New York Jets: Franchise determined to to win the old fashioned way

The New York Jets are determined to build their franchise to win the old-fashioned way: running the ball and playing great defense.

Early on in the season, many fans of bad teams were looking toward the 2018 NFL Draft and Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen. While they were doing that, the New York Jets were building their identity. What many fans and experts missed is simple, the Jets are learning from the past and building their team accordingly.

What the Jets realized is they don’t need an all-time great quarterback to win the Super Bowl. You can win with a good quarterback, or even slightly below average quarterback, if the talent around him is excellent.

Fans eyes should’ve been opened in Super Bowls XLVIII and 50, but they weren’t. Yes, Seattle and Denver had competent quarterbacks, but Peyton Manning was on his last leg and Russell Wilson was still a raw-but-talented quarterback. Both of those teams relied on their running games and defenses to win Super Bowls.

It’s not even just the recent past where this is the case either. Go back to the day of the “Steel Curtain”, and you will see a dominant running game and defense pulling a slightly below average quarterback.

Terry Bradshaw completed less than 52 percent of his passes in his career, and he only had one season, a season in which he threw only eight passes, where he completed more than 58 percent of his passes. That’s with a talent like Lynn Swann on the team.

Todd Bowles is trying to establish a culture that is predicated on running the football and stopping the run. General manager Mike Maccagnan is giving him the players to do that. As Luis Tirado Jr. of The Jet Press pointed out, offensive coordinator John Morton needs to be on board too, and after the game against the Bills, he seems to be.

"All it takes is for Morton to truly embrace this run-first philosophy and use it as a weapon to not only win more football games but push the envelope in a season everyone wrote the Jets off to do much of nothing."

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If the Jets can establish the culture in the second half of the season, as long as the quarterback is competent, the Jets can be a contender in the near future. It’s not about being a super talented quarterback, it’s about the team.