EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Mike LaFleur laughed coming off the field. He shook hands and hugged Jets employees he used to know, and dapped up media members who used to question his decisions and wonder whether he was the right man to be the Jets’ offensive coordinator. Now in the same position for the Los Angeles Rams, LaFleur got the last laugh on Sunday, his Rams leaving with a 19-9 victory over a hapless Jets team that already feels checked out on the 2024 season.
Nearly two year ago, LaFleur’s fate as the Jets’ play-caller was in the balance. In exit interviews after the 2022 season, some key players made it clear to their bosses that the offense, in their minds, had become predictable — Garrett Wilson said as much during his season-ending press conference. But that was only a microcosm of the problems the Jets had on offense. Many of them were rooted in quarterbacking incompetence, particularly from Zach Wilson. When Wilson wasn’t behind center the offense under LaFleur often thrived, especially with Mike White and Joe Flacco.
But outside pressure won out. Jets owner Woody Johnson pushed coach Robert Saleh to fire LaFleur. Saleh pitched alternate solutions, including one in which LaFleur would stick around but in a reduced role, working alongside Todd Downing and Keith Carter. But too many of the Jets’ key offensive players were frustrated, plus fans (and some media) were calling for LaFleur’s head — Johnson wasn’t swayed.
To many in the Jets locker room, that was a lifetime ago. On Sunday, the Rams offense didn’t exactly run circles around a Jets defense that’s fallen far over the last half of this season — L.A. had 110 passing yards. But LaFleur’s presence on Sunday, and his smiles, are part of a larger conversation about how many wrong turns the Jets have made since LaFleur was fired and replaced by Nathaniel Hackett.
“Love him, man,” Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson said of LaFleur. “My rookie year, looking back on it, it was a special time and I might’ve taken it for granted.”
The Jets were young whippersnappers in 2022, a team that wasn’t supposed to be any good but jumped out to a 6-3 record powered by a remarkable rookie class. They fell apart and finished 7-10, and that collapse led to a decision the Jets probably regret in retrospect. Saleh had a hard time convincing any offensive coordinators to take the job if it was only going to be for one year — the perception at the time, especially since Johnson forced LaFleur’s firing to begin with — and so he settled on Hackett with the idea that it could help the Jets land Rodgers. But the Jets were basically starting over on offense, with a coach (Hackett) whose track record was spotty when he wasn’t working with Rodgers. Then, when Rodgers tore his Achilles in Week 1 last year, the offense unraveled.
Now it’s the end of 2024. Hackett was demoted earlier this season and Downing — hired as the passing game coordinator after LaFleur was fired — has taken over play-calling. Really, it’s still Rodgers’ show, though the offense has improved both in terms of production and creativity since Downing took over. But many of the same problems persist.
Wilson was targeted only three times on Sunday before the Jets’ final offensive drive as Rodgers instead funneled targets to Davante Adams, seemingly determined to have his 500th touchdown pass land in the arms of his closest friend on the team. Wilson was targeted four more times toward the end of the game, but it was too late to matter at that point. Rodgers said he didn’t target Wilson because of the way the Rams were covering him. Wilson was less sure of the reason.
“I don’t know, to be honest with you man,” Wilson said. “I don’t know. I just gotta go out and put my best foot forward and hope that things fall my way. I would love to be involved, love to make an impact on the game, but if people see it differently that’s out of my control. Just trying to do what I can do.”
The Jets started their opening drive at their own 1-yard line. Rodgers authored an impressive 14-play, 99-yard scoring drive, capped by an 11-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Adams (followed by a missed extra point from Anders Carlson). After that, their decision-making at large left plenty to be desired.
On their next drive — which started after Tony Adams intercepted Matthew Stafford — interim coach Jeff Ulbrich made the confounding decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the Jets’ 33-yard-line. Running back Breece Hall was stuffed at the line of scrimmage, and the Rams scored a touchdown three plays later.
“For one, their offense was being very efficient at that point,” Ulbrich said. “Our offense was being very efficient as well. We were maintaining drives. We were moving the ball. We were converting third and fourths there for a while, so I wanted to stay aggressive and keep the ball in the hands of our offense.”
Next, the Jets ended a 15-play, 67-yard drive with a 21-yard Carlson field goal. Outside of those two scoring drives (of 99 and 67 yards) the Jets gained only 155 total yards. On a cold afternoon — the coldest of the season so far at MetLife Stadium — they only ran the ball 20 times versus 44 dropbacks. The Jets have run the ball less than any team in the NFL this season despite the presence of Hall, who expressed some frustration with his lack of carries earlier in the week: “I don’t really have too much to say, you know, just with how the season’s going, how the games are going, you know, that’s just like just how it worked out,” Hall said on Friday. “So, you know, obviously I want the ball as many times as I can, but if I’m not getting the ball out, all I can do is just my job.”
In the third quarter, the Jets got to the Rams’ 13-yard-line and went for it on fourth down again — rather than taking the points with a field goal. Rodgers threw for Adams in the end zone, but the ball was batted out of the receiver’s hands for another turnover on downs.
Early in the fourth quarter, Rodgers held on to the ball too long, got strip-sacked and the Rams recovered in Jets territory. L.A. scored again a few plays later to go up 16-9.
“Probably should have dealt the ball,” Rodgers said. “Looked like we were pretty gloved to all the spots, but I think I should have gotten out of the pocket and just dumped it somewhere.”
The Jets went for it on fourth down again on the next drive — and failed again. On another fourth-quarter possession, Carlson missed a 49-yard field goal wide right. The game ended when Xavier Gipson muffed a punt and the Rams recovered. Though none of that even scratches the surface of all the Jets’ confounding mental errors on Sunday.
The Jets, one of the NFL’s most penalized teams, had eight more penalties on Sunday — including at least one from each of the six offensive linemen who played. (Rookie left tackle Olu Fashanu left in the fourth quarter with a foot injury that appeared to be serious, though Ulbrich didn’t have an update after the game.)
“It’s been all year,” said Rodgers, who finished 28 of 42 for 256 yards. “I think that’s what needs to clean up moving forward for some of these guys to reach their full potential is to just lock in on the details. And that’s not just this offense. Whatever comes next after this, there’s going to be important details in every offense. And that’s just the little tweaks that are the difference between explosive gains or conversions and turnover on downs.”
Maybe the Jets would still have many of the same problems even if they had stuck with LaFleur. They had some of these issues when he was around — same for Saleh, before he was fired. But it was never this bad, this undisciplined, this confounding. Good teams find ways to win. Week after week, the Jets find ways to lose. Sunday was only the second time since 1940 that an NFL team didn’t punt in a game yet failed to score at least 10 points, according to ESPN.
It’s clear that neither Hackett nor Rodgers was the remedy to what ailed the offense — and it’s fair to wonder how things would have looked if LaFleur was able to stick around and build the unit the way he envisioned, the way Saleh envisioned. Hall told the New York Post on Sunday that he, Garrett Wilson and LaFleur are still in regular contact, a sign that their relationship perhaps has grown stronger since LaFleur was forced out.
LaFleur appears to be happy in Los Angeles. The Jets, on the other hand, will start from scratch again in 2025 — coach, play-caller and, probably, quarterback.
So what did Wilson mean when he said he might have taken his time with LaFleur for granted?
“Just some of the relationships,” Wilson said. “I look around and there’s not too many familiar faces from that time. That’s kind of how it goes when you don’t win games.”
(Photo: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)