Some people are fans of the New York Jets. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the New York Jets. This 2026 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here.

Your team: New York Jets.

Your 2025 record: 3-14. And if you think that getting beaten by Aaron Rodgers to begin the 2025 campaign was the most humiliating thing these Jets could have possibly endured, then you’re not at all familiar with the New York Jets. Rodgers threw four touchdowns in that game, and led a game-winning drive that ended with Steelers kicker Chris Boswell nailing a 60-yarder with 1:03 left on the clock to put the Jets in the toilet. Oh and after the game, Rodgers said this to reporters on the scene:

“I was happy to beat everybody associated with the Jets.”

For any other NFL team, this would represent a spiritual nadir. For this assemblage of clowns, it was merely a tone-setter. The Jets would drop their next six games to open the season a putrid 0-7. They could only muster 154 yards of offense in a home loss to Buffalo. Then they lost to Tampa at the gun. Then they traveled to London, where the Denver Broncos sacked poor Justin Fields (Principal Rooney voice) nine times in a 13-11 loss that even British dentists couldn’t bear to witness. From there, GM Darren Mougey swiftly hit the Tank switch and traded away defensive cornerstones Sauce Gardner (to the Colts) and Quinnen Williams (to the Cowboys) in exchange for a handful of vets (including current WR2 and goal line shithead Adonai Mitchell) and oodles of the fabled draft capital. Cue the classic Mel Kiper clip:

That clip is from 1989. Nothing about the Jets drafting acumen has improved since. These guys would KILL to draft someone as good as Johnny Johnson again.

Back on the field, the 2025 edition lost their final five games of the season by a combined score of 188-54. The Jets were swept by the Patriots, as per ancient custom. In fact, they were swept by the entire AFC East. Spontaneous lobotomy victim Tua Tagovailoa torched them not once, but twice. And Buffalo didn’t even need Josh Allen to beat the unholy shit out of them in Week 18. Nope, the Bills let spiritual Jet Mitchell Trubisky onto the field for that meaningless tussle, and Trubes proceeded to post four touchdown passes.

Teams outside the division got in their licks, too. In a blowout loss to Jacksonville, Jags QB Trevor Lawrence scored six times. And 67-year-old Taysom Hill turned the clock back to throw a TD against the Jets in a beatdown at the hands of New Orleans. Somewhere in the middle of all of that losing, Fields was benched for America’s Favorite Backup, Tyrod Taylor, who instantly got hurt and gave way to QB3 Brady Cook. Brady Cook isn’t Brady Quinn, nor is he Connor Cook. But for all intents and purposes, he may as well be both.

From a bird’s eye view, the numbers are real ugly. The Jets' passing offense was nonexistent all season, averaging just 140 piddly-shit yards a game, worst in the league. They possessed the fourth-worst run defense in football last year, and only three teams gave up more explosive pass plays. Normally, shorthanded defenses can make up for their flaws by forcing turnovers. Let’s see how the Jets fared in that effort:

That’s right, America. Zero picks in 17 games. They did it. Not only that, only one team (Washington) recovered fewer fumbles last season. I want to puke, and now will.

[pukes]

Oh and Sam Darnold won the Super Bowl. Can’t tell you how happy I am for that guy.

Your coach: Still Aaron Glenn, who still sucks. When Detroit Lions fans get to crow “I told you so” about a coach, consider yourself owned lock, stock, and barrel. Glenn fired both of his coordinators this offseason, always a good sign that your rookie head coach knows what he’s doing. Your new offensive coordinator is rereretread Frank Reich, last seen going 11/17ths-and-done with the Panthers a couple of years ago. Your new defensive coordinator is Brian “The Duker” Duker, although Glenn himself will take over defensive play-calling heading into this season. I don’t need to tell you Jets fans that you’ve wasted your lives. You already know it, and you have elected to continue wasting them. It’s almost admirable, if Fireman Ed weren’t still alive. Boy I wish that guy would drop dead.

