Joseph Ossai’s ankle injury may have cracked open a much bigger opportunity for Nate Lynn, the Jets’ preseason buzz name who is now set to join the active roster.
Aaron Glenn said Friday that Ossai will not play against the Patriots in Foxborough. The veteran pass-rusher, who arrived from the Bengals in the offseason, has been limited to nine tackles in three games because of injuries. With Ossai sidelined, the Jets promoted Lynn ahead of Week 5, and while the team has not said how large his role will be, the chance is there for the former FCS All-American to finally get on the field.
Lynn’s path to this point has been a long one. He went undrafted in 2024 and signed with the Lions right away, only to see his rookie hopes wiped out by a preseason shoulder injury.
He stayed with Detroit, where he overlapped with Glenn in Glenn’s final season as the team’s defensive coordinator. That connection resurfaced this summer when the Jets needed help up front.
After moving to Tennessee last year, Lynn was waived by the Titans following April’s draft. Glenn and the Jets then brought him in, and Lynn made noise fast.
In his preseason debut, he had two sacks against the Steelers. He added another sack in the Snoopy Bowl, which had people wondering whether he might survive final cuts.
He didn’t, but the Jets kept him around on the practice squad for the first month of the season before signing him to the 53-man roster last week.
There’s at least a path to snaps here, even if Lynn isn’t likely to inherit Ossai’s exact workload. Ossai had been playing roughly 47.3 percent of the defensive snaps when healthy, but Lynn’s lack of NFL game experience suggests the Jets may ease him in.
The matchup could still be friendly. New England is expected to be without starting left tackle Will Campbell, and the Jets’ defense just came off an eight-sack performance.
Lynn is 24 now, and his last in-game action came in 2023. That wait has been long enough. Now the Jets and their fans finally get to see whether the hype from August was real.
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