Sunday’s meeting between the Jets and Patriots lands with plenty of baggage and a few fresh storylines, too.
It will be the 135th time New York and New England have lined up against each other, and the Patriots still hold the edge in the series at 77-56-1. That 77-win mark is the second-highest total one team has piled up against another, trailing only New England’s 81 victories over Buffalo.
So much of that gap traces back to the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick years. From 2001, when Brady became the starter, through 2024, Belichick’s final season coaching the Patriots, New England went 38-10 against the Jets.
The rivalry’s most famous turning point came early in that run. On September 23, 2001, Jets linebacker Mo Lewis hit Drew Bledsoe as he ran toward the sideline, and Brady stepped in. The Patriots lost that game 10-3, then went on to build toward their first Super Bowl title.
The two teams also tangled in the postseason twice during the Brady era. New England beat New York in the 2006 wild-card round, and four years later the Patriots were shocked by Mark Sanchez in the divisional round. Their history stretches even further back than that, including a 1985 meeting during New England’s run to its first Super Bowl appearance.
One of the rivalry’s most memorable regular-season games came in 1997, when Bill Parcells returned to New England on the opposite sideline just nine months after leading the Patriots to an AFC Championship. The Patriots won 27-24 in overtime, and Curtis Martin carried the ball 40 times for 199 yards. The next season, Martin joined Parcells with the Jets.
Then there was September 9, 2007. New England beat the Jets 38-14, but the game became infamous for something far bigger than the final score. The controversy around Belichick’s Patriots led to the term SpyGate, along with record-setting fines and the loss of a first-round pick.
Now both teams are in a new era, with Mike Vrabel and Aaron Glenn beginning their tenures in 2025. The Patriots swept the season series a year ago, winning by a combined 69-24.
There’s also a bit of roster overlap to keep in mind. New England currently has four offensive linemen on the roster or reserve who once played for the Jets: Greg Van Roten, Morgan Moses, Alijah Vera-Tucker, and Xavier Newman-Johnson. Former Patriots offensive tackle Chukwuma Okorafor is now with New York.
Geno Smith, in his second stint with the team that originally drafted him, knows the Patriots well. As a starting quarterback, he is 2-4 against New England, and he beat them in back-to-back games in 2024 with the Seahawks and in 2025 with the Raiders.
Both teams are leaning on young talent as they try to climb higher. The Jets have built a new-look core after trading cornerback Sauce Gardner and defensive linemen Quinnen Williams, then stacking six first-round picks in two straight drafts, 2026-27.
Garrett Wilson and Will McDonald IV are already established impact players, while this past draft brought EDGE David Bailey, who went fourth overall and already ranks in the top five in the NFL with five sacks. New York also added WR Omar Cooper Jr. and TE Kenyon Sadiq with its other first-round picks, and second-round CB D'Angelo Ponds has shown promise.
The Patriots’ recent first-round haul looks strong as well. Christian Gonzalez just became the highest paid cornerback in the league, and Drake Maye was runner-up for MVP last season. Will Campbell and Caleb Lomu are part of the rest of a four-season rebuild built around first-round talent.
New England also has help coming from players it developed itself, including EDGE Gabe Jacas, S Craig Woodson, and RB TreVeyon Henderson.
With the Patriots sitting second and the Jets third in the division, Sunday’s game could end up shaping the AFC East picture.
In Other News...
Elijah Ponder Is Changing The Patriots Pass Rush Conversation
When the Patriots rebuilt their edge-rush picture this offseason, the attention mostly went to the bigger moves, including the addition of DreMont Jones and the expectation that rookies Gabe Jacas and Elijah Ponder would have to grow up quickly at outside linebacker. With Harold Landry sidelined, the early concern was obvious enough: whether New England had enough depth to keep the pass rush from sputtering. Ponder has helped answer that in a hurry, turning what looked like a vulnerable spot into one of the more encouraging parts of the defense.
The most recent sign came against the Raiders, where Ponders disruption stood out enough to draw league-wide notice from Pro Football Focus. He has been showing up with sacks, tackles for loss and a forced fumble, all while making the Patriots look a lot more comfortable about their edge rotation than they did in the spring. For a team still sorting out its post-rebuild identity, that kind of emergence matters, even if the larger question around how far this pass rush can go is still hanging out there. [Read more 🡒]
Patriots May Have Already Won Big With This Criticized Signing
When the Patriots brought in Alijah Vera-Tucker in free agency after spending their first-round pick on Caleb Lomu, the move came with a fair amount of skepticism. Vera-Tuckers injury history made him an easy target for second-guessing, but through the early stretch of his Patriots tenure, he has looked like one of the most reliable pieces on the offensive line and has helped steady a group that needed it.
The workload is about to get a little heavier, too, with Will Campbell sidelined by a knee injury. Vera-Tucker will be asked to handle more responsibility in the days ahead, and his next assignment will be a tough one, with a matchup looming against Jets rookie edge rusher David Bailey. For a signing that was criticized at the start, the Patriots may already be seeing why it made so much sense. [Read more 🡒]
Patriots Face A Familiar Cornerback Question They Can't Ignore
The Patriots were already thin at cornerback when injuries stacked up against the Raiders, leaving the group scrambling with multiple starters and backups unavailable. New England responded by elevating safety Elliott Davison for depth and bringing rookie Al'zillion Hamilton onto the practice squad, but he was not yet active, which only underlined how quickly the room can get stretched when the injuries start piling up.
One familiar name has also re-entered the conversation after a recent roster move in Dallas, and it is the kind of transaction the Patriots tend to monitor closely when a position gets this shaky. With the secondary banged up and the depth chart under pressure, New England has a choice to make about whether to look outside the building for another answer or trust the patchwork approach a little longer. [Read more 🡒]