The New York Jets might not do well in 2017. Saying this amounts to saying "'Citizen Kane' is a good movie" or "the Patriots are decent at football."
In Las Vegas, they take the Jets tank seriously. When your roster consists of quarterbacks Josh McCown, Christian Hackenberg and Bryce Petty, it's only natural that your projected wins won't be high. However, Vegas has the Jets set at an impossibly low win total of 3.5 -- and bettors are still still leaning toward the under.
The Jets are the only team that isn't favored in any of its games. According to Sportsbook.ag, they're currently at under 3.5 -120. It's even worse at the Westgate Superbook, where the line is under 3.5 -145. All of this to say: People think that the Jets are going to run away in the race for whichever quarterback draws buzz in the 2018 NFL Draft.
The updated totals come after the Jets traded Sheldon Richardson in order to dump his salary. Also, for some context, the Browns and 49ers are both sitting at 4.5 wins, although Cleveland is at over 4.5 -170 and San Francisco is at over 4.5 -175. The Bills are giving the Jets a run for their under money, and they're at 6.5 wins (they're currently at -135 in favor of the under). It tends to be a bit scary when oddsmakers and bettors are in agreement, but that's the Jets: Always bringing people together.
All hope isn't lost. It probably is for this season, but the Jets have now unloaded an upcoming huge payday in Richardson and they're taking the Browns approach to the draft: stockpiling draft picks and rebuilding on their own terms. Now, of course, they need to draft well, but at the moment it all comes down to taking it a step at a time. The Jets will be bad this year, that much is accepted, but they needed to start thinking about the future, which is what they did. They might not even want to win four games this year, if their offseason moves are any indication. However, for all of the criticism around "soft rebuilding" that teams sometimes do, the Jets are leaning into it. Now they just need to make it count in the future.