The New York Jets scored a much-needed 31-21 win over the Denver Broncos in Week 5 after linebacker Quincy Williams and cornerback Bryce Hall combined to ice the game with just over 30 seconds left.
Very shortly after the game was over, the Jets’ social media team scored their own victory, trolling the “offseason champs” as they put it after the Broncos were seen as a potential contender after trading for head coach Sean Payton in the offseason and thinking he would reinvent quarterback Russell Wilson.
The Jets put their own spin on one of the latest memes swirling the internet that feature actor Kevin James. As you’ll recall, James played Payton in the 2022 movie Home Team, a movie telling the story of Payton coaching his 12-year-old son’s football team during his one-year suspension as a result of his role in the BountyGate scandal.
The Jets photoshopped a Broncos visor on James and captioned the photo “When you lose to the offseason champs.”
when you lose to the "offseason champs" pic.twitter.com/FzNIqGWZks
— New York Jets (@nyjets) October 8, 2023
The line comes from Payton’s comments in an interview this summer with Jarrett Bell of USA Today.
“It doesn’t happen often where an NFL team or organization gets embarrassed,” Payton said back in the summer. “And that happened here. Part of it was their own fault, relative to spending so much [expletive] time trying to win the offseason—the PR, the pomp and circumstance, marching people around and all this stuff.
“We’re not doing any of that. The Jets did that this year. You watch. Hard Knocks, all of it. I can see it coming.”
Payton can now see 1-4 as his record and the one win was overcoming a 21-point deficit against the Chicago Bears.
Somebody give the social media staff a raise.