The Jets didn’t bring in Nahshon Wright to play it safe. They brought him in because this defense was starving for takeaways, and Wright showed in 2025 that he knows how to hunt the football.
That part of the equation is impossible to miss. Wright was involved in 10 takeaways with the Chicago Bears last season, while the Jets’ entire defense finished 2025 with just three. For a team that spent all year looking for splash plays and coming up empty, that kind of production makes him stand out immediately.
Of course, there’s a catch. Wright’s ball skills come with real baggage in coverage, and the league didn’t exactly line up to hand him a big contract after last season.
He was targeted often, gave up a ton through the air, and was one of the roughest cover corners in football on a snap-by-snap basis. Still, when the Jets look at the outside corner spot opposite Brandon Stephens, he’s the early favorite to open 2026 there.
Wright’s path to this point has been a wild one. Dallas took him in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft, but he never became a steady defensive piece there.
Injuries were part of the story, and before the 2024 season the Cowboys dealt him to Minnesota. Wright then spent almost all of that year on the Vikings’ practice squad and played in only one regular-season game.
Then came the Bears and the breakout. Chicago signed him in April 2025 to a one-year, non-guaranteed minimum deal, and Wright turned that into a starting role.
He started 16 games and became one of the league’s biggest surprise performers, piling up five interceptions, three fumble recoveries, two forced fumbles, 11 passes defended, and 80 tackles. He also earned Pro Bowl honors.
That kind of production made the Jets’ one-year, $3.5 million deal with a max value of $5.5 million look awfully light. It also explains why he enters camp with a real shot to win the job right away. Azareye'h Thomas will push him after a forgettable rookie season, and D'Angelo Ponds should get a legitimate look on the outside even though the expectation is that he starts in the slot.
The appeal is obvious: Wright can create turnovers, and this Jets secondary badly needs that trait. Stephens and Thomas both have the size and physical profile of boundary corners, but neither has shown Wright’s knack for taking the ball away. After last season, the Jets can’t afford to treat takeaways like a rare collectible.
But the risk is just as clear. Wright allowed 725 receiving yards and seven touchdowns in coverage in 2025, which ranked fifth-most among NFL cornerbacks in both categories.
He was one of only two cornerbacks to give up at least 700 yards and seven scores, and he also committed eight penalties. That’s the tradeoff.
He plays aggressively, attacks the football, and makes plays, but that style can open the door to explosives the other way.
He can help in the run game too. At 6-foot-4 and 199 pounds, Wright brings size to the edge, and his 14 run stops ranked second among all cornerbacks last season. That matters for a Jets defense that needs impact from more than just one part of his game.
The bar for 2026 doesn’t have to be absurdly high. Wright probably won’t come close to repeating a 10-takeaway season, because interceptions can swing wildly from year to year. But if he can grab a few turnovers, clean up the penalties, and cut down on the touchdowns allowed, he’ll have done enough to justify the gamble.
He doesn’t need to become a shutdown corner. He needs to bring some life to a secondary that had very little of it last season. For the Jets, the hope is simple: let Wright chase the ball, and live with the rest as long as the takeaways keep coming.
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Garrett Wilsons Adonai Mitchell Praise Says A Lot About Jets Ceiling
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Mitchell is expected to settle in as the Jets WR2 in 2026 after stepping in as the interim leading receiver in 2025, and his numbers from last season hint at why the team is optimistic. He finished with 24 catches for 301 yards and two touchdowns, and the belief around him is that better quarterback play could unlock even more. If Wilson is already openly praising him, it only adds to the sense that New Yorks ceiling depends on how quickly that next layer of the passing game comes together. [Read more 🡒]