Jets can't keep excusing the same costly roster decision after Week 2

After a promising week 1 performance, the New York Jets looked like the Same Old Jets on Sunday afternoon. Aaron Glenn and the new-look Jets followed up last week with a 30-10 drubbing against the divisional rival Buffalo Bills.

A week after the Jets put up nearly 400 yards of total offense, they followed that up with just 154 against Buffalo. One issue that did continue from last week was the poor play on defense.

New York was virtually invisible at all three levels of the defense on Sunday afternoon, including committing a plethora of penalties. One of the biggest culprits was Micheal Clemons, who has continued to plague this team with his undisciplined play.

Clemons committed a killer roughing the passer penalty on 3rd-and-19, which three plays later led to the first Bills touchdown of the afternoon.

For Jets fans, this isn't a surprise and comes as a painful reminder of the type of player Clemons has become for this team. Unfortunately, the previous regime and the current regime continue to put Clemons on the field.

The Micheal Clemons experiment needs to end following Jets' Week 2 loss

The Jets selected Clemons with the 117th pick in the fourth round of the 2022 draft out of Texas A&M. Clemons started his career with a promising rookie season, which at the time provided optimism for himself in the future.

The Texas A&M product finished 2022 with a 78.7 Pro Football Focus grade, which finished 23rd out of 119 qualified defensive ends that season. Clemons also tallied an encouraging 86.4 run defense grade.

Since that point, Clemons has been getting progressively worse in many aspects of his game, including an abysmal 2024 season. Following the Jermaine Johnson torn Achilles and Haason Reddick's holdout, Clemons started all 17 games last season and played 54% of defensive snaps.

The 28-year-old posted a 50.6 PFF grade, which ranked 114th out of 119 qualified defensive ends in 2024. That's good for fifth-worst in football. Clemons also tallied an ugly 46.6 run defense grade and 55.2 pass rush grade. Those three grades were all the lowest marks of his career so far.

It's not just the numbers that expose how bad Clemons has been in his three seasons with the Jets; the eye test is just as bad. The fourth-year defensive end continues to make boneheaded penalties that change drives for the defense week in and week out.

Clemons' inability to set the edge has also become a major issue, which showed up a lot last season. The reality is, the only time Clemons is noticed is when he is being called for a penalty; he has become a complete net zero for this football team.

Head coach Aaron Glenn can't continue to preach accountability if Micheal Clemons remains on the field for this Jets team. In many ways, Clemons shouldn't have been on this team going into the season, but now, more than ever, sitting at 0-2, a change needs to be made.

More NY Jets news and analysis: