The New York Jets have already made real changes to the roster as Aaron Glenn heads into his second season, but some fans are apparently racing ahead to 2027 - and hoping 2026 turns into a full-blown wreck.
That’s the strange corner of Jets fandom on display right now: a loud group online that seems less interested in progress than in a collapse severe enough to land the No. 1 pick. The idea, apparently, is that misery now will somehow be worth it later.
It’s a familiar argument. Jets fans have seen the No. 2 pick in a loaded quarterback draft before and still ended up with Zach Wilson.
So the instinct to believe the only path forward is a top quarterback pick paired with a young offensive coach makes some sense on the surface. The Bears and Jaguars are often held up as proof of that blueprint.
But it’s not the only way to build a winner, and the most recent Super Bowl was played between two defensive coaches, one journeyman quarterback who needed to be backed up for a few seasons, and one rookie who was a historical outlier in so many key areas.
The tanking crowd keeps coming back to the same refrain: the roster is fine, but the coach and quarterback are not. That’s not exactly a wild take. But there’s a difference between wanting better and rooting for the team to crater.
Wouldn’t it be better if Glenn actually looked like he could steer things in the right direction, and Smith delivered competent quarterback play after last season’s unwatchable dreck? Do fans really want another full year of that again? Was last season fun for anyone?
A bad 2026 would come with a real cost, too. If the Jets bottom out again and barely win, then all those young players fans were excited about in the 2026 NFL Draft, like Kenyon Sadiq or No. 2 pick David Bailey, probably would have underachieved because the team would have had so little success. The veteran additions people liked, including Demario Davis, would be gone.
And then there’s Garrett Wilson. He’s the team’s best player, and it’s fair to ask why he’d want to stick around after another losing season. Would fans really be fine with that if it meant losing one of the best Jets draft picks in recent memory?
There’s also a tendency among the pro-tank crowd to treat Glenn and GM Darren Mougey as if their jobs exist on separate tracks. Every move they dislike gets pinned on Glenn, while every move they like gets credited to Mougey. But after two putrid seasons, why would Mougey deserve a third?
At the same time, the alternative is right there. The Jets could be hoping the Colts, Cowboys, or Packers end up sending over a first-round pick depending on position. Why root for another collapse when that path exists?
The bigger issue is that the tankers seem convinced this roster is just a rookie quarterback and a young coach away from contending. That’s not what this is.
If the Jets stink again, the whole thing gets stripped down for parts. Rather than pushing for a winning season - winning, the whole point of football - some fans would rather sit in the same old role of laughingstock.
That’s exactly the kind of defeatist mood Aaron Glenn is trying to shake off. The “Same Old Jets” label has stuck for plenty of reasons, from the team’s habit of tripping over itself to the endless moaning that follows every setback.
The tanking mindset wants one more year of that, then a clean fix in the form of a new coach and rookie quarterback. All because they don’t like Glenn.
Imagine watching football that way.
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