New York Jets Offensive Report Card: Week 2 vs. Cleveland Browns

The New York Jets put together another embarrassing offensive display in their Week 2 matchup with the Cleveland Browns on Monday night. Here are our grades for the team’s offense.

Monday Night was an embarrassment for all of Jets Nation as the New York Jets fell to the Cleveland Browns 23-3.

Early on, the Jets defense played tough as they forced two field goals on the Browns first two offensive drives but, the Jets offense was a completely different story.

The Jets offense could not get anything going throughout the entire game and quarterback Trevor Siemian took an early exit after suffering a serious ankle injury.

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The offensive play calling also came in to question after Monday Night’s loss especially when Adam Gase decided to run the ball on third and long backed up in there own end zone.

The Jets had more time of possession with the ball but still managed to rack up fewer yards than the Browns as they only had 262 total yards on the night.

You can say the Jets misfortunes began early last week when we found out Sam Darnold had mononucleosis and then shortly after that they officially ruled out star linebacker C.J. Mosley with a groin injury.

A lot is to blame for Monday night’s horrible performance and we will get into that with this week’s offensive report card for Week 2.

Next: Quarterbacks

Quarterbacks — D

The quarterback situation took an unexpected turn when a few days prior to their Monday night matchup, the Jets announced that quarterback Sam Darnold would be out with mononucleosis.

So the Jets decided to start experienced backup Trevor Siemian and in his brief appearance, he went just 3-for-6 for only 3 yards.

Early on in the second quarter, Siemian took an early exit after suffering a gruesome ankle injury and would be replaced by second-year Washington State product Luke Falk.

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Before Monday night’s game, Falk was the practice squad quarterback and was activated to be Siemian’s backup. Falk played for Gase last year in Maimi and in his first appearance, he made a few goods throws.

One throw that stood out was in the third quarter when Falk uncorked a deep ball to Robby Anderson for a 36-yard gain. Falk ended the night going 20-for-25 with 198 yards passing.

A day after the Monday night loss head coach Adam Gase named Falk the Week 3 starter against the New England Patriots.

This Sunday Luke Falk will get his first career NFL start and hopefully now that Falk has had some experience in this Jets offense, maybe head coach Adam Gase will trust him to throw the ball downfield more just like he did in his college days at Washington State.

Next: Running Backs

Running Backs — C

The Jets ran the ball a total of 24 times on Monday night and they were only able to rack up 93 yards total on the ground. Look, Le’Veon Bell tried and even knowing the Jets kept giving him the ball he could not do much on the ground.

Bell ended his night with 21 carries for 68 rushing yards and 10 receptions for 61 receiving yards. The Browns knew that the Jets would just hand it off to Bell on almost every play so they stacked the box and got him down.

In the first two games, Bell has failed to rush for 100 yards or more. We even saw Bell line up in the wildcat formation but that still did not work as it was an all-around slow night for the Jets run game.

As for some of the other running backs on the team, we got to see a little bit of Ty Montgomery who only had three carries for only 25 rushing yards. It would be wise for the team to involve him more in the offense going forward.

Next: Wide Receivers

Wide Receivers — D

You didn’t hear much from the Jets wide receivers on Monday night because of how slow of a pace the offense was operating at.

The only Jets receiver who made some noise was Robby Anderson who ended the night with four receptions for 81 yards. He had a beautiful catch in the third quarter where he caught it while falling out of bounds for a 36-yard gain.

A smaller storyline from Monday night was the Jets debut of Demaryius Thomas who was traded to the Jets last week from the New England Patriots.

Unfortunately, Thomas’ debut would end shortly as he would exit the game early on with a hamstring injury. Thomas ended the night with just one reception for negative one yard.

The Jets wide receivers were invisible for most of the night but that’s mainly because the Jets ran the ball a lot. And on the passing plays that they did run, the offensive line gave Falk no time to throw.

Next: Offensive Line

Offensive Line — F

The offensive line was the worst unit on the entire team on Monday night. For the second week in a row, the Jets offensive line could not open up running lanes and they could not protect the team’s quarterbacks. The line also killed a few of the Jets offensive drives with holding penalties.

All night long, the one guy who kept getting burnt by the Browns pass rush was veteran left tackle Kelvin Beachum. Beachum could not stop Pro Bowler Myles Garrett who by himself recorded three sacks and five QB hits.

One of the Jets biggest concerns has been at the left tackle position and since D’Brickashaw Ferguson left, the Jets are still trying to find his replacement but Beachum is not the answer.

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An even bigger disappointment these last two weeks has been center Ryan Kalil who came out of retirement just to play for Gang Green.

Kalil was benched during Monday night’s loss for his poor play and after being asked about Kalil, Adam Gase told Connor Hughes of The Athletic that “we’re probably a ways from where he wants to be.”

Kalil just looks out of shape and lost in this Jets offense and a lot of that might have to do with him signing later than usual and not playing at all in the preseason.

He was benched later on in the game and replaced by Jonotthan Harrison who is in his third season with the Jets and has 32 career starts.

The offensive line play has been terrible for the Jets in the first two weeks of the season and something needs to change. On Monday night the Jets gave up a total of four sacks and seven QB hits to the Browns.

Maybe, benching Kalil and putting Harrison at the starting center spot may benefit the team.