The NY Jets are on pace to be the worst team in NFL history

The NY Jets are currently on pace to be the worst team in NFL history. Yes, they’re that bad.

The NY Jets are the worst team in the NFL. That notion has been solidified over the last few weeks and there likely isn’t a single person who will dispute that at this point.

But the Jets’ levels of awfulness have superseded simply being compared to the 31 other teams in the NFL this season. Simply doing that doesn’t capture just how bad this team is right now.

To truly gauge how bad the 2020 NY Jets are we must look at things from a historical standpoint. And the comparisons aren’t pretty.

Perhaps the best way to truly measure how terrible a team is would be to look at point differential. After all, a team’s overall record doesn’t always indicate their level of competitiveness.

The Jets aren’t just 0-6, they haven’t just lost their first six games of the season, they haven’t even been competitive to this point.

After six weeks, the Jets are currently on pace for the worst point differential in NFL history. They have lost their first six games by an average of 18 points and have lost each game by multiple scores.

That isn’t just bad, it’s completely unprecedented. As a result, their -110 point differential is the worst in the NFL by a substantial margin and, when paced out over a 16-game stretch, is on track to be the worst in league history.

First, from a 2020 standpoint, the Jets’ -110 point differential is equal to the combined point differentials of the second-worst and third-worst teams — the Jacksonville Jaguars’ point differential of -56 and the Washington Football Team’s differential of -54.

It’s funny how math has a way of working out like that.

The NY Jets are quite literally on pace to be the worst team in NFL history.

Now from a historical standpoint, let’s analyze that 16-game pace. The 2017 Cleveland Browns had a point differential of -176. The 2008 Detroit Lions had a point differential of -249. Those are the only two teams to ever finish 0-16.

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The Jets are on pace to finish with a -293 point differential making them objectively worse than both of those teams. But neither of those teams actually has the worst point differential in NFL history.

That “honor” goes to the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers — a team that is widely believed to be perhaps the worst in NFL history. It was the Buccaneers’ first year of existence and they finished the season 0-14.

Their point differential of -287 currently stands as the worst in league history — a record the Jets seem primed to break. Of course, this was done in only 14 games as opposed to 16, but this doesn’t even present the extent of the Jets’ incompetence.

The 2008 Browns lost four of their first seven games by one score. The 2017 Lions lost four of their first eight games by one score. Even the 1976 Buccaneers lost three of their first seven games by one score.

The Jets have lost their first six games by multiple scores. Objectively speaking, they have been worse than all three teams to this point.

And as such, they are quite literally on pace to be the worst team in NFL history.

There’s still time to turn things around, but with the third-hardest remaining schedule in the league, is that even feasible? Arguably two of their easiest games have already been played, and one of which they just lost 24-0.

This Jets team isn’t just bad — they are historically bad. And unless something changes, they seem destined to become the NFL’s newest “worst team ever.”