The New York Jets are 1-2, but that record doesn’t tell the whole story.
After a pair of one-score losses to the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions, it’s hard to lump the Jets in with the league’s true bottom feeders. They’ve had one of the tougher opening slates in football, and they’ve competed in both games. If a few breaks had gone their way, this could easily be a 3-0 team heading into a stretch that includes the Chicago Bears without their starting quarterback, the Cleveland Browns, a struggling New England Patriots team, and the Miami Dolphins, who are described as the worst team in football.
That’s why Pro Football Network’s recent ranking of the Jets at No. 29 feels harsh. Jacob Infante pointed to the improved look of the offense while also noting the defense slipped in Week 3 and that the 24 points New York scored weren’t enough in Sunday’s 31-24 loss to Detroit.
“Good news: the New York Jets’ offense looks a lot better than what we saw from them in 2025. Bad news: their defense regressed in Week 3, and their 24 points scored weren’t enough to overcome the Lions on Sunday. Their 31-24 loss dropped them to 1-2, with both of their losses coming in one-score games against NFC North teams.
“Geno Smith threw for 321 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions on Sunday, allowing the likes of Garrett Wilson and Kenyon Sadiq to put together strong games for the Jets. But New York’s defense couldn’t get the job done, and despite looking a lot better on tape, the team heads into Week 4 under .500,” Jacob Infante of PFN wrote.
The case against the ranking is pretty straightforward: there are 0-3 teams out there that have looked far worse than the Jets.
At the same time, there’s a familiar caution attached to all of this. Over the past couple of decades, New York has found itself in this same kind of spot before and hasn’t been able to push past the breaking point. If the Jets keep turning close games into losses, that conversation will only get louder.
In Other News...
Jets Suddenly Have A Real Nahshon Wright Problem In The Secondary
Nahshon Wrights start with the Jets has gone from low-key to hard to ignore. The veteran cornerback arrived on a $3.5 million guaranteed deal, but early in the season he has barely seen the field, and in a recent game he was a healthy scratch while rookie DAngelo Ponds got his first NFL action. For a team that is always trying to sort out the back end of its defense, that kind of usage says plenty about where Wright stands right now.
The bigger question is what comes next, because the Jets did not bring him in to be an afterthought. When a veteran corner is active in name only and a rookie is already getting a look, it naturally raises concerns about depth, roster construction and whether the team has another awkward cornerback situation developing. It is the sort of subplot that can linger for a while in New York, especially with the memory of former Jet Dmitri Patterson still offering a cautionary comparison. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Early Draft Returns Are Shaping One Big Makai Lemon Debate
The first month of the Jets 2026 draft class has already offered enough to start rethinking the board, especially with the front offices first-round investments at tight end and wide receiver drawing early attention. New York went with Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq at No. 16 overall and later added Indiana wideout Omar Cooper Jr. at No. 30, while USC receiver Makai Lemon went to Philadelphia a few spots ahead. With the season only a few games old, the early returns have given the Jets a workable case that their own path made sense.
Sadiqs breakout game, a 100-yard day with a touchdown, has helped steady the conversation, while Cooper has been slowed by injury but has still shown enough to remain part of the picture. Lemon, meanwhile, has had a modest start with the Eagles, and that has only sharpened the debate over whether the Jets should have gone in a different direction. For now, the team appears comfortable with how the draft board fell and how its choices have started to look. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Win Just Took On A Much Darker Meaning For Packers Fans
The Packers Week 2 loss to the Jets carried an added cost beyond the final score, because Jayden Reed is now headed to injured reserve with a neck injury suffered on the second play of that game. For Green Bay, it turns a routine early-season setback into something more serious, as one of its most important pass catchers now faces an extended absence with no return timeline attached.
Reeds absence forces the Packers to reshuffle both their roster and their game plan at a time when they were still settling in offensively. For Jets fans, the win already had the usual satisfaction of a Sunday result, but now it comes with a harsher afterglow for Green Bay, where the injury from that game has become the bigger story. [Read more 🡒]