Everyone thought they were going 0-16. Literally everyone. If you scrolled through Twitter in August of that year, the consensus was that the 2017 New York Jets were a professional football team in name only. Media outlets were calling them the worst roster of the decade. They’d just purged the locker room of expensive veterans like Brandon Marshall, Eric Decker, and Darrelle Revis. It looked like a fire sale. It looked like a surrender. But football has this weird way of ignoring the script people write for it in the summer.
They didn't go winless. Far from it.
The 2017 New York Jets ended up being one of the most confusing, feisty, and ultimately heartbreaking "bridge" seasons in the history of the franchise. It was the year of Josh McCown’s career renaissance, the emergence of a young safety duo that looked like the future of the league, and a string of games where they played way above their talent level before the reality of a thin roster finally caught up to them. It wasn't a "good" season by traditional standards—they finished 5-11—but it was a season that defied the "Tank for Sam" narrative that had dominated the headlines for months.
The Roster Purge and the "Tank" Narrative
Heading into the spring, GM Mike Maccagnan made a series of moves that looked like he was trying to lose on purpose. Out went the veterans. Nick Mangold, the heart of the offensive line, was released. David Harris, the defensive signal-caller for a decade, was cut in June in a move that shocked the locker room. It felt cold. Fans were bracing for a disaster. The quarterback room featured Josh McCown—a 38-year-old journeyman—alongside Christian Hackenberg and Bryce Petty. To put it bluntly, nobody was betting on McCown to play 13 games and post a career-high completion percentage.
But he did.
McCown brought a weird kind of stability to a chaotic situation. He wasn't a superstar, but he was a pro. He knew where to go with the ball. While the rest of the world was looking at the 2018 draft class, McCown was busy connecting with Jermaine Kearse and Robby Anderson. Anderson, in particular, became a vertical threat that kept defensive coordinators awake. He finished the year with nearly 1,000 yards and seven touchdowns. Not bad for an undrafted kid on a "tanking" team.
Defying the Odds: The Three-Game Win Streak
By Week 3, the Jets were 0-2 and the "0-16" talk was peaking. Then they played the Dolphins. Then the Jaguars. Then the Browns. Suddenly, the 2017 New York Jets were 3-2.
The defense was playing angry. Demario Davis, who had returned to the team after a stint in Cleveland, was playing the best football of his life. He ended the season with 135 tackles and five sacks. He was the emotional engine of that unit. Alongside him, the rookie safety duo of Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye—the "New Jack City" backfield—brought a swagger that the Jets hadn't seen since the Rex Ryan era. Adams was a heat-seeking missile. Maye was the centerfielder. They looked like the foundational pieces of a championship defense.
The Week 4 win over Jacksonville was particularly wild. It featured a 75-yard touchdown run by Bilal Powell where he basically fell down, realized he wasn't touched, got back up, and outran everyone. It was ugly, it was lucky, and it was exactly the kind of win that drove the "Tank for Sam" crowd crazy. The Jets weren't supposed to be winning these games. They were supposed to be securing the number one pick. Instead, they were fighting.
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The Reality Check and the Austin Seferian-Jenkins "No Catch"
If you want to point to the exact moment the 2017 New York Jets season turned from a feel-good underdog story into a typical Jets tragedy, it was Week 6 against the New England Patriots.
The Jets were 3-2. They were leading the Pats. Austin Seferian-Jenkins caught a touchdown pass that would have pulled them within a score in the fourth quarter. He crossed the plane. He had the ball. But the referees went to the replay hood and emerged with a ruling that still haunts Jets fans: a "fumble" out of the end zone resulting in a touchback for New England. It was a bizarre application of the rules. The momentum evaporated. The Jets lost 24-17.
They lost four straight after that.
- A heartbreaking loss to Miami.
- A rain-soaked disaster against Atlanta where they couldn't hold a lead.
- A defensive struggle against Tampa Bay.
The depth issues started to show. You can only play "above your head" for so long before the lack of blue-chip talent catches up. The offensive line was struggling to protect McCown, and the run game became inconsistent. Yet, even in the losses, they weren't getting blown out. They were competitive. They were "in" every game until the fourth quarter, which is more than anyone expected in August.
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The Josh McCown Injury and the End of the Road
The season effectively ended in Denver during Week 14. McCown broke his left hand. Seeing him get emotional at the podium after the game was one of the most human moments in sports that year. He had put everything into a season where he was expected to be a sacrificial lamb.
When McCown went down, the offense died.
Bryce Petty took over, and the difference was stark. The Jets didn't score a touchdown for nearly three games. They finished the season with losses to the Saints, Chargers, and Patriots. A 5-7 record quickly turned into 5-11.
Looking Back: Was the Tank Successful?
In the end, the 2017 New York Jets did exactly what they weren't supposed to do: they won just enough games to miss out on the top three picks, but not enough to actually be good. They ended up with the 6th overall pick.
However, because they showed some backbone, the culture in the building felt different. They didn't feel like a 5-11 team. They felt like a team that was one or two pieces away. Of course, we know how that turned out—they traded up to the 3rd pick in 2018 to draft Sam Darnold, and the cycle of rebuilding began all over again.
But for a few weeks in the autumn of 2017, the Jets were the most interesting story in the NFL. They were the team that refused to die. They were the team that made the experts look like they didn't know anything.
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Actionable Takeaways for Football Historians and Fans
If you're looking back at this season to understand how NFL rebuilds work (or don't work), keep these things in mind:
- Vegas odds aren't destiny. The Jets' over/under win total was 3.5 in many books. They hit the over by Week 5.
- Culture vs. Talent. Coaching matters. Todd Bowles kept that locker room together when it would have been easy for players to check out and protect their health for the next season.
- The "Bridge" QB Value. Josh McCown's 2017 season is the blueprint for why teams sign veteran mentors. He stabilized the franchise and allowed young players like Robby Anderson to actually develop because they had someone who could actually throw them the ball.
- Draft Position isn't everything. The Jets won 5 games and still got their quarterback (Darnold) in the next draft via a trade. Winning doesn't always "ruin" a rebuild if the front office is aggressive.
The 2017 season remains a strange footnote. It was a year of "what ifs" and "almosts." It was the year New York refused to be the league's doormat, even when the league was practically begging them to take the spot.