, not everything could be blamed on chemistry.

Beachum had perhaps the worst game of his career on Monday surrendering three sacks to Myles Garrett. Yes, he was given no help. And yes, Garrett is one of the best pass-rushers in the league. You could even argue that he was hampered by an ankle injury that limited him in practice.

But three sacks are three sacks and the Jets can ill-afford to have a repeat performance in Week 3.

On top of that, dubbed franchise-savior and formerly retired center Ryan Kalil was benched in the fourth quarter due to his lackluster play. It’s unknown if Jonotthan Harrison will start in Week 3 or if Kalil will be given his job back but one would think it’s too soon to give up on the former All-Pro.

At the end of the day, the entire offensive line is out of sync and it’s severely hampering the offense. The Jets need to figure out a solution to this problem and fast.

Otherwise, it won’t matter if it’s Sam Darnold, Luke Falk, or Joe Namath under center. The offense is bound to struggle.