The Jets are a mess. But they’re not the most hopeless franchise in the NFL

New York Jets

Ownership: Culture is a nebulous term in sports, one of those know-it-when-you-see-it things, but few things are more evident than the Jets’ culture being rotten under Woody Johnson. They have not made the playoffs since the 2010 season, pirouetting from short-term fixes to visions of long-term rebuilds, without the patience to see the team through difficult spells. It is a short list of owners who would axe a coach five weeks into a season because they were maybe-possibly embarrassed in front of their friends, but if any owner would, it’s Johnson.

Coach: Bailing on Robert Saleh five weeks into the season is harsh. Since he took the head coaching job with the Jets, he has consistently fielded an elite defense despite a lack of any support on the offensive side of the ball. Still, there was some sense in the Jets’ decision. If you’re listing who is responsible for this season’s woes, then general manager Joe Douglas, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and Aaron Rodgers would be at the front of the queue. But the Jets cannot bench Rodgers and, given his close ties to the quarterback, firing Hackett was also not an option. Removing a general manager would not provide a spark, so moving on from the head coach may have been the only way to salvage the season.

Related: Aaron Rodgers denies ‘ridiculous’ claims he played role in Saleh’s firing

Quarterback: The Aaron Rodgers of today is not the Rodgers of his back-to-back MVP seasons in Green Bay. At 40 years old and coming off an achilles injury, he looks skittish in the pocket and is unable to conjure the kind of off-script magic that made him such a dynamic threat during his peak years.

Hope for the future: What future? With a 40-year-old quarterback, the Jets are operating on a year-to-year timeline. There’s no guarantee that Rodgers will return next season. If he does, it’s anyone’s guess who he will sign off on as the new head coach. And if Rodgers decides to retire, the Jets will be back on the quarterback merry-go-round.

Hopelessness rating: 8/10. They do have talented players but ownership has a long record of failure, and it’s hard to see the franchise turning around while the Johnsons remain in charge.

Cleveland Browns

Ownership: Jimmy Haslam has been a consistent source of embarrassment for the league in courtrooms and on the field. Whenever he winds up offloading the Browns, his legacy will be as the owner who handed Deshaun Watson one of the worst contracts in sports history.

Coach: Kevin Stefanski has proven that he can build playoff-caliber offenses around Joe Flacco and Baker Mayfield, but he is on track to be the fall guy for Cleveland’s decision to cough up $230m and a bundle of draft picks for Watson.

Quarterback: Watson has been the worst starting quarterback in the league this season. That isn’t an opinion; it’s a fact. Among 31 eligible quarterbacks, he is last in adjusted EPA/play, a measure of down-to-down effectiveness. And yet the Browns are so wedded to Watson by dint of his contract that they’re unable to turn to Jameis Winston – who isn’t exactly perfect himself – for the rest of the season.

Hope for the future: There is none. Cleveland have the worst starter at the most valuable position on the field – and they’re paying him more than anyone else at the position. Watson is still owed $132m over the remaining three years of his contract, all of it guaranteed. Due to how the Browns restructured the quarterback’s contract last offseason, it would cost the team more to cut or trade him in the offseason, eating up roughly two-thirds of the team’s salary cap for next season. With Watson’s contract on the books, there is precious little the Browns can do to upgrade their roster. They’re unable to move on from the quarterback, and they’re running out of ways to finagle the salary cap without making things even more painful in the future. It is not hyperbole to say it’s the bleakest situation for any franchise in pro sports. And that’s before we get to the ethical questions of giving hundreds of millions of dollars to someone with serious allegations against him.

Hopelessness rating: 10/10. Full marks for the weight of the Watson contract, in football and moral terms. This stench will hang around the franchise for quite some time.

Carolina Panthers

Ownership: Few owners will ever come close to stealing Dan Snyder’s championship belt as the worst owner of the modern era, but David Tepper is putting together a strong resume. Since buying the Panthers in 2018, Tepper’s record is an eye-watering 32-77, with his ethos appearing to be move fast and break everything. Tepper has consistently chased sugar highs, cycling through coaches at a rate that would make even Roman Abramovich blush.

Coach: Having worked with Russell Wilson and Baker Mayfield, Dave Canales was hired to aid the development of Bryce Young. After two weeks, Canales decided to bench Young in favor of Andy Dalton, a move that smacked of a coach already looking over his shoulder. Dalton has made the Panthers more competitive in the short-term and given the coach a shot to prove that he can be the person to turn the franchise around, but jettisoning the No 1 overall pick so quickly was not part of the job brief.

