For a fleeting moment, the New York Jets clung to the slimmest of playoff hopes. Right until a rough 34-10 loss to the Miami Dolphins made their inevitable elimination official. For a team that spent the offseason talking about turning the corner, it was a deflating way to watch another year slip by. And you could hear that frustration in Breece Hall’s voice.

Asked about missing the postseason yet again, Hall didn’t hide how much it wears on him.

“It’s a yearly thing, it definitely starts to weigh on you. At the end of the day, you start to look at yourself. You see your peers, and you see other guys that you’re just as good as, if not better than, and they get to just have a lot of fun.”

The Jets’ playoff drought officially hit 15 seasons on Sunday. That loss to Miami only confirmed what their 0–7 start had suggested back in October. But the way it ended still stung.

Once again, the Jets stand alone with the longest active postseason drought in North American men’s sports, across the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and MLS. For years, they’ve traded that dubious title with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, who are at 14 seasons. And it’s not just the absence of playoff football that’s exhausting; it’s how lifeless they’ve looked for most of the season.

That, more than anything, is what eats at Hall. It hasn’t been fun. And it’s not because he didn’t produce. Hall ranks top-10 in carries and top-12 in rushing yards, doing everything he could behind an offense that consistently sputtered. Still, he didn’t sound defeated. He insisted the Jets can build something under Aaron Glenn.

Hall said, “With AG here, I see the vision, and I see how things are changing around. We’ve just got to be better as a team and go out and execute what the coaches are coaching us to do.”

Hall still believes in the direction. Glenn, though, made it clear he’s blaming this one on himself.

Aaron Glenn points fingers at himself

The Jets were bad across the board on Sunday, and while some of that lands on Aaron Glenn, it’s hardly all on him. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor, making just his third start, lasted all of six plays before a groin injury forced him out. That put rookie third-stringer Brady Cook, who threw two picks, into his first NFL action with the Jets already down 21–0.

Still, Glenn put the loss on himself.

“This game was definitely disappointing. Really hard to try and put this in words,” Glenn said after the loss. “I didn’t have these guys ready to play.”

Linebacker and captain Jamien Sherwood didn’t buy that.

“As a leader, that’s what leaders tend to do,” Sherwood said of Glenn. “I just feel like as a coach, he did what he needed to do this week. He gave us the keys to victory. We had a great week of practice. He set us up in the right formations. All our position coaches did what they had to do.”

Sherwood added that once the players step onto the field, there’s no more coaching to lean on. Glenn can’t save them between the lines. And for all the Jets’ struggles this season, Glenn can take something from moments like that. The locker room still trusts him, perhaps for good reason.

A coach doesn’t trade away stars like Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams at the deadline unless he’s committed to a long-term plan, and Glenn is. Now he’ll have to make good on it. With all the draft capital they’ve stockpiled, the turnaround has to start soon.