December 30th, 4:00 p.m. eastern time, another year has just completed for the New York Jets. A year in which finished quite similar to all the rest, a lot of losing and a blowout loss in week 17 to the future Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.
However, there was one difference with the end of the 2018 season, and that was Sam Darnold, the Quarterback.
As a Jets fan, for the last eight-plus years, there has been little to no hope after the season ended because they did not have that franchise changing QB every team covets. But this year, this offseason everything seems different, and everything is different.
Entering the 2019 NFL offseason, the New York Jets boasted the second most cap space in the NFL, and the buzz across the league was that they were going to spend all of that cash in order to build the proper foundation around young star QB Sam Darnold. One week into free-agency it is safe to say they are doing just that, and they are not just spending their boatloads of money just to spend it, they are spending it smartly.
Although extremely early in the process it seems this new Jets regime seems to have it figured out, where others, (as us Jets fans sadly know) simply did not. I have heard many fans of the NFL tell me that the Jets are overspending, they are giving players money that doesn't deserve it, i.e. Leveon Bell. However, there is no justification for not giving a star player a little extra cash to ensure he will not join another team. That point is especially true when you have a young franchise QB like the Jets currently have... DAMN, that sounds good to say... but I digress, The last time the Jets won a super was... well, actually let's have some fun with this... clearly I was not born, my parents were not born, gas was $0.35 a gallon, and we had yet to land on the moon.
If that does not put in perspective for you then well I guess I am trying to say to you is ITS BEEN A LONG FREAKIN' TIME. 52 years exactly. Why emphasize instead of just telling you the number of years? Well because I wanted to, and if you are not a Jets fan, you needed to know just how astonishing, painful and LONG it has been.
However, I do think as a collective group, us Jets fans finally believe it is our time, our opportunity to finally win something. We are not a greedy fanbase and you would be surprised on how much even a home playoff game would mean after sharing a division for 18 years with Tom Brady, Bill Bilichek and the Patriots. Although with all hope their needs to be some type of grounding reality, some pessimism, because we are and will always be the "Same old Jets"... So until we win something that motto cannot be changed and will not be changed(not even with new uniforms)... but hey Jets fans, at least we're not currently Giant fans? Right? Buckle up, this may be the year.