Week 1 is now behind us and the Jets appeared to be pretty much what most pundits had predicted. They displayed a solid second half effort against Carolina but apparent lack of talent and experience was just a bit too much to overcome. The Jets lost by four points, which precisely matched the spread before the game. Despite a rather promising performance in the 2nd half, the Gang Green dropped one place on average in the latest power rankings. The Sporting News, who gave the Jets their highest ranking (#26) before the season, lowered their grade of Robert Saleh's team by 3 points. While ESPN, CBS and PFT kept their valuation of the Jets unchanged, NFL.com lowered the Gang Green's stock by 2 points.
Here's what different power rankings websites had to say about the Jets:
ESPN: Wilson rallied from a shaky start and led two scoring drives in the second half to keep the Jets competitive in a 19-14 loss at the Panthers. He completed 20-of-37 passes for 258 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. It was a gritty, if not clean, performance. He held the ball too long at times, contributing to six sacks, but displayed the arm strength and improvisational skill that made the Jets fall in love with him during the pre-draft process. The Jets dressed nine rookies in Week 1 -- Wilson was clearly the best.
Sporting News: Zach Wilson had a typical rookie debut, committing a shaky giveaway and taking bad sacks. But with zero help from the running game he showed a lot of positives with his command of the offense, overall confidence and aggressiveness. The kid's got goods and Robert Saleh had to like the fact his new's team defense played over its head right away.
CBS Sports: It took them a while to get Zach Wilson going, but he did some good things late. The good news is they hung around and made it interesting late, which is progress.
ProFootballTalk: They need to do everything they can to protect Zach Wilson. Even that may not be good enough.
Yahoo Sports: Zach Wilson is probably in the worst position among all the rookie quarterbacks. He doesn't have a lot of help.
NFL.com: Zach Wilson showed toughness, resiliency and plenty of talent in the second half of the Jets' 19-14 loss to the Panthers, but the heralded rookie won't make it through the season if New York can't get its offensive line to play at a competitive level. The unit struggled mightily against the Panthers, allowing six sacks and 10 hits on Wilson, who was scrambling for his life for most of the afternoon. The news got worse in the third quarter, when left tackle Mekhi Becton went out with a knee injury. Becton might have dodged a season-ending setback, but an already-beleaguered front five will be without its most essential piece for at least a month, per NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport.
Preseason | W1 | W2 | W3 | W4 | W5 | W6 | W7 | W8 | W9 | W10 | W11 | W12 | W13 | W14 | W15 | W16 | W17 | W18 | |
ESPN | 31 | 31 | |||||||||||||||||
Sporting News | 26 | 29 | |||||||||||||||||
CBS Sports | 31 | 31 | |||||||||||||||||
PFT | 30 | 30 | |||||||||||||||||
Yahoo Sports | 29 | 30 | |||||||||||||||||
NFL.com | 28 | 30 | |||||||||||||||||
29.2 | 30.2 |