Your quarterback: Wanna know how dire the QB room in New York is? These Jets had to trade for Raiders castoff Geno Smith this offseason, just to make sure that Smith wouldn’t snub them after his otherwise inevitable release from Vegas. No other QB threw more picks than Geno last year. And you might be saying, “But Drew, that’s because the Raiders were a mess! They had no O-line and their coaching staff was populated by nothing but shitheads.” All of that is true. But motherfucker, who thinks that the Jets represent a circumstantial upgrade for this poor bastard? Last time Geno played in New York, he got his jaw broken by a teammate. His new teammates and coaches are here to finish what IK Enemkpali started.

Your backup, I think, is the hilariously named Cade Klubnik, drafted in the fourth round this spring after spending four years at Clemson destroying every last bit of Dabo Swinney’s football credibility. When your scouting profile is “the poor man’s Carson Beck,” the New York Jets are your destiny. Brady Cook must be so relieved this idiot will get thrown to the wolves instead of him.

What’s new that sucks: Meet the new, powered by AI New York Jets!

"91 percent of the Jets’ front office now uses Microsoft Copilot on a day-to-day basis—up from 'a handful' about a hundred days ago—with users averaging two-to-three prompts per day."

I am a PC user. Whenever I open up Copilot on my desktop, it’s always by mistake. And I always go into a quiet panic when that window opens. No no no no no, I didn’t want this shit! Go away! Close! CLOSE RIGHT NOW! I feel attacked. Same feeling I get whenever the Jets pop up on Red Zone.

Anyway, Copilot must have told the Jets that stockpiling draft capital is the way to build a contender, because none of the corporeal beings inside of Florham Park would have come up with that idea on their own. So, flush with three first-round picks this past spring, they splurged on Texas Tech pass rusher David Bailey, Oregon TE Kenyon Sadiq, and Indiana WR Omar Cooper. FUN FACT: The Jets also had three first-rounders at their disposal not but four years ago. Two of those players—Gardner and DE Jermaine Johnson—are no longer on the roster. The third, WR Garrett Wilson, just signed an extension with the team that he will surely come to regret, if he doesn’t regret it already. So let me predict the future of this latest crop of blue chippers right now.

Bailey: Will be very good and, in accordance with the Jets’ DL history, will beg to be traded away the moment he becomes disgruntled with how this franchise conducts business (November).

Sadiq: Combine workout warrior who’ll bust out, Kyle Pitts–style.

Cooper: Will be mildly productive until he’s forced into the WR1 role after Wilson goes the full Brandon Aiyuk.

Find me a Jets fan, one who actually graduated high school, who would disagree with those prognostications. You don’t get credit for staging a pretty smartly done teardown/rebuild gambit when you executed that plan by selling off the players from your last smartly done teardown/rebuild gambit. Trump did a better job rebuilding the Reflecting Pool than these clowns will do rebuilding a football team.

Speaking of President Fankles, let’s see how his buddy Woody Johnson handled the PR game last season:

"It's hard when you have a quarterback (Fields) with the rating that we've got. He has the ability, but something's just not jiving. But if you look at any head coach with a quarterback like that, you're going to see similar results across the league."

Can’t believe this man got an F from his own players on the annual NFLPA report card. We’ve had our fun with Brick Johnson here at Defector, but keep in mind that Woodrow up there was ALSO a Brick Johnson once upon a time. He didn’t earn his wealth, nor his stewardship of this franchise. He was just an asshole rich kid who grew up to be an asshole old guy. Woody is Brick. Brick is Woody. The world is shit.

As for the rest of the roster, Mougey attempted to buttress the defense this offseason by bringing in DT David Onyemata, LB Demario Davis, EDGE Joseph Ossai, DT T’Vondre Sweat, CB Nahshon Wright, S Dane Belton, and EDGE Kingsley Enagbare. On average, these men are older than Woody himself. Meanwhile, the team handed RB Breece Hall, who gets hurt a lot, a fat extension. And yet, there’s no one on hand to throw the fucking ball. I’d make less of a mess shitting myself.

