Going into the 2024-25 season the New York Jets seemed like a lock for the playoffs. They had a bunch of young pieces that could do damage on both sides of the football. There was much potential in a team contending with Zach Wilson at the helm that we ignored their red flags. A 40 year old QB coming off an ACL tear, a beat up O-line, and coaching question marks. Coming off that highly disappointing season, it seems that everyone has kind of written this team off. The New York Jets are set to become a dark horse team in 2025-26, but no one thinks it.
Young & Impactful Players
New York still has stars on their offense and defense that are still young and playing their best football. Garrett Wilson has had 1,00 receiving yards in his three seasons with the team. Sauce Gardner is lock down even coming off of a down year, but everyone knows he can have impact. Breece Hall averaged 4.2 yards a carry last year with an awful O-line. Jermaine Johnson who got injured in week 2 last year, but had 7.5 sacks the season before. This team still has so much potential within their roster that can be unlocked by new head coach Aaron Glenn.
Off-Season Additions
Obviously the big splash move off the free agency period for the Jets was the signing of Quarterback Justin Fields. He goes to his third team with hopes to finally unlock that untapped potential he has showcased at an NFL level before. With that being said, New York also made some under the table signing to fill out the weaknesses of their roster. I personally love the focus they had on rebuilding their o-line by picking up young Center Josh Myers on a 1 year, $2 million deal. He is a tough player who showed flashes of his skill with Green Bay. They also got depth with Tackle Chukwuma Okorafor who had drama leaving the Patriots last season. Even if he isn’t their franchise tackle of the future he creates a sense that nobody’s job is safe, especially on an offensive line that ranked 25th in the league per PFF. The Jets have are a young team that is reaching the end of a rebuild, and this off season they showed that with great moves in free agency.
2025 Draft
The Jets had a great draft, retooling the offensive line with 1st round pick OT Armand Membou out of Missouri. The front office then followed that up with TE Mason Taylor out of LSU who can be a real threat in the pass game. The rest of the draft was great depth picks for the team that this coaching staff hopes to develop into role player or starter talents. My favorite pick was round 4 WR Arian Smith who has a ton of upside coming out of Georgia. If they can work on his hands then they could have a real steal in this draft with his athleticism being his biggest tool with the Bulldogs. New York has a lot of new young player stop cheer for in a draft that was kind to the team.
A Change in Culture
New York made a huge shift in its’ culture by bringing in Aaron Glenn as the head coach. Glenn is coming off a defensive coordinator stint with the Lions that saw them reach a top 5 peak defensively (Per PFF). He’s responsible for the development and success of players like Aidan Hutchinson and Kerby Joseph. After the whole Aaron Rodgers acting like the GM of the team drama, starting fresh with a respected and stern coach like Glenn was an A+ move by the Jets. This team now has someone to really mold their pieces to their peaks. I believe the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets will be a scary dark horse playoff team come January 2026.
