The future is bright for the New York Jets, after Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson earn Rookie of the Year honors
BOSTON -- For more than a decade, the New York Jets have grown accustomed to not receiving all that much credit and praise during the offseason. Understandably so.
Last year, though, it changed, as the work of general manger Joe Douglas in free agency and the draft was too crafty and smart for anyone to ignore.
Now, Douglas and the Jets have some validation in that regard, after Jets players took home Rookie of the Year honors on both offense and defense.
On defense, it was fourth overall pick Sauce Gardner, who showed no issue in transitioning from the college game at Cincinnati to the NFL level. Gardner had two interceptions with an NFL-best 20 pass defenses in his rookie season, while making 75 tackles (51 solo) in 17 games played.
On offense, receiver Garrett Wilson -- the 10th overall pick -- took home the honors. Wilson played in all 17 games, catching 83 passes for 1,103 yards and four touchdowns. It was particularly impressive considering the Jets' quarterback situation with Zach Wilson, Joe Flacco and Mike White.
The Jets got that No. 4 overall pick the old-fashioned way, by being bad at football in 2021. They got the No. 10 pick in the Jamal Adams trade -- a deal which also contributed to the Jets landing guard Alijah Vera-Tucker a year earlier.
Gardner became the fifth Jets player to win defensive rookie of the year, joining Sheldon Richardson (2013) and Jonathan Vilma (2004) this century. This vote was a landslide, too, with Gardner getting 46 out of 50 first-place votes.
Wilson, meanwhile, is the first Jets player to ever earn the offensive rookie of the year honors. He became the first Jets offensive rookie to even receive a vote since 1996.
His win was a lot more narrow, as he received 18 first-place votes, while Seattle's Kenneth Walker III received 19 first-place votes. But Wilson received 19 second-place votes, with Walker getting just eight, leading to Wilson getting the award.
With Gardner, Wilson, Vera-Tucker, Breece Hall, Jermaine Johnson, and potentially Elijah Moore, the Jets are filled with young talent. Add in promising head coach Robert Saleh and the wise free-agent decisions made a year ago, and there's some real reason for optimism for the Jets, who have finished in last place in seven of the last nine years and haven't been in the playoffs since 2010.
But ... well. There is that whole elephant in the room with Zach Wilson. The Jets drafted him at No. 2 overall in 2021, and it has not worked out. He's thrown 15 touchdowns and 18 interceptions, he's won eight games and lost 14, he developed the "yips," he's been benched and he clearly doesn't have many believers within his own locker room.
Without a quarterback, the outlook on the Jets seems shaky at best.
But if the team can find a QB -- a big if, no doubt -- the Jets could be in line to take a major step forward in the hyper-competitive AFC East as soon as 2023.