The Jets are done with training camp, and now the hard part starts.
Even with Friday night’s preseason finale still on the schedule, the camp portion of the offseason is wrapped. From here, the roster gets trimmed, the tough calls begin, and a number of players will soon hear the kind of message nobody wants: “Coach wants to see you, bring your playbook”
Some will land somewhere else. Some will circle back to the practice squad.
Some will be forced to move on and hope for another shot next summer. That’s the reality of a league with only 32 teams at the top, where one bad cutdown day can send a player’s name drifting out of view.
Cade York was waived by the Jets on Saturday after losing the kicking battle to Jason Sanders, though the way it played out makes it sound more like York gave it away than Sanders truly won it. Even then, there’s still skepticism that Sanders will be the one handling kicks for the Jets on opening day.
That’s the unforgiving side of NFL life. In world football, a player can miss on one level and still find another door open - the Premier League, the Championship, France, Spain, Italy, the USA, the Gulf, Japan. In the NFL, missing cutdown day can mean vanishing almost completely.
The Jets, though, won’t have long to sit still. They’ll be digging through the waiver wire and trying to find the players who slipped through the cracks. They’re improved this year, but not elite, which makes other teams’ cut victims especially valuable to them.
And when it comes to the kicking situation, the search may not be over. The feeling here is that neither Cade York nor Jason Sanders is the answer.
Aaron Glenn has laid out the basic formula for getting this team pointed in the right direction: disrupt the quarterback, disrupt the receivers, attack the ball, and limit explosive plays. That’s the plan. Simple on paper, much tougher in practice.
Glenn has already said, “Big ships turn slow”, and the bigger truth is that the Jets need results now. Losing spreads.
It seeps into everything. Winning can change the mood of an entire building in a hurry.
There’s a reason that blueprint sounds familiar. Every team in the league wants those same things. But the Jets need them more than most, because the numbers from last season were brutal: 31st in sacks, 32nd in pressures generated, 32nd in turnovers, 32nd in passing touchdowns allowed, 29th in rushing defense yards per game, while giving up 15 runs of at least 20 yards and 57 passes of at least 20 yards.
So yes, the plan is easy to say out loud. The challenge is turning it into something real after a year that produced some truly ugly numbers.
Still, the Jets have made the changes they believe are needed to get that defense moving in the right direction.
In Other News...
Mason Taylor Just Gave Jets Fans A Reason To Dream Bigger
Training camp has offered the Jets a useful early look at one of the rosters most interesting matchups, with Minkah Fitzpatrick spending plenty of time lining up against rookie tight end Mason Taylor. Fitzpatrick arrived in New York after a March trade from Miami, and the veteran safety has already been part of the daily resistance Taylor has had to work through as he adjusts to NFL speed and coverage.
Taylor, who came into camp with a reputation for making tough catches in traffic, turned in a standout moment when he hauled in a contested grab over Fitzpatrick in a recent practice session. It was just one play in August, but it was the kind that gets attention because it came against one of the leagues better safeties in man coverage, and it gave the Jets a reminder of why they are so intrigued by what Taylor could become. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Secondary Buzz Could Force A Real Defensive Change
A few weeks into camp and the preseason, the Jets have started to show where some of their defensive experimentation could lead. Andre Cisco and Dane Belton have both flashed enough to put themselves in line for bigger roles, and Cisco helped his case further with an interception in a recent win. For a secondary built around versatility, that kind of depth can give Aaron Glenn more ways to mix and match personnel without losing speed on the field.
The next question is how far Glenn wants to push it once the games count. The Jets are expected to feature Cisco and Belton more prominently, potentially in three-safety looks alongside Minkah Fitzpatrick, which would be a notable tweak to the defensive packages. If those camp and preseason impressions carry over, the scheme could shift in a way that makes this secondary even harder to read, and thats the sort of adjustment opponents will have to account for quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Still Have Two Roster Holes Cutdown Day Could Finally Fix
As cutdown day approaches, the Jets are still scanning for help in two places that matter most when the season starts to get real: along the offensive line and behind center. One name to watch is Lucas Patrick, a veteran lineman with the Giants who is not expected to crack their final roster, but whose experience would give New York a more reliable option in the trenches if he hits the waiver wire.
The other possibility is Aidan OConnell, the Raiders quarterback who could become available and might fit as a veteran backup for the Jets. For a team trying to tighten up its depth before opening week, those are the kinds of pragmatic additions that can quietly matter, even if they do not change the headlines - at least not right away. [Read more 🡒]