After four weeks of the NFL season, the New York Jets have a better chance to make the playoffs then land the No. 1 pick in next spring’s draft.
Wait, say what?
Conventional wisdom over this summer held that the Jets were tanking this year, what with the team cutting ties with veterans such as Darrelle Revis, Eric Decker, Brandon Marshall, Nick Mangold and others. It seemed, to many pundits and fans, that the Jets were tanking and trying to get the top pick in the NFL Draft.
Except of course they sit here at 2-2 and have a winnable game going into Week 5.
According to FootballOutsiders.com, the Jets have a 12.7 percent chance of making the playoffs this year, a jump of 6.1 percent following last Sunday’s win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. But for a team that entered the season not favored in any game and picked by some popular sports talking heads to go 0-16, it is a remarkable job to be competitive and win games.
The Jets now have just a 1.4 percent chance to get the top overall pick in the NFL Draft (the eighth best odds in the league according to FootballOutsiders.com) and just a 22.8 percent chance at a top-five pick. Both numbers have dropped over last week, a sign of their recent form and two-game winning streak.
Ironically across town, the New York Giants, a popular preseason pick to win the NFC East and contend for the Super Bowl, now have an 8.4 percent chance at the No. 1 pick as well as just slightly over 50 percent odds at a top-five pick.
The Giants have just a 1.5 percent chance to make the playoffs after their 0-4 start to the year.
