The New York Jets have been doing anything but jetting to get the ball snapped this season.
Offensive-operation woes doomed Gang Green against the Patriots on Sunday, and it was a continuation of issues that have been present with the team this season no matter who is calling plays or coaching.
No team averages less time on the play clock before the snap this season than the 2-6 Jets. On average, the Jets have snapped the ball with 6.59 seconds remaining on the play clock, more than a full second later than the 31st-ranked team and almost three seconds later than the NFL average this season, according to CBS Sports research.
The six delay-of-game penalties for New York are the second most in the league behind Denver's seven as the Broncos break in a rookie quarterback.
"Aaron Rodgers has always been that way," said one scout who has watched all the Jets games this season. "He likes to get as much information pre-snap as possible."
Indeed, in the past six seasons Rodgers has played, his teams have ranked in the top two in delay penalties in four of those years. The 2024 Jets are second, the 2022 Packers were second and the 2018 and 2019 Packers led the league each year in delay penalties.
In Sunday's 25-22 loss to New England, the Jets used all three of their first-half timeouts before the 10th offensive play from scrimmage.
"We've got to be better from an operations standpoint, just overall, and that's every single player, every single coach," Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich said Sunday.
"Yeah, our operation was a little slow at times," Rodgers admitted.
Each play and each delay penalty has its own reasoning, but nearly halfway through the season it's clear the Jets are the slowest team to get the snap off.
Sometimes that's on purpose as Rodgers sets the protection or audibles while attempting to manipulate the defense with motion and shifts. But that's not always the case. The Jets rank eighth in the league in time between when the line is set and ball is snapped, meaning a quarter of the league spends more time waiting on the snap than they do.
So it's not always Rodgers bleeding the play clock looking for an advantage. And it's not always getting the play in late. And it's not always an issue with substituting personnel.
But this season for the Jets, it's always something.
