NY Jets: The ugly numbers behind the team’s penalty woes

The NY Jets continue to pace the NFL in penalties — and the numbers are worse than you may think.

The NY Jets have done a lot of things wrong in 2020. One look at the roster and it isn’t hard to see why that’s been the case. But a talentless roster doesn’t explain the extent to which they’ve struggled this year.

There’s more at play here besides just a poorly-constructed roster with few starting-caliber players. And in this case, we’re referring to the coaching staff.

The Jets are not a well-coached team by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a worse coaching staff in the NFL right now.

While everyone is quick to point out the coaches’ lackluster play-calling and poor gameplans, the poor coaching on this team is no more evident than with the Jets’ penalty struggles over the first four weeks of the season.

The Jets are playing undisciplined and this Thursday’s game against the Denver Broncos was evidence of that.

Gang Green’s defense was flagged for a total of eight accepted penalties this past Thursday, the most by any defense in the NFL this season. The previous season-high? The NY Jets, whose defense tallied seven accepted penalties back in Week 1.

The Jets have been the standard-bearers of the yellow flag this season. They currently lead the NFL with a whopping 32 accepted penalties. That’s an average of eight penalties per game.

Their 335 penalty yards are second only to the New Orleans Saints who have surrendered 398 yards as a result of penalties. One might be quick to point to an abnormal number of personal foul penalties for the cause of this.

And you wouldn’ be entirely wrong.

The NY Jets personal foul penalties are completely out of hand.

The Jets committed a total of six personal fouls in Thursday’s loss to the Broncos prompting anger from Denver’s sideline. That anger is warranted — the Jets were an undisciplined mess on Thursday and the vast majority of those personal foul calls were borderline dirty hits.

In fact, the Jets have already been hit with seven roughing the passer penalties this season. Seven. Through four games. Only two other teams in the NFL have even been flagged more than once with the Atlanta Falcons picking up two and the Chicago Bears being hit with a flag three times.

The Jets have committed seven roughing the passer penalties. That can’t happen.

Only one team, the Cincinnati Bengals, has committed more unnecessary roughness penalties than the Jets. While the defense has been the main culprit, the offense can’t be excused either.

The Jets lead the league with six accepted offensive holding penalties. But hey, at least they’re one of three times without a false start on the year.

Who does this fall on? The answer is simple — the entire coaching staff.

Sure, the players are certainly to blame as well, a coach can only do so much. But the Jets are an undisciplined disgrace right now — they’re in complete disarray.

That’s on Adam Gase, Gregg Williams, and each and every one of the Jets’ coaches. No team has been penalized more than the Jets in 2020, and the vast majority of those penalties have been completely avoidable.

There’s a reason the Jets are 0-4 and staring in the face of a possible 0-16 season. And that extends far beyond their poor roster.