The Jets have already made their stance on Nahshon Wright pretty clear, even if they haven’t actually cut him loose.
Wright, a 28-year-old corner who led the NFL in takeaways last year, has been inactive for the last four weeks. Before that, he logged just 18 snaps, and every single one of them came on special teams. There’s been no indication he’s dealing with an injury, and nothing to suggest he’s fallen into Aaron Glenn’s doghouse.
Still, he remains on the 53-man roster, and that’s the part that doesn’t make much sense for a 2-4 Jets team. If there’s no short-term role for him, why keep carrying him?
The Jets handed Wright a fully guaranteed $3.5 million deal with incentives this offseason, which at least explains some reluctance to move on. But the club already seems to have accepted that it missed on the signing.
The problem is that Glenn and Darren Mougey haven’t taken the final step yet. A player who was given that kind of money shouldn’t be turning into a healthy scratch two games in.
That leaves Mougey with the bigger question to answer, since he approved the move in the first place. Even if Glenn saw Wright as a depth piece, that still doesn’t explain why he hasn’t been used on defense at all.
The Jets also don’t exactly lack alternatives. Mory Bamba, Jordan Clark and Samuel Womack III are all sitting on the practice squad, which makes the team’s refusal to move on from Wright even harder to justify.
New York would probably be better off eating the money and releasing him, though a trade for a seventh-round pick is another possibility. The release route feels more realistic.
Meanwhile, rookie corner D’Angelo Ponds has been getting his own chances. He played 13 snaps in Sunday’s loss to the Patriots, with 11 on defense and two on special teams.
The 2025 All-American still hasn’t made a major impact, even after having an interception wiped out in Week 4. The Jets are still waiting for him to make a pick that counts.
In Other News...
Jets Offense Keeps Making One Frustrating Mistake Fans Can See
The Jets have spent enough of this season showing they can move the ball when defenses play zone, and Geno Smiths numbers have reflected that split. Against man coverage, though, the offense has looked far more ordinary, which is why the tendency to stick with the same balanced script has been so frustrating to watch from the outside.
Even with the evidence piling up, the approach has barely changed. New York has kept leaning into a predictable pass-run mix even as the results have slipped in scoring and yardage, leaving the offense looking like a unit that knows where its best chances are but keeps driving toward the same dead end anyway. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Keep Wasting Chances As Pressure Builds On Aaron Glenn
The Jets keep finding themselves in familiar territory, close enough to matter and still not finishing the job. Their recent stretch has included the kind of late-half lapses that can tilt games before halftime or the final whistle, and the frustration is only growing because the effort has not disappeared. Geno Smith pointed to Omar Cooper Jr.'s return from injury as a boost and said the team showed fight in the second half, but those positives have not been enough to erase the bigger problem hanging over the season.
Aaron Glenn is now carrying the weight of those missed chances, because the margin for patience around the team is getting thinner by the week. Rich Cimini raised the possibility that a loss to the Dolphins could put Glenns status in real jeopardy, which is the sort of conversation that starts to follow a coach when repeated breakdowns keep showing up in the same critical moments. For the Jets, the next game now feels like more than a division test. [Read more 🡒]
Jets May Be Ready To Test D'Angelo Ponds In Bigger Role
After a defensive miscue by Jarvis Brownlee Jr. against the Patriots, the Jets appear to be reworking the nickel cornerback picture, and rookie D'Angelo Ponds is suddenly seeing more of the field. Brownlee has still mattered against the run, but his coverage lapses and penalties have made his role less secure as the staff looks for a steadier option inside.
Ponds has not exactly seized the job in his limited chances, but the Jets may be willing to keep testing him in a larger role as they sort through changes in the secondary. For a defense that already has enough moving parts, the question now is whether Ponds can settle in quickly enough to make the switch worth it. [Read more 🡒]