The NY Jets are the worst tackling team in the NFL and it isn’t close

The NY Jets have been the worst tackling team in the NFL through two weeks.

The NY Jets have struggled in a lot of different areas this season, but perhaps one of the most surprising as been the team’s inability to tackle efficiently.

Many fans watching at home may have been quick to pick up on the Jets’ frequent missed tackles. And in this case, the eye test doesn’t lie.

The Jets are the worst tackling team in the NFL through the first two weeks of the season — and it really isn’t close.

Per Pro Football Reference’s database, the Jets have missed a whopping 40 tackles through two games this season which ranks as the worst in the league. The second-worst total? The Kansas City Chiefs who have missed 26 tackles.

That means that the Jets have missed 53.8 percent more tackles than any other team in the league, through the first two weeks. Only four other teams have even missed 20 tackles — the Jets have doubled that figure.

That isn’t just bad, it’s downright laughable.

While the vast majority of the league falls somewhere between 12 and 18 missed tackles, the Jets sit at 40 through two weeks. They’re averaging more missed tackles per game than most teams have accumulated throughout the entire season thus far.

Altogether, the Jets are missing a tackle over 20 percent of the time they go to wrap up a ball-carrier — once again worst in the NFL.

The solution? Well, there really isn’t any because it’s not just one player who’s doing this. It’s everyone.

Which NY Jets players have been missing the most tackles?

No player on the Jets has more than six missed tackles with the team leader being cornerback Blessuan Austin. Austin has missed 6-of-17 tackle attempts for a missed-tackle rate of 37.5 percent.

Nearly 40 percent of the time, Austin is missing a tackle. He’s missed more tackles this season than the entire Chicago Bears team.

But he’s far from the only culprit. Marcus Maye has missed five tackles — three of which came this past week. Harvey Langi has missed four. Henry Anderson has missed three. And 14 other players have either missed one or two.

From a percentage standpoint, no one with any significant sample size has been worse than Austin. But take someone like Alec Ogletree for example who’s missed 50 percent of his four tackle attempts.

Quincy Wilson has missed 2-of-3 possible tackles. Jordan Willis is 0-for-1 as a tackler this season. The aforementioned Henry Anderson has missed 3-of-6 tackles. This isn’t normal — this level of tackling inefficiency is unprecedented.

Do you blame defensive coordinator Gregg Williams? Do you blame Adam Gase? Do you blame the players? Likely, it’s a mixture of all three.

Either way, the Jets are on historically bad pace right now. They’re absolutely dominating the league in missed tackles — and not in a good way.

But hey, at least they’re first in something.