What has always sucked: No winning season in over a decade. An ownership bloodline that needs to be deliberately choked off, a la Hitler’s. And Mike Greenberg is the team’s most visible fan. If 9/11 happens again, I hope the planes fly directly into Mike Greenberg.

What might not suck: You guys had AMAZING special teams last season. Job well done!

HEAR IT FROM JETS FANS!

Connor:

We are so completely out of ideas that we've gone back to Geno Smith.

Dave:

We’re where veteran quarterbacks go to be put into hospice.

Chet:

Jets fans are starting to feel some optimism (seriously!) because, between this year and next, we have six first round picks and are top-five in projected cap space going into 2027. Awesome. However, this same situation existed in 2021, when we had we first round draft picks across the next two years (only one is currently left on the team) and you guessed it, the second most cap space. They've won 26 games in those intervening five years. This is the carousel from hell.

Eric:

Last week I saw a man in a shirt that said "Play like a Jet" and I laughed because that's the absolute last thing I would want to emulate. Fuck my team.

Gil:

The most fun I had all season was when I was at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Texas watching the Jets beat the Bengals. But that game wasn't the fun part. I was sitting mere feet from an Eagles fan who was decked out in gear that included a replica helmet and championship belt, who was taunting the Cowboys fans near him and would periodically screech like an eagle. THAT was the best part of my time there.

David:

I love Geno Smith. Fuck all those fans who hated on him. I never hopped off the bandwagon. I always argued he got jobbed by an ass-ugly set of weapons when he was with us, I loved him breaking Eli's streak with the Giants, and I have been posting his Jesus pose meme nonstop since he revived his career with Seattle. I am thrilled he is our QB this year, it’s gonna be so fun.

Check back in with me when he throws 30 INTs, racks up less than 2500 yards passing, and we go 3-14 (but still only garner the fifth pick in the draft somehow).

Adam:

Our best quarterback over the last quarter century had a weak arm even for a non-QB (Chad Pennington). Our quarterback with the best winning percentage (min five starts, 6-3 record) played special teams for his prior NFL team, and as a college QB at Rutgers had only one season with a winning record (Ray Lucas).

Nick:

The last Jets game I went to was on a rainy Monday night in September. My buddy and I drove through Manhattan from Brooklyn and almost got T-boned getting to the Lincoln Tunnel. Once we got to MetLife, we circled the stadium FOR HOURS looking for parking. On ramps, off ramps, and slack-jawed attendant after slack-jawed attendant pointed us away from the stadium.

Finally, after hours, we were directed to a parking garage. The game had started, so we turned on the radio as we slowly eased towards salvation. It was the Jets season opener. We'd made it. Unfortunately, it was September 11th, 2023. Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles while we were in the car. The season ended while we circled the parking lot.

I'm not a Knicks fan. This entire spring and summer I've tried to picture what it would feel like if the Jets ever went on a run like that. I can't. They won't. The city will never be captivated by this team. They haven’t made the playoffs since I was in high school. I'm 33 now.

Lennon:

The Jets had exactly one exciting moment in the 2022-2023 season, a miraculous come-from-behind victory against the Browns that included a recovered onside kick, a real rarity these days. Naturally, I missed the end of the game because Sunday Ticket shit the bed. DirecTV gave me a refund of $8.50 for the time the service was down, pro-rated to the fucking second. Even after that insult I kept paying those assholes for the rest of the season so I could ruin my Sundays watching this stupid god damn team. I’m the problem. It’s me.

William:

Imagine Sisyphus, but each time he only makes it a single step up the mountain before shitting himself and landing on his dick and balls.

I started looking up 2027 mock drafts in week 6 of last season

To the Raiders fan who said that Derek Carr is your best QB of the last 20 years: Ryan Fitzpatrick is ours, and it isn’t close.

We drafted Sauce Gardner, Garret Wilson, Jermaine Johnson, and Breece Hall in the same draft, and then proceeded to do literally nothing.

Jordan:

See you in three years hyping up 2030 QB prospects. At least the Knicks won the NBA Finals. KNICKS IN 5 BABY!!!

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