The New York Jets are back in training camp, but the outside temperature around this team is still pretty cold.
After a brutal 2025 season, the Jets are heading into the 2026 NFL campaign with plenty of skepticism attached to them. Even the decision to bring back head coach Aaron Glenn for another year raised eyebrows, and the roster they’re carrying into camp hasn’t done much to quiet the doubters.
That’s exactly why Kyle Brandt’s recent comments on Good Morning Football stood out. Brandt said he floated a segment idea that would have asked a simple question: can the Jets make the playoffs in 2026?
“I thought that the question should be, ‘How do the Jets get a Wild Card in 2026? Just a Wild Card?'
I was shot down on that suggestion for that being too unrealistic of a question to pose, and I'm not making this up. We had people on this staff like, ‘I don't know, that's a little crazy,'” he said, per his account on X, formerly Twitter.
That reaction says plenty about where the Jets are viewed right now. Brandt’s idea wasn’t even framed as a division-title prediction - just a Wild Card spot - and it still got treated like a reach.
Part of that comes from how New York handled last season’s trade deadline. The Jets effectively tore down pieces of the roster, sending Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts and Quinnen Williams to the Dallas Cowboys. That kind of move doesn’t exactly signal a team that the league expects to turn around overnight.
There is, at least, one reason to keep a sliver of possibility in the conversation: every NFL season seems to produce a surprise or two. A team can outrun its projections, catch a rhythm, and force everyone to rethink the script.
The Jets also brought back former franchise quarterback Geno Smith this offseason. But there’s uncertainty there too, especially after what was described as a brutal year last season with the Las Vegas Raiders.
So while Brandt may want to be taken seriously for suggesting a playoff question about the Jets, the broader football world doesn’t seem ready to meet him there just yet. For now, New York remains one of the league’s most skeptical watchouts as the season draws closer.
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