Quarterback: At some point this season, the Panthers may return to Young as the full-time starter. A spell on the sideline may have helped him rediscover his confidence or better intuit the nuances of Canales’s scheme. But, more likely, the coaching staff has already decided that Young is not the right fit and they’ll chase a new quarterback in the offseason.

Related: Brilliant but beaten: the historic, searing misfortune of Joe Burrow

Hope for the future: The Panthers took an unusual yet admirable path last offseason. They tore down a solid defense and piled resources into their offense in a bid to find out if Young could be a competent starting quarterback. It didn’t work. They’ve already moved on from Young and they’re now saddled with an expensive, injured offensive line and one of the least talented defenses in the leagues. It will take years to fix – and the owner has shown no signs that he’s willing to put up with lean seasons.

Hopelessness rating: 9/10. They burned draft picks to move up to pick Young, who does not appear to be the quarterback of the future. Tepper has shown no signs he knows how to run a competent franchise.

Arizona Cardinals

Ownership: The NFLPA’s annual franchise report card pegged the Cardinals as the worst organization to work for in the league heading into this season – and that after owner Michael Bidwill had made efforts to address concerns raised the year prior. The knock on Bidwill is that he is stingy and has fostered an uncomfortable working environment. If you were betting on an owner to cash out in the next five years, Bidwill would be at the top of the list.

Coach: Given the state of the roster he inherited last season and the behind-the-scenes turmoil, Jonathan Gannon deserves credit for keeping Arizona competitive week to week. His 6-16 record as a head coach is a slight mirage, owing as much to the franchise’s rebuilding plan as his coaching. In his second season, there are signs of a team on the rise. The offense finally has enough firepower to keep up with anyone. And Gannon, a defensive coach by trade, has kept a defense devoid of talent above water early in the season.

Quarterback: After returning from an ACL injury at the midpoint of last season, Kyler Murray looks back to his best this year. There were murmurings last year that the Cardinals could look to trade Murray away despite handing the quarterback a hefty contract extension in 2023. But he has justified the investment this season, fitting snugly into Drew Petzing’s offense and striking up a quick connection with rookie receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.

Hope for the future: The Cardinals already have a talented, young offense producing at a top-10 level. That alone gives them a shot to hang around in the division race this season. If they can find more toys for Gannon on defense, then they have the makings of a consistent playoff contender.

Hopelessness rating: 4/10. There are concerns about ownership but there is talent in the coaching and playing ranks.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Ownership: In his 12 years as owner, Shahid Khan has made plenty of zany decisions: hiring Urban Meyer, placing blind faith in general manager Trent Baalke, flirting with relocation to London while planning to build a new stadium in Jacksonville and shelving some of the league’s best uniforms. But you have to hand this to Khan: he is not cheap. Jacksonville have some of the best facilities in the league and Khan has consistently indulged in free-agent splurges. When it came time to hand Trevor Lawrence a contract extension, the franchise forked over $275m with $200m guaranteed. And unlike other owners who’ve chucked money at their problems, Khan has not had a quick trigger. Save for the Meyer experience, Khan has been patient with coaches and general managers. But it hasn’t worked, with his record as owner now standing at 61-139. Perhaps Khan should be more ruthless.

Coach: After the Meyer debacle, the Jaguars hoped to import instant credibility by hiring Doug Pederson, a coach with a championship pedigree. But we’re now in the final embers of the Pederson era. The coach has gone 18-20 as Jacksonville’s head honcho, including a measly 2-10 record in his last 12 games. All signs point to the Jaguars hitting the reset button this offseason unless they’re able to claw themselves back into the playoff picture. If they fall to 1-5 with a loss in London on Sunday, Pederson could be left on the tarmac.

Quarterback: Lawrence remains one of the league’s most puzzling quarterbacks. For all his physical gifts, he continues to make sloppy decisions. In his three seasons as a starter, Lawrence has averaged 14 interceptions a season and 25 (!) turnover-worthy plays, according to Pro Football Focus. Some of the blame for Lawrence’s struggles can be leveled at poor coaching and weak rosters, but there have been minimal signs of progress from the former No 1 overall pick in the last two years.

Hope for the future: Lawrence is the hope. If he can strip away the dopey plays, then Jacksonville have a perennial top-10 quarterback. The concern would be that, at this stage of his career, what he has shown so far is who he is. But if the Jaguars do move on from Pederson, there will be a queue of coaches who believe they can sand the rough edges from the quarterback’s game. Plus, with the meat of Lawrence’s extension not kicking for another couple of seasons, the Jaguars will have oodles of cap space this offseason to reorient the roster around the quarterback.

Hopelessness rating: 3/10. The owner is odd rather than disastrous. And if Lawrence can rediscover his potential, they should prosper.