Jets suffering from problem we thought they left behind in the Aaron Rodgers era

When Aaron Rodgers was the New York Jets' starting quarterback in 2024, they consistently suffered from delay-of-game penalties. It was one of the more frustrating parts of Rodgers' tenure as the trigger man in New York.

It made sense. Rodgers, one of the prolific passers in NFL history, liked to take his time and examine opposing defenses before checking into the "perfect" play. Of course, it often times took longer than it should've. Heck, it's still going on to this day. Pittsburgh Steelers fans surely know all about it.

But perhaps even more frustrating is the fact that the Jets are facing the same issues through the first four games of the 2026 season, and they don't even have a player like Rodgers under center. For whatever reason, Geno Smith is struggling to get the offense set and ready to go quickly.

New York Jets offense struggling with getting ready to go pre-snap

TheScore Bet's Sam Hoppen shared a chart of every offensive team's scheme and tendencies through the first four games of the 2026 season, and the information we've received on the Jets is rather eye-opening.

One of the biggest things that stands out from the graph is the fact that they rank 31st in seconds per play, meaning they really let the play clock bleed on every offensive possession.

That should come as no surprise to Jets fans. They've had some struggles to start the year getting plays off and have totaled seven delay-of-game penalties through the first four games of the season. That's the most any team has had in the first quarter of a year since the year 2000, per Yahoo Sports' Nate Tice.

In fairness, two of those delay-of-game penalties were on purpose this past Sunday against the Chicago Bears. They had one early when the offense was backed up on the one-yard line, an attempt to get some breathing room, and the second one came on a fourth down later in the game when the Jets were trying to get a free first down.

Regardless, it's still not a great look, and the offensive operation could be tightened up.

Other New York Jets offensive takeaways

Despite the excitement early on regarding New York's expansive and dynamic tight end room, the Jets are only 11th in the NFL in multiple tight end usage. That could be due to the fact that they've been missing Mason Taylor the last two weeks due to injury.

They're also a middle-of-the-pack team in terms of multi-running back usage rate, utilizing two running backs on 4% of their offensive snaps.

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