FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets' offense appeared on their way toward the efficient, high-scoring and productive force they fully expected they'd be this season.
A lot has certainly changed in the last three weeks.
After an offensive outburst in a dominant 24-3 victory over New England on Sept. 19, the Jets have been stymied in losses to Denver and Minnesota. The 40-year-old Rodgers has been banged up, the offensive line has been leaky and the running game has disappeared.
Robert Saleh was fired as coach on Tuesday after a 2-3 start and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett was demoted from play calling duties by interim coach Jeff Ulbrich. Now it's Todd Downing's turn to try to jumpstart the struggling offense.
"It’s definitely a unique week,” Downing said Friday. “I’ve been in this profession for a long time and you think you’ve gone through a lot of different experiences — and this one was certainly a new one.”
The 44-year-old Downing is the Jets' passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach, titles he retains in the shakeup on offense. While Hackett also keeps his coordinator title, Downing's vision and style will mark New York's offense, starting Monday night against Buffalo.
“Getting an opportunity like this, which is an incredible opportunity, definitely came with a bittersweet taste because I love that man, I love his family,” Downing said of Hackett. "I think the world of him as a coach, I think even more of him as a person and a friend.
“And so, a lot of different emotions go through your brain. But obviously, it’s an unbelievable opportunity and I’m excited to do my best to help.”
Downing is a longtime NFL assistant who had stops with several teams before joining Saleh's staff in New York last season. He had stints as an offensive coordinator with the Raiders in 2017 and Titans from 2021 to 2022.
“For every Tennessee offense that I ever went against when Todd was the play caller there,” Ulbrich said, “they were tough, they were ruthless, they finished, they ran the ball, they played on their terms.”
That's what Ulbrich wants to see from the Jets' offense with Downing running things.
New York ranks 27th overall in the league in offense and last in rushing. That's despite having Breece Hall, who entered the season considered one of the NFL's all-round running backs. He's averaging just 3 yards per carry, a far cry from his 4.5-yard average.
“First of all, this team does have a strong run game,” Downing said. “We just haven’t seen it come to fruition consistently enough. Secondly, I think there have become times where you can find people pressing a little bit because there’s an expectation for production and when it’s not met, you can feel a sense of urgency.
“But I believe our guys are ready to answer the bell and make the quarter-turn adjustments we need to make to get this thing on track.”
While completely overhauling the system in the middle of the season isn't ideal, Downing said there are ways to adjust.
“I think each week as you prepare for the defense you’re going against, you look for ways to create advantages,” he said. “You look for ways to put stress on the defense. Sometimes that will involve motion and sometimes that could involve unique formations, things like that. I think it’s going to be a week by week basis.”
Rodgers is also coming off his worst start with the Jets after throwing three interceptions against Minnesota in London, including one returned for a touchdown and another that sealed the loss in the closing moments.
“In a two-decade career, he has very few blips on the radar,” Downing said. “And I know that Aaron himself has said that the last couple of weeks aren't up to standard. But that does not necessarily sound an alarm. He knows how to prepare. He knows how to diagnose defenses. He knows how to run the show on offense. And that’s what we’re anticipating this week.”
Rodgers and Hackett are close from their days together in Green Bay, but Rodgers publicly supported Ulbrich's decision to change things on offense, saying he has "a great relationship" with Downing.
“I want to be an open book to how I can best serve him,” Downing said, "and every one of our players.”
Downing's Titans offenses were middle of the pack in his first season, when running back Derrick Henry was injured, and then were 30th overall in his second, when quarterback Ryan Tannehill was hurt.
He was fired after that season — which was also marked by a midseason arrest for speeding and driving under the influence — and the Titans had many of the same issues the Jets' offense is facing now: poor play calling, bad line play and lack of production.
“I think we’re all a product of our life experiences,” Downing said. “So I’ve always tried to be reflective first as I’ve gone through different opportunities as they’ve come and gone in my career. So I hope I’m wiser, I hope I’m sharper. And I hope I have the opportunity to showcase the experiences that I’ve accumulated over the years.”
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FILE - New York Jets passing game coordinator Todd Downing walks the field before an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
Florida residents began repairing damage from Hurricane Milton, which smashed through coastal communities and tore homes to pieces, flooded streets and spawned a deadly tornadoes.
At least nine people are dead, but many expressed relief that Milton wasn’t worse.
Follow AP’s coverage of tropical weather at https://apnews.com/hub/hurricanes.
Here’s the latest:
FEMA Deputy Director Erik Hooks said he believes reforms implemented at the start of this year have allowed for greater and faster access to disaster aid compared to years past.
“What we have seen is with our changes in our (individual assistance) program is really to break down the complexity, and we really went through a lot of internal work to make sure that we are truly meeting people where they are,” Hooks said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“The ability to have upfront money put in people’s hands who have applied for assistance, and to get them jump started on the recovery for those immediate needs, things that are really life-sustaining to be able to get water make medicines that look like that, I think they have a positive impact on those communities, especially those communities where those are cash strapped to begin with, and then suffer the impacts of the storm,” he added.
President Joe Biden said ahead of a Friday briefing about hurricane damage that estimates are that Hurricane Milton alone caused $50 billion of damage. He also said his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, is “just the biggest mouth” for disinformation about the government’s response.
