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The New York Jets continued their bleak 2024 season with a 19-9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams at home in Week 16. The team fell to 4-11 while losing promising lineman Olu Fashanu to a serious-looking injury.
Fashanu is expected to miss the last two games of the regular season after going down with a foot injury in Sunday’s loss, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. The first-round rookie needed to be carted to the locker room halfway through the fourth quarter against LA.
While it was originally feared that Fashanu suffered an Achilles injury, which would keep him sidelined for most, if not all, of the 2025 season, Jets reporter Rich Cimini confirmed that the first-year tackle hurt his foot, not his Achilles. It’s a relatively small but significant break for New York.
The success rate of Joe Douglas’ final draft as the Jets’ GM is still being determined. However, he certainly appears to have hit on Fashanu. The 22-year-old Penn State standout was selected 11th overall in 2024. He’s played all 15 games for New York with seven starts this season. And Fashanu boasts above average grades as both a pass and run blocker.
While Rodgers has been sacked 33 times in 2024, 12th most in the league, the rookie lineman has only allowed one sack in 534 snaps this year. That places him in the top quarter of tackles in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus.
The Jets lost promising rookie tackle Olu Fashanu to a foot injury Sunday
The Jets were efficient in their ineptitude Sunday, making history as just the second team since 1940 to not punt in a game while failing to score 10 points. While New York was competitive in the first half of Week 16’s contest, taking a 9-6 lead into halftime, the team was unable to score in the final two quarters. And an Aaron Rodgers fumble late in the game allowed the Rams to take control.
It was a late-December win against the Rams that cost the Jets the first overall pick in the 2021 draft. New York came into that contest with an 0-13 record. But the surprise victory on the road over a playoff-bound Rams squad changed the draft landscape.
The Jets went 2-14 in 2020 while the Jacksonville Jaguars finished the season with a 1-15 record, securing the top pick in the upcoming draft. As expected, Trevor Lawrence was selected first. The Jets grabbed Zach Wilson second overall. That decision led the franchise to its current situation – playing out a lost season four years later with huge question marks surrounding the GM, coach and quarterback.
Of course, the Jets would probably be in this same spot if they had drafted Lawrence, assuming the rumors of staggering dysfunction are even half true. Either way, here they are, eliminated from the playoffs for the 14th consecutive season, the longest drought in professional sports.
The Jets will play for team culture and professionalism over the final two games of 2024. New York will travel to Buffalo in Week 17 to take on the Bills before wrapping things up on January 5 against the Miami Dolphins.
