The trade for James Robinson signifies the Jets believe they are ready to win now
Jets general manager Joe Douglas during OTAs at Atlantic Health Jets Training Center in Florham Park, N.J. Credit: Noah K. Murray
The Jets could have gotten through the rest of this season without Breece Hall. They probably would have won some games and contended for a postseason slot, maybe even earned a playoff berth for the first time in over a decade. Their defense, their other options at running back, their yet-to-be-tapped passing game, their 5-2 start, all of those could have come together and probably made 2022 a fairly successful campaign. Something for them to build on.
But “fairly successful” is not what they are thinking about. Not this year.
In a refreshing change of philosophy, the Jets no longer seem willing to wait patiently for development and progress to come to them. Rather, they are reaching out to grab for what they want. The baby-step days of marking the team’s height on the living room wall to ooh and ahh over how much they have grown are over. They are making big-boy moves.
The swift decision by general manager Joe Douglas to acquire a replacement for Hall almost before the rookie running back came out of the MRI machine that showed his season-ending torn ACL on Monday is just the latest sign the Jets are all-in on making a huge push to win this year.
Trading for James Robinson from the Jaguars isn’t necessarily a blockbuster in terms of what they’re getting (a back with a 1,000-yard season as an undrafted rookie in 2020 who came back from a torn Achilles and became an afterthought in Jacksonville’s backfield behind Travis Etienne) or what they are giving up (a sixth-round pick that could become a fifth-rounder in April’s draft). This is not the 49ers shoveling picks to the Panthers to get Christian McCaffrey last week. In terms of the NFL landscape and the looming trade deadline next week that will spark further moves around the league, this was a subtle transaction.
What booms much louder is what it says to the locker room and the fan base. On a day when the most promising offensive player in recent years was lost to injury, the Jets didn’t even wait for the mournful headlines to be printed before reinflating their emotional balloon with fresh air.
Fresh hope.
It signals a proactive approach toward keeping this season on track toward its goal no matter the obstacles that get in the way. On what should have been the gloomiest day of the season for the Jets, Douglas was able to part the clouds.
Can Robinson be as productive as Hall was for the Jets? That’s hard to imagine. Hall was on his way toward an offensive rookie of the year title, maybe even a Pro Bowl nod. Through seven games he led the team in rushing attempts (80), yards (463) and touchdowns (four). He also has 218 receiving yards and a touchdown. Robinson has 340 rushing yardsthis season.
But Robinson doesn’t have to be the player Hall was. He just needs to pitch in. He and Michael Carter and Ty Johnson will share the burden that had increasingly fallen to Hall alone.
It’s what he stands for, what Robinson’s arrival in Florham Park means, that will echo more than what he will do on the field for the Jets. He’s become the latest symbol that the organization — that Douglas — is pushing forward to make the Jets a contender.
That’s always been the big-picture ambition the Jets strived for, or so they claimed. The difference is they are doing it with a focus on the now.
Perhaps there will be more such moves to come. Douglas has about a week left to make deals that will further set the course of this year’s team. He’s often busy at this time of the schedule (“Trader Joe” is a well-earned nickname), but in years past that has meant selling off assets to gain the capital for future building. Much of that has already gone toward revamping the roster and getting the Jets this far.
Giving them a well-timed nudge as he did on Monday is exactly the kind of move the Jets needed.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
