Hindsight isn’t always 20/20.
In the Jets’ case, it’s 6-10.
Wednesday was a day of reckoning for head coach Robert Saleh, who answered for putting a first-guessed amount of preseason faith into three players unlikely to ever play another snap for the Jets.
Decisions to make Zach Wilson the backup quarterback, to sign free-agent running back Dalvin Cook and to stick with injury-plagued left tackle Duane Brown all ultimately imploded to various degrees during a lost season that will end Sunday against the Patriots.
The Jets (6-10) will start quarterback Trevor Siemian for a third straight game because Wilson is not expected to clear the NFL-regulated concussion protocol.
Wilson’s third straight disappointing season is over.
“I thought he had great OTAs, great training camp,” Saleh said. “I thought he battled. He’s a fighter, he really is. There’s things that I know he wishes he could have back. I know there’s a lot of things that he improved on. Some things were out of his control, but … I think he’s going to have a long career in this league.”
But, with Aaron Rodgers planning to return from a torn Achilles next season, is Wilson long for the Jets?
He is owed $5.45 million in guaranteed salary and would cost the Jets an $11.18 million salary-cap charge in 2024, according to overthecap.com, when an upgrade behind Rodgers is needed.
“We’ll see,” Saleh said. “It’s all things that we are going to have to talk about once the season is over.”
The first offensive snap against the Patriots will be the 1,037th of the season for the Jets.
Rodgers was injured on snap No. 4 when the forces combined like this: Brown missed a cut block … forcing Wilson into the lineup where he remained for 11 starts despite showing little improvement because there wasn’t a viable alternative … like there was at running back, where Cook sat the bench collecting $6.59 million that would’ve been better served spent on backup quarterback, offensive line or even receiver.
Brown was placed on injured reserve last week, and Cook was placed on waivers Wednesday after reaching a mutual parting with the team in hopes of latching on with a Super Bowl contender.
“We did what we felt was best for the team at that point,” Saleh said of spending on Cook in August, “and unfortunately didn’t work out.”
General manager Joe Douglas, who will face similar questions about his resource allocation next week, primarily is responsible for roster construction, though those decisions do not happen in a vacuum.
Arguably the biggest Douglas-Saleh gamble was penciling in the 38-year-old five-time Pro Bowler Brown as a starter even though he did not practice for the first time until Aug. 23 because of offseason shoulder surgery.
Faith in Brown was so high that Mekhi Becton — who has started 15 games at left tackle — primarily practiced at right tackle during training camp. The reward essentially amounted to two full games before Brown’s season was ruined by injuries to his hip and shoulder, but Saleh pushed back against that plan as a miscalculation.
“I think when he got back in, we realized a couple of things with regards to the rehab stuff and we tried to get him back the best we could,” Saleh said. “I give him credit though — he battled his butt off just to give us something. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get him healthy enough to finish off the season.”
Health wasn’t a big problem for Cook, who also was coming off of offseason shoulder surgery.
He had just 67 carries despite showing fresh legs at times when starter Breece Hall hit a slump in his first season after a torn ACL.
“Like we said from the beginning, as long as Breece was healthy, Breece was going to get the bigger load,” Saleh said. “Obviously in the middle of the year, we just had a significant lull, but Breece has been getting healthier and healthier and he’s our bell cow.”
The Jets optimistically liked the idea of having too many mouths to feed. Instead the No. 29-ranked scoring offense ran dry, and the logjam created at running back predictably was solved by cutting Michael Carter (now with the Cardinals) and de-emphasizing and then cutting Cook to make room for rookie fifth-round pick Israel Abanikanda behind Hall.
“Just good business for everybody, I guess,” Saleh said of releasing Cook. “Obviously, it hasn’t gone the way any of us have wanted. He’s been an unbelievable teammate, and whatever opportunity he gets, I know he’s going to be great.”
Of course, the Jets had confidence in Wilson, Cook and Brown to deliver once before, and it didn’t turn out so well.