On Saturday, the New York Jets used the sixth overall pick in the 2008 NFL draft to select Ohio State defensive end Vernon Gholston.

By most accounts, Gholston is a talented if somewhat inconsistent prospect who projects as a fine player in the NFL. Nevertheless, this weekend’s draft may ultimately be remembered less for the picks the Jets made than for the one they didn’t: Arkansas running back Darren McFadden. Despite the public-relations spin, the fact remains that the Jets desperately needed McFadden. Chad Pennington needed him. Kellen Clemens needed him. Eric Mangini, too. But above all, their bedraggled, tempest-tossed fans needed him. They needed him both to jump-start a moribund offense and to redefine a staid, faceless and increasingly boring organization. As is their wont, the Jets missed the opportunity, ignoring the overwhelming fan sentiment for McFadden. They knew better.  read more »

By handing out nearly $140M in free-agent contracts this offseason, the New York Jets have sent a bold message to the rest of the league: they’re one of the worst-run teams in football.

Unsurprisingly, their moves have met with general approval in New York, where even the most ill-advised spending sprees are typically embraced with open arms by people who believe that buying is trying. Amazingly, the nearly endless array of high-priced free-agent flops over the last 15 years has done little to dent this illogic. Now, as then, the quick-fix allure of free agency remains strong.  read more »

One warm winter night in 2006, fullback Darian Barnes, formerly of the New York Jets, had a dream about superhuman football players tackling monsters. A longtime comic-book enthusiast, he decided it had the makings of something real.

“It just kind of like hit me that as many years as people tried to fuse sports and athletes with multimedia and pop culture media, it’s never really worked because the two things are so different,” Mr. Barnes, 27, told the Transom by phone on Jan. 15.  read more »

On Sunday afternoon, the Jets will close out their most disappointing season in recent memory when they face a hapless Kansas City Chief team at the Meadowlands. And unless you’re motivated by lingering resentment stemming from the sudden departure of Herman Edwards in 2005, chances are that you’re going to have a difficult time finding reason to watch the last scene of a rather tired act. The bad news, of course, is that the Jets’ season has been lost for two months. But here’s the good news: like virtually every other NFL team, the Jets aren’t far removed from having a playoff-caliber club in 2008. Here’s how they can do it.  read more »

If there was anything remarkable about yesterday’s 10-6 loss to a profoundly mediocre Tennessee Titans team, it was the eerie similarity with which the usual events unfolded. Once again, the Jets found themselves in an eminently winnable game against a favored club. And once again, they self-destructed, throwing crippling interceptions, showing no credible running attack, allowing six quarterback sacks, missing field goals and extra points, and otherwise securing defeat where most clubs would have managed victory.  read more »

How ironic that on a night that Tiki Barber used halftime to revisit his stinging comments regarding Eli Manning’s leadership last August, the Giants lost 22-10 in a game in which they needed him the most.  read more »

If the Jets had an eye on the second-greatest upset in franchise history yesterday afternoon, the stars were aligned. The weather was terrible; the field in Gillette Stadium was drenched; their spirits were high. And after the Patriots’ first drive ended in a rare punt, that faint glimmer of hope grew brighter.  read more »

As the Jets wind down the latest installment in a long line of disappointing seasons, one thing is certain: never before has the organization’s chronic incompetence come so clearly in focus as it figures to be on Sunday afternoon, when it will be juxtaposed with the arrant perfection of the best NFL team in a decade.  read more »

Anything is possible, says that old adage about “any given Sunday.”

But this isn’t Sunday, it’s Thursday, Thanksgiving, a holiday the 9-1 Dallas Cowboys have celebrated over the years with a 24-14-1 record.

While the odds aren’t exactly in the Jets’ favor, it should be some small comfort that there was nothing but skepticism about their chances against the Steelers last week—until they pulled off their 19-16 overtime upset. The Jets need to repeat that performance, and then some, against Dallas.  read more »

Despite the team’s 1-8 record, there may yet be some good to come out of this season for the Jets.  read more »