An inside look at Sunday’s Jets-Seahawks Week 17 matchup in Seattle.

Jets QB Mike White vs. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll

White is 1-2 in his three starts this season, but there is no question the offense has looked light years better with him operating it instead of Zach Wilson. Now, White enters new territory. This is a huge game with massive playoff implications. Win and the Jets will stay alive. Lose and they will miss the playoffs for the 12th straight year.

“We all have a tremendous opportunity,” White said. “Football is the ultimate team sport. It’s never going to fall on one person. It’s never going to fall on one side of the ball. It’s a collective effort. By no means do I think I need to go in there and do anything out of the ordinary. I need to just play my game and get the playmakers the ball and help this team try to move the ball and win these last two.”

On the other sideline is Carroll, the former Jets head coach who made his name devising defensive plans. The Seahawks are not a strong defense. They rank 29th in the NFL and are giving up an average of 373.4 yards per game. But they are fighting for their playoff lives, too, and you can expect Carroll to throw some things at White that he is not expecting.

Both of these teams have everything to play for with their playoff hopes still alive. Geno Smith gets to face his old team, and Mike White gets to audition for 2023. The Jets have been broken for a while now, and I can’t see White fixing everything for them. Smith lands a knockout punch on the Jets season.

Seahawks 27, Jets 23

Geno’s revenge: Long before the Jets went through their current Zach Wilson drama at quarterback, there was the Geno Smith drama at quarterback. Smith, the Jets’ 2013 second-round pick, started for two seasons before a teammate’s punch broke his jaw ahead of the 2015 season and essentially ended his time with the Jets.

Smith bounced around as a backup for the next few years before reviving his career this season with the Seahawks. Smith made the Pro Bowl this year and has set himself up for a payday as a free agent this offseason. He has completed 71 percent of his passes and has 27 touchdown passes.

Now, Smith can end the Jets’ playoff hopes this week.

“They’re really, really talented,” head coach Robert Saleh said, “and when you put in a veteran quarterback like him, you can see he’s grown so much with the ability to process, get the ball out of his hands, he can go off-schedule. He looks very comfortable and confident back there. You can see that he’s really taken off, and he’s comfortable in his surroundings and playing at a very high level.”

Kid corners: The Jets and Seahawks have the best two rookie cornerbacks in the NFL. The Jets’ Sauce Gardner and the Seahawks’ Tariq Woolen are leading candidates to win Defensive Rookie of the Year. Woolen is tied for the NFL lead with six interceptions. Gardner only has two interceptions but has been great in coverage. It will be an interesting day to see them both on the same field.

“They’re both playing really well,” Saleh said. “Tariq has been playing really well. He’s a big, fast, long young man, very similar in the mold as Sauce. He’s doing a fantastic job. They’re doing a great job of putting him out there and letting him go play. It’s rare to come out and have the amount of success that they’re having. These are two corners that are going to be successful for a very long time.”

Open and close: The Jets offense has struggled in many areas this year, but the way they have opened games has to be near the top of the list. The Jets have scored just one touchdown on their first drive of a game this season. They have punted 11 times, kicked two field goals and had an interception on the other ones. The Jets have only scored two touchdowns in the first quarter all season.

“I’m not going to sit up here and make excuses, it starts with me,” offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said. “I got to figure out better ways to get our guys going, starting fast. I feel good when we are able to get our adjustments going and stuff like that, but we’ve got to start better, there’s no doubt.”

Road kill: The Jets might be happy that their home schedule is over and they get to finish the season with two road games. They went 3-5 at home this season. They started out the season 4-0 on the road, but have lost the past three. That three-game road losing streak has come when nothing has been going well.

The Jets have lost their past three games in Seattle, including a 40-3 blowout in 2020. The last time the Jets won in Seattle was Bill Parcells’ first game as Jets coach when they won, 41-3, in 1997.