The New York Jets are doing everything they can to make sure they don’t win a ton of games in the 2017 season. They’ve cut ties with veteran after veteran, have allowed themselves to head into the season with the worst quarterback situation we’ve seen in recent memory in the NFL (even the Browns are laughing at the Jets!), and have made no bones about the fact that Todd Bowles is a dead man walking heading into the season. He’s the guy who is going to take the brunt of a poor roster and is going to try to start to reshape it for whomever is brave enough to step into that role next.
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Betting Value
That said, even knowing that the Jets have no aspirations of the postseason this year, there’s real value in betting this team over four victories.
The obvious default when it comes to saying New York will win at least four games this season is finding victories in the AFC East. Forget about the Jets competing with the Patriots. But to get at least one win from Miami and Buffalo isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Let’s also not forget that the Browns, Chargers, Saints and Jaguars are all on this schedule as well, and those are all games that could result in victories, too.
But aside from the schedule, we really want to focus in on the roster the Jets have assembled.
This offense is going to be terrible; no two ways around that. Josh McCown is awful, and the jokes around Christian Hackenberg effectively write themselves. Bryce Petty has already proven he isn’t a legitimate NFL starter as well. When you don’t have a quarterback, you aren’t competing in this league.
Much was made about the fact that the Jets cut ties with their two best receivers, Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker as well. But the wide receiver position is notoriously one of the more meaningless in the NFL, and we think this is all overstated even though we’ll be the first to admit that we don’t get those tingly feelings about Quincy Enunwa being a No. 1 wide receiver.
But who knows? Maybe Charone Peake or Robby Anderson or Chad Hansen or ArDarius Stewart emerge into legitimate No. 1 targets. Perhaps Jordan Leggett has a great year for a rookie tight end, too.
Let’s also not forget that New York did rank No. 11 in rushing last season even though Matt Forte looks like he’s over the hill. Bilal Powell has been a consistent performer in recent years as a second fiddle, too. Objectively speaking, there’s no reason to think the Jets will be below average when it comes to running the football.
Let’s also not forget that Bowles’ defense has consistently been a minimum of downright respectable every year he’s been with Gang Green.
Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye are going to reshape this entire secondary, and we have confidence that Buster Skrine and Morris Claiborne can round out what should be a pretty darn good secondary. Leonard Williams, Muhammad Wilkerson, Darron Lee, Sheldon Richardson… These men were all first round draft picks over the course of the last several seasons, and there’s no reason to believe they still can’t excel at this level.
But maybe more than anything else, the reason we think the Jets are at least going to get to four wins this season is because of their culture. This franchise is a joke, yet the team hasn’t bottomed out completely. Even last year’s 5-11 team, one that was completely void of talent, managed to be competitive in 12 out of 16 games last season. If that can be the case again this year, it’s going to be hard to avoid at least four victories, especially against one of the weakest schedules in the NFL.
New York Jets Futures Odds
Odds To Win Super Bowl: +30000
Odds To Win AFC: +15000
Odds To Win AFC East: +10000
Regular Season Win Total: 4
Odds To Make Playoffs: +2000
(Odds courtesy of Bookmaker.eu)
Our Pick
Bet the Jets Over 4 Regular Season Wins
