Just 11 days after the New York Jets brought in Nate Lynn, the late-August pickup has forced his way into the conversation as a player they may have to keep.
That kind of rise doesn’t happen by accident. Lynn added another sack in Friday night’s preseason loss to the Giants, giving him three sacks in only two games with the Jets.
All three have come the hard way, too. On his latest one, he beat the right tackle outside with a double-swip/rip move, bent the corner and finished Jameis Winston himself for a solo sack.
The bigger point is that this isn’t some random flash. Lynn has been stacking preseason production for three straight years.
A 2024 undrafted free agent from William & Mary, Lynn originally signed with the Detroit Lions, where Aaron Glenn was the defensive coordinator. He turned heads right away in his first preseason, looked like he was on track to make the team, then suffered a torn ligament in his shoulder and missed the entire season.
He flashed again in the Lions’ 2025 preseason before being waived in final cuts. After that, he landed on the Tennessee Titans’ practice squad but never got into a regular-season game.
Now, with the Jets, the sample keeps growing and the results keep coming. Lynn has played seven career preseason games, and his pass-rush production has been strong in six of them.
The lone dud came in 2025 Week 2 against Detroit, when he had no pressures and no sacks over 25 pass-rush snaps. Outside of that, the numbers have been eye-opening.
Here’s the full run of what he’s done:
2024 Week 1 (DET): 5 total pressures on 13 pass-rush snaps (38.5% pressure rate), 1 sack, 84.9 PFF pass-rush grade
2025 HOF (DET): 3 total pressures on 17 pass-rush snaps (17.6% pressure rate), 0 sacks, 81.8 PFF pass-rush grade
2025 Week 1 (DET): 4 total pressures on 12 pass-rush snaps (33.3% pressure rate), 1 sack, 85.5 PFF pass-rush grade
2025 Week 2 (DET): 0 total pressures on 25 pass-rush snaps (0.0% pressure rate), 0 sacks, 57.7 PFF pass-rush grade
2025 Week 3 (DET): 3 total pressures on 16 pass-rush snaps (18.8% pressure rate), 0 sacks, 92.6 PFF pass-rush grade
2026 Week 2 (NYJ): 4 total pressures on 17 pass-rush snaps (23.5% pressure rate), 2 sacks, 85.9 PFF pass-rush grade
2026 Week 3 (NYJ): 2 total pressures on 14 pass-rush snaps (14.3% pressure rate), 1 sack, 63.0 PFF pass-rush grade
Across 114 pass-rush snaps, Lynn has produced 21 total pressures and five sacks, along with an 18.4% pressure rate and an 87.0 PFF pass-rush grade.
The article notes that Pro-Bowl Denver Broncos edge rusher Nik Bonitto posted an 18.3% pressure rate last year, while the 2025 league average for edge rushers was 11.8% per PFF. It’s a preseason sample, and not a perfect comparison, but it does help show how strong Lynn’s numbers have been.
For the Jets, the path on the edge is crowded at the top. David Bailey, Joseph Ossai, Kingsley Enagbare and Will McDonald are described as locks. After that, there’s room for one more pass rusher to push his way onto the roster.
Lynn has made a convincing case to be that guy. Pass rushing off the edge is one of the most valuable individual jobs in football, and he’s now earned the chance to prove that his preseason dominance can carry into the regular season. If he turns into a useful rotational rusher, the Jets will have found a real steal.
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