Jets Fan Rich: What Going 3-14 (Again) Would Mean New York HC Aaron Glenn

Sid did not need a lot of time to get to 0-4.

Playing the win-loss game with the Jets schedule, he opened against Robert Saleh's Titans and took the loss immediately, on the grounds that Saleh knows this team because he coached it. Then Green Bay at home, where Jordan Love and Matt LaFleur are going to destroy them. Then Detroit, where Sid recited Jared Goff, Jahmyr Gibbs and Amon-Ra St. Brown and concluded that offense would destroy them. Then Chicago, where the entire argument was Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson.

"What else can I say? That's an L."

The Browns at home finally broke the streak, and the reasoning was almost touching.

"I'll give us the win on that," Sid said. "And I believe in Geno, unfortunately."

That belief did not last. By the time the Broncos came up at 2-10, Rich asked him to be honest about who the quarterback would even be at that point, and Sid delivered a scouting report with real venom in it. Still Geno Smith. Holds the ball too long. High turnover rate. Poor decision-making. Unable to elevate the players around him.

"I can't stand the guy," he said. "But let's keep going."

He took New England twice, both losses, both described as being destroyed. He gave away the Chiefs game and called it destroyable. He handed the Bills a road win at the end of the year on the theory that Buffalo would be resting starters with the division locked up, which is a remarkable way to lose a game you have already predicted losing.

He found exactly three wins: the Browns, the Dolphins at home because Miami has a new quarterback in Malik Willis, and the Cardinals, which he promised in advance would be the strong finish.

Final answer: 3-14.

And then Sid explained that this was never a doomsday scenario. It was a plan.

"That's what I'm gunning for," he said. The last time the Jets were relevant they lost to a Manning in the AFC Championship, and Sid would like the story to come full circle by drafting one first overall. He had figured this out by the time he hit 2-8.

Rich, who has his own history here, took it further. Somewhere in the six-game losing streak Sid predicted from Weeks 9 through 14, he wondered whether the Jets would throw Cade Klubnik in there just to see what he has. And then, at the top of the draft, the Manning grandfather veto arrives.

There was also the small matter of a reported prospect who stayed in Oregon specifically because he did not want to go to the Jets, which Rich turned into a game show. Who wants Woody's money.

"I hate this team," Sid said, and hung up on the best possible note.

Rich would not leave it there, though, because he does not actually believe 3-14.

This offense is more talented than it has been in a while. Frank Reich has been saying the Jets have more than 11 starters, closer to 15, and Rich does not think that is empty talk. The receiver room has people in it. Breece Hall and Braelon Allen are good if healthy. The offensive line, which every Jets general manager of the last five years has hammered resources into, needs to protect, though losing Elijah Vera-Tucker to New England stings.

Defensively there is nowhere to go but up. They did pick off a couple of passes in the preseason, which around here counts as a banner.

But 3-14 would be a disaster, and it would mean change again, in a lot of directions at once.