The Jets lost to the Seahawks on Sunday, their fifth straight defeat, which eliminated them from playoff contention to culminate an epic collapse.
SEATTLE — New York Jets quarterback Mike White sat motionless at his locker for several minutes, staring down at play sheets at his feet. Eventually, he reached down, picked up the papers and methodically tore them into tiny pieces — a metaphor for the Jets’ once-promising season.
Their 23-6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday at Lumen Field was the Jets’ fifth straight defeat, which eliminated them from playoff contention to culminate an epic collapse. It extended their postseason drought to 12 straight years, the longest active streak in the NFL and now the longest such slump in franchise history. It also clinched their seventh consecutive losing season.
“It stings,” White said. “It’s tough. It’s gut-wrenching. It’s all of the above. You can use any adjective you want to use to describe it.”
The Jets were 7-4 after a 31-10 rout of the Chicago Bears on Nov. 27, seemingly headed toward a slump-busting playoff appearance. Undermined by a cold offense and quarterback instability, they now are in the midst of perhaps the worst late-season nose dive in team history. The last time they lost this many in a row after the 10th game was 1996, their infamous 1-15 season.
“No one is hurting more than the people in the locker room, especially me,” coach Robert Saleh said. “At the same time, I know it’s hard to see light at the end of the tunnel, but there are a lot of really cool things to look at for this season. But right now it stings big time.”
Coming off a 4-13 record in Saleh’s first season, the Jets (7-9) weren’t expected to be strong playoff contenders in 2022, but they became one of the biggest surprises with their fast start.
