Former Jets players blast team after shocking loss to Patriots

The New York Jets are arguably the most disappointing team of the 2024 NFL season, as a club expected to compete for more than just a playoff berth fell to 2-6 via Sunday’s 25-22 loss to the lowly New England Patriots (2-6).

Following that result, former New York linebacker and current NFL analyst Bart Scott said during SNY’s “Jets Postgame Live” program that he was “disgusted,” “embarrassed” and “ashamed” over the team’s performance at Gillette Stadium. 

“I defended this team every single week up until this point,” Scott explained, as shared by Michael Dixon of Awful Announcing. “But now they have to take accountability. Now you run out of people to blame. They gotta take responsibility for what’s going to be said nationally — locally. This is on them. Because now they’ve become exactly what people always say. The same old Jets. They gotta wear that. They gotta own it. Each one of them on that roster earned that.”

The Jets’ fifth straight loss was their third consecutive defeat following the firing of head coach Robert Saleh and showed New York needs more than just solid quarterback play to save what seems to be a lost campaign. 

The visitors used all three of their first-half timeouts in their first nine offensive plays of Sunday’s game. Placekicker Greg Zuerlein was responsible for a four-point swing due to missing an extra point and a 44-yard field goal attempt. What is supposed to be an elite defense gave up two fourth-quarter scoring drives against journeyman quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who replaced injured rookie Drake Maye in the second quarter. 

“There’s nowhere to go from here,” Scott continued. “I don’t wanna hear about next week. You can say whatever you want to say, nationally, locally, whatever you say to the media to try to explain it away. Nobody really cares at this point.”

Meanwhile, former New York offensive lineman and current analyst Willie Colon compared this year’s squad to the 2023 Jets that lost future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers to a torn Achilles four offensive snaps into the regular season. Then-New York backup quarterback Zach Wilson helped the Jets get to 4-3 before the team lost five straight games to essentially fall out of playoff contention. 

“This is beyond tough to swallow,” Colon said. “We’re not even into November and the season’s over. We went through the Zach Wilson era but there was still a glimmer of hope. This is officially over.”

It remains to be seen if Rodgers and Co. will play like the season “is officially over” when the Jets host the 6-2 Houston Texans this coming Thursday night. As of Monday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed New York as a one-point underdog for that matchup.