The Jets have a better defensive line than they did in 2025. That part is clear. But improvement is not the same thing as impact, and the way this group is built still leaves New York vulnerable against the league’s sharper offenses.
That showed up in the Jets’ 31-24 loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 3, a game decided up front. New York’s defensive line got controlled, and Bailey was the only edge rusher to register a pressure.
The interior was shut down as well. Darren Mougey raised the baseline of the unit, but the roster still lacks the kind of difference-maker that can tilt a game.
The problem starts inside. The Jets’ defensive tackle room does not have a true disruptor who can consistently create pressure on passing downs.
A healthy group would feature T’Vondre Sweat, Harrison Phillips, and David Onyemata, and all three are geared primarily toward stopping the run. Phillips and Sweat, in particular, do not bring much pass-rush upside.
Jowon Briggs, the player who might be the team’s best interior disruptor on paper, arrived with a reputation as a run-stuffer. Rookie Darrell Jackson Jr. is still developing as a pass-down option.
On the edge, the picture is different but not much better. Bailey, the No. 2 pick, has flashed the ability to be a quality disruptor, but his game can disappear for long stretches because the pass-rush plan leans so heavily on speed. Kingsley Enagbare is not a dominant power rusher, Joseph Ossai has been banged up, and Will McDonald brings very little power for an edge defender.
That combination gave Detroit a clean blueprint. Penei Sewell and Blake Miller could set to the outside and prepare for speed, while Jared Goff had room to step up because the Jets’ interior was not collapsing the pocket. The result is a defensive front that can be handled if an offense knows what it is looking at.
New York did get to Goff twice, but both sacks came on designed pressure looks, with linebacker Demario Davis and safety Andre Cisco finishing the job. Glenn has shown he can get inventive with his blitz packages, but that cannot be the foundation of the pass rush.
The bigger picture is simple: the Jets still need more talent on the defensive line. The quarterback search will dominate the conversation over the next few months, but one of their three first-round picks in the upcoming 2027 NFL Draft should go toward either a pass rusher who can win with power more consistently or a defensive tackle who can get after the quarterback.
Mougey’s offseason moves were built to lift the floor, and they have done that. The next step is adding variety. Right now, this line can be solved by creative offenses, and that is a problem New York cannot afford to keep carrying.
In Other News...
Jets Suddenly Have A Real Nahshon Wright Problem In The Secondary
Nahshon Wrights start with the Jets has gone from low-key to hard to ignore. The veteran cornerback arrived on a $3.5 million guaranteed deal, but early in the season he has barely seen the field, and in a recent game he was a healthy scratch while rookie DAngelo Ponds got his first NFL action. For a team that is always trying to sort out the back end of its defense, that kind of usage says plenty about where Wright stands right now.
The bigger question is what comes next, because the Jets did not bring him in to be an afterthought. When a veteran corner is active in name only and a rookie is already getting a look, it naturally raises concerns about depth, roster construction and whether the team has another awkward cornerback situation developing. It is the sort of subplot that can linger for a while in New York, especially with the memory of former Jet Dmitri Patterson still offering a cautionary comparison. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Early Draft Returns Are Shaping One Big Makai Lemon Debate
The first month of the Jets 2026 draft class has already offered enough to start rethinking the board, especially with the front offices first-round investments at tight end and wide receiver drawing early attention. New York went with Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq at No. 16 overall and later added Indiana wideout Omar Cooper Jr. at No. 30, while USC receiver Makai Lemon went to Philadelphia a few spots ahead. With the season only a few games old, the early returns have given the Jets a workable case that their own path made sense.
Sadiqs breakout game, a 100-yard day with a touchdown, has helped steady the conversation, while Cooper has been slowed by injury but has still shown enough to remain part of the picture. Lemon, meanwhile, has had a modest start with the Eagles, and that has only sharpened the debate over whether the Jets should have gone in a different direction. For now, the team appears comfortable with how the draft board fell and how its choices have started to look. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Win Just Took On A Much Darker Meaning For Packers Fans
The Packers Week 2 loss to the Jets carried an added cost beyond the final score, because Jayden Reed is now headed to injured reserve with a neck injury suffered on the second play of that game. For Green Bay, it turns a routine early-season setback into something more serious, as one of its most important pass catchers now faces an extended absence with no return timeline attached.
Reeds absence forces the Packers to reshuffle both their roster and their game plan at a time when they were still settling in offensively. For Jets fans, the win already had the usual satisfaction of a Sunday result, but now it comes with a harsher afterglow for Green Bay, where the injury from that game has become the bigger story. [Read more 🡒]