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With their victory today, the Cleveland Browns clinched their first Playoff berth since 2002. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers clinched their first Playoff berth since 2007 last week. That leaves the Jets with the longest postseason drought in the NFL, and their absence is double the length of the next closest team.
The NFL's two longest playoff droughts—Clevleand's and Tampa's—were snapped this year. That leaves the Jets' 10-year drought as the NFL's longest.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 3, 2021
And now 31 of the 32 teams have been to the playoffs at least once since 2015.
It takes a lot of bad football and bad decisions to get to this point.
Of course there is a silver lining. The successes of Tampa Bay and especially Cleveland show that a down on its luck franchise can turn things around.
The Jets have a tremendous amount of Draft capital and salary cap space. They also have a general manager who for some of his early personnel mistakes is widely respected across the league.
After a decade of false starts, can the Jets climb out from this mess? It might come down to whether ownership will finally let a football guy run the team without interference.