The Jets will be reminded often this week about how long their playoff odds are at 1-4. Just 6 percent of the teams that have started a season 1-4 have made the playoffs since 1990, when the current playoff format was introduced.
But if the Jets can ignore the noise, they can take solace in knowing that two teams that started 1-4 last year made the playoffs. The 2015 Chiefs and Texans were staring at the same dismal start as the Jets and found a way to change their seasons.
The Texans did it by figuring out their quarterback situation after flip-flopping between Ryan Mallett and Brian Hoyer early on. They also rode pass rushers J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus, who combined for 29.5 sacks.
The Jets are not going to duplicate that model. They plan on sticking with Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Watt is not walking through the door.
Last year’s Chiefs are a better beacon of hope for the Jets.
Kansas City actually started the year 1-5 before winning 10 straight to make it to the playoffs, where they beat the Texans before losing to the Patriots. They made no seismic changes at midseason with their quarterback or coaching staff. Instead, a softening schedule and a rock-solid locker room sparked their turnaround.
That is the model the Jets now need to duplicate.
Lost in all of hand-wringing over Todd Bowles’ coaching, Ryan Fitzpatrick’s quarterbacking and the defensive backs allowing balls to fly over their heads is the fact the Jets have lost to some good teams. The Seahawks and Steelers are two of the best teams in football. Once the Jets get through the Cardinals this week, they face the Ravens, Browns, Dolphins and Rams — all games the Jets can win.
Mike DeVito, who began his career with the Jets, was a defensive end on the Chiefs last year before retiring this offseason. DeVito said the key to the Chiefs’ turnaround was their locker-room leadership. If the Jets are going to go on a winning streak like the Chiefs did, they can’t splinter as a team.
“This is the time you really have to come together as a team,” DeVito said by phone Tuesday. “The second somebody steps outside that family network and starts pointing fingers and complaining … once you’ve got that guy in the locker room, you’ve got issues.”

DeVito was on the 2011 Jets, a team coming off back-to-back AFC title game appearances that imploded, partly because of a bad locker room.
“We had a good team, adversity hit and we weren’t able to pull out of it,” DeVito said.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid stressed to the team to only worry about the next thing on the schedule — not the next team, the next thing.
“Whatever the next thing is on the schedule, we’re going to win at that thing,” DeVito said. “If that’s weight lifting, lunch, meeting rooms, practice — don’t worry about Sunday, don’t worry about the statistics, let’s win at everything we do. People say one day at a time, but we were literally taking it one event at a time.”
The Chiefs opened the season with seven of their first 11 games away from Arrowhead Stadium and faced six teams in their first seven weeks that eventually made the playoffs. Similarly, the Jets are on the road for six of their first nine games and face five teams that made the playoffs last year in their first six games. DeVito said seeing the schedule starting to let up can be a sign of hope for the team.
Once a team gets on a losing streak, the mentality changes. The Jets have to find a way out of the slump.
“What happens when you lose and that momentum builds, when things get tough in a game, instead of saying, ‘We know how to respond,’ you say, ‘Here we go again,’?” DeVito said. “You feel it on the sideline. That’s why it’s so important to get momentum going in the right direction early.”
All it can take is a win or two to turn a season around. The Chiefs did it last year with a win over the Steelers.
“It doesn’t take too much to get the momentum turned around,” DeVito said. “You win two games, now all of a sudden you’re feeling good and it starts rolling in the right direction.”
Will the Jets be able to rattle off 10 wins in a row? Probably not. But the 2015 Chiefs are proof it is not impossible.