The New York Jets and the Sunk Cost Fallacy

The New York Jets being a bad football team is unfortunate.

However, the more unfortunate thing seems to be that team owner Woody Johnson thinks the New York Jets are not a bad football team and is acting accordingly.

And that isn't speculation. He himself said as much just weeks ago.

"I've been doing this for 25 years now. This is probably the best team I've had." - Woody Johnson on October 8th, 2024

Since then, the Jets have made multiple moves that align with that.

First, they fired head coach Robert Saleh to try to jumpstart the supposedly talented team. That has failed to do the trick as the Jets have gone 0-3 since.

Then, they traded for wide receiver Davante Adams to try to jumpstart the supposedly talented team. That has failed to do the trick as the Jets have gone 0-2 since with Adams averaging 3.5 catches and 42 yards per game since arriving.

Then, they finally agreed to a contract with Pro Bowl edge rusher Haason Reddick to try to jumpstart the supposedly talented team. This came after GM Joe Douglas made clear that the Jets would not negotiate with Reddick until he showed up ... which the team clearly backpedaled on to sign Reddick. That has failed to do the trick as the Jets lost this weekend all the same.

The expression goes, "You don't throw good money after bad." The Jets have clearly not gotten this memo as they keep going back into the bag time after time for one more silver bullet solution that will fix a clearly flawed team.

And, if we're looking at this with clear eyes, they've been doing this "silver bullet no matter the cost" thing since they decided to move on from quarterback Zach Wilson and shove the contention window open with quarterback Aaron Rodgers, despite the quarterback having zero other teams publicly interested in him after the quarterback showed signs of regression in the 2022 season. It has not worked. It has not even come close to working.

But the time has come where the obvious should be very clear: at 2-6, please, any and all decision makers of the New York Jets, just treat this team as a sunk cost.

They aren't good.

They aren't close to good.

They just lost to a 1-6 team that was led by a backup quarterback. Would a good team do this? They would not.

This team has shown brief flashes of competence that basically any team can point to. They then follow each flash up with some major ineptitude. That is what bad teams do. This is a bad team. There is no ambiguity around that anymore.

At this point, just call a spade a spade and stop throwing good money after bad to try to salvage a season that is likely already lost.

In fact, maybe go a step further and try to minimize your losses. Accept the sunk cost and make the most of it. The trade deadline hasn't passed yet, so maybe it's time to get some values for your veteran while you still can. And, hey, it should be pretty easy to do given how much talent must be present on "the best team" that Woody's ever had.