The president added that the disinformation is a “permanent state of being for some extreme people,” but that he belives the country as a whole wants facts and bipartisan cooperation to address natural disasters.
An apartment complex in Clearwater was evacuated early Thursday when water from a canal started rising.
Residents were gathered in a shopping center parking lot as crews worked to clear the property Friday.
Jared Lynch, 32, said he was at home on his first floor apartment when the water started to rise Wednesday night.
“It wasn’t that bad at 10 o’clock, but that’s when it started rising,” he said, adding that by 2 a.m., the water was up to his doorknobs. That’s when he left.
“There were literally people walking through the water with baskets on their heads. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Lynch said.
But Deanne Criswell says FEMA will need additional funding at some point.
Criswell says the agency is keeping account every day of how much they’re drawing from the disaster assistance fund. That’s a pot of money allocated specifically to help the agency respond to emergencies across the country.
The fund gets replenished every year by Congress and is used to pay for recovery from hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other disasters.
Congress recently replenished the fund with $20 billion — the same amount FEMA got last year. About $8 billion of that is set aside for recovery from previous storms and mitigation projects.
Criswell says the fund won’t have enough money to last through the entire fiscal year, which stretches to September of next year. She says at some point, they’ll have to go back to Congress to ask for a boost to the disaster relief fund.
“We will need one. It’s just a matter of when,” she said.
Mayor Lynne Matthews spoke at a news conference Friday with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and the city’s manager, Gregory B. Murray.
Matthews says 121 people had to be rescued after Hurricane Helene made landfall Sept. 26 but rescuers only had to save three people after Milton came through.
“So people listened to the evacuation order,” Matthews said.
“I know we had teams out with the megaphones going through all of our mobile home communities and other places to let people know that they needed to evacuate,” she said.
Bruce Kinsler, 68, was part of a Polk County “push crew” that began clearing roads before 6 a.m. on Thursday. A truck struck Kinsler as he and a coworker were trying to clear a tree that had fallen across the road as the storm passed through the area. The driver of the truck was a county employee who was arriving to join Kinsler for post-storm recovery work.
“The tragedy of this incident is compounded by the fact that Bruce Kinsler was killed serving the residents of this county,” said Bill Braswell, chairman of the Polk County Commission. “We ask a lot of the employees as public servants, and they respond to the call. For this to happen is just a tragedy.”
The White House announced Biden’s visit but did not detail exactly where the president will travel.
Biden was scheduled to be briefed by aides Friday afternoon on the federal response and recovery in the aftermath of Hurricanes Milton and Helene. He’ll then deliver remarks from the White House to update the public about those efforts.
One of those Friday was a large pig stuck in high water at a strip mall in Lithia, FLorida, which is east of Tampa. Cindy Evers led the rescue of the pig and she’s also saved a donkey and several goats.
The animals are being taken to Evers’ farm for the time being.
“I’m high and dry where I’m at and I have a barn and nine acres,” she said. “So we have plenty of room for these animals to be safe.” Evers said she’ll figure out next steps later, such as finding the animals' owners.
Gov. DeSantis noted interactions with downed power lines and water.
“We are seeing hazards that are still there,” he said. He said people should take care around standing water and should use generators properly.
“You have to make the proper decisions and know that there are hazards out there,” he said.
Human-caused climate change intensified deadly Hurricane Milton ’s rainfall by 20 to 30% and strengthened its winds by about 10%, scientists said in a new flash study. The analysis comes just two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated the southeastern United States, a storm also fueled by climate change.
World Weather Attribution researchers said Friday that without climate change, a hurricane like Milton would make landfall as a weaker Category 2, not considered a “major” storm, instead of a Category 3.
WWA’s rapid studies aren’t peer-reviewed but use peer-reviewed methods. The WWA compares a weather event with what might have been expected in a world that hasn’t warmed about 1.3 degree Celsius since pre-industrial times.
▶ Read more about how climate change affected Milton.
Only authorized personnel are allowed on the bases. There was damage and flooding at MacDill, which is home to U.S. Central Command and Special Operations Command.
There's no significant damage at Patrick and teams are working to restore critical infrastructure, according to the Air Force.
The river is 25 miles (40 kilometers) long and runs from eastern Hillsborough County, east of Tampa, into Tampa Bay.
The sheriff’s office asked people to call 911 if they need help getting out of their homes.
A pair of unwelcome and destructive guests named Helene and Milton have stormed their way into this year’s presidential election.
The back-to-back hurricanes have jumbled the schedules of Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, both of whom devoted part of their Thursdays to tackling questions about the storm recovery effort.
The two hurricanes are forcing basic questions about who as president would best respond to deadly natural disasters, a once-overlooked issue that has become an increasingly routine part of the job. And just weeks before the Nov. 5 election, the storms have disrupted the mechanics of voting in several key counties.
A pick up drives past a guard gate on a flooded street in Siesta Key, Fla., following the passage Hurricane Milton, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
FILE - People are rescued from an apartment complex after flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Oct. 10, 2024, in Clearwater, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)
FILE - A house sits toppled off its stilts after the passage of Hurricane Milton, alongside an empty lot where a home was swept away by Hurricane Helene, in Bradenton Beach on Anna Maria Island, Fla., Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
