The Jets are heading into 2026 with a lot more intrigue than respect, at least in the eyes of one NFL analyst.
Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport ranked New York as the fourth-worst team in the league, slotting the Jets ahead of the Miami Dolphins, Arizona Cardinals and Cleveland Browns. It’s not exactly flattering company, but it does come with a hint of optimism: this doesn’t sound like a team that’s destined to be the league’s punchline again.
That’s a meaningful shift after a rough 2025 season. The Jets became the first team in NFL history not to record a defensive interception and lose five straight games by 23 or more points within a single season. They finished Year 1 of the Aaron Glenn era with only three wins, a brutal start that left plenty of room for change.
Still, the roster has been reshaped. New York had a strong 2026 draft, adding David Bailey, Kenyon Sadiq, Omar Cooper Jr., D'Angelo Ponds, Darrell Jackson Jr., Cade Klubnik, Anez Cooper and VJ Payne. Before that, the Jets made a series of notable moves, bringing in Geno Smith from the Las Vegas Raiders, Minkah Fitzpatrick from the Miami Dolphins and T'Vondre Sweat from the Tennessee Titans, while also signing Demario Davis and Tim Patrick in free agency.
Davenport pointed to Bailey as one of the more interesting pieces of the puzzle and suggested the Jets could be in position to benefit from another difficult season if it leads to a major prize in the 2027 draft.
"Fans should find it fun to watch the offense evolve-and seeing what second overall pick David Bailey can do on defense-while knowing that they could be adding a franchise quarterback and a Day 1 starter next April," Davenport wrote.
The schedule won’t make life easy in Glenn’s second year. The Jets are set to face the Titans, Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, Browns, New England Patriots, Dolphins, Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles Chargers, Denver Broncos, Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings.
A big part of the 2026 conversation will be Smith, who returns for a second stint with the Jets after leading the NFL in interceptions last season with the Raiders. The West Virginia product enters the year with 22,168 passing yards, 124 passing touchdowns and 89 career interceptions, along with a 42-56-0 record as a starter.
For now, the Jets are viewed as a team still climbing out of the league’s lower tier. Whether they stay there or start turning the corner will be one of the more interesting questions of the season.
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For a Jets team trying to build momentum, the timing is less than ideal. NFL.com recently pointed to the defenses improvement, Smiths return and even whether the club can ride some of the New York Knicks recent success into the fall, but any added noise around the quarterback only makes the path a little more complicated. [Read more 🡒]
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The early pressure around Aaron Glenn is already hard to ignore, and it comes with the kind of backdrop Jets fans know all too well. In a broader look at returning NFL head coaches facing uneasy ground, Glenn is mentioned alongside Todd Bowles and Zac Taylor as a coach whose job security could quickly become a storyline if results do not turn around, with the Jets' recent struggles and roster questions feeding that concern.
For New York, the warning signs are especially familiar because the margin for patience is so thin when the season starts going sideways. The analysis points to the possibility that Glenn could be in real danger by midseason if the Jets keep stumbling, a reminder that in this market, a slow start can turn a first-year coach from hopeful reset into another round of uncertainty before the year is even settled. [Read more 🡒]