2026 Jets Preview: Roster Grades and Expectations

My previous post, It's the Hope That Kills You, But the Hope Will Never Die, was originally intended to be this post. However, when I started to give a rundown of the history of the Jets during my fandom, I got a bit lost in the sauce and wrote an entire journal about the Jets since 2013 (my first year as a fan).

This time, I actually will do what I set out to do: break down the coaching staff and roster, hand out some grades, and figure out what we can reasonably expect from the Jets in 2026.

The Team

Coaching

Aaron Glenn (HC, defensive play-caller)

Photo: Cooper Neill / NFL, via the New York Jets.

The head coach for the second year in a row is Aaron Glenn. I'll be up front about my view on Glenn: I wanted him fired after his first year. In my opinion, he was THAT bad.

Last season, Glenn, despite being a defensive coach himself, opted to let Steve Wilks call defensive plays. I wasn't sold on Wilks to begin with. This would allow Glenn to lead the team and focus on "game management." I think he should have focused harder. He had some bizarre game-management decisions, including his use of fake punts and going for it inside the Jets' own territory. It felt like he was aggressive where he should have been conservative, and conservative where he should have been aggressive.

I think the best example was the decision near the end of the Denver game in London. The Jets were down two, facing fourth-and-8 at the Denver 44 with 1:14 left. Glenn, despite having Nick Folk, a guy who ended up making 28 of his 29 field-goal attempts that season, opted to go for it with an offense that had managed just 82 total yards all day. The alternative would have been a field goal from roughly 62 yards, which is admittedly a much bigger ask than a routine kick. Still, I would have rather taken my chances with Folk than with the offensive plan they ran. Fields was sacked (surprise, surprise) to effectively end the game.

Oh, also, Wilks was a disaster and got fired on December 15. After the Jets were embarrassed by a Bills team led by Mitch Trubisky to end the season, I was hoping the Jets would can Glenn and go after Mike Tomlin, John Harbaugh—hell, I'd even take Mike McCarthy. Instead, Glenn is getting another shot, albeit with new coordinators.

So how do I feel about Glenn going into this season? Glenn is calling plays on defense, with Brian Duker as defensive coordinator, which is something I actually feel optimistic about. He felt like a decent coordinator in Detroit, considering the injuries his defense dealt with and the extremely aggressive fourth-down decision-maker he worked with in Dan Campbell. I also think he has a much more talented defense to work with than Wilks did last year. I don't feel too optimistic about Glenn improving in game management, though. I'd rather just hire a 12-year-old who plays Madden nonstop to manage the game.

Frank Reich (OC)

On the offensive side, which I expect Glenn to be largely detached from, is Frank Reich. Oof. I can see how Glenn's shaky job security might have made the OC job a tough sell, but I was hoping we could do better than this.

Reich last coached at Stanford, where he went 4-8 as interim head coach, working for his former QB and odd duck Andrew Luck. He sat out coaching in 2024. My best guess is that he was in hiding, hoping people forgot about his tenure as the Carolina Panthers' head coach, where he went 1-10 and was fired in his first season. Oof.

He did have some previous success, albeit mild, in Indianapolis as their head coach. He went 40-33-1 in the regular season and 1-2 in the playoffs. He got fired midway through his last season there and was replaced by former Colts center and TV personality Jeff Saturday, who probably made Colts fans miss Reich. As an opposing fan, I remember being pretty underwhelmed by Reich's offenses in Indianapolis.

I will cut him some slack, though: he only had one season of Andrew Luck before Luck retired out of nowhere. For a guy who had to proceed with Jacoby Brissett, an old (but not the oldest version of) Philip Rivers, and his other former quarterback, Carson Wentz, he did alright. Although, given that Luck and Rivers both retired after seasons with Reich, don't rule out Geno Smith doing the same after this season. Reich was also hamstrung with rookie Bryce Young in Carolina, and it's not like Stanford was a football powerhouse before Reich coached there.

Also, to be fair, the last time Reich was an offensive coordinator rather than a head coach, he won the Super Bowl with Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles in what might have been the best display of offense I've seen in a Super Bowl. That being said, it was February 2018. The NFL has changed a lot since then, and I'm not sure Reich has evolved with it. His last two NFL head-coaching jobs don't exactly reassure me. I would say this is Reich's last stand in the NFL, but the NFL has a tendency to recycle coaches, so I'm sure he'll find a way to stick around even if he is awful this year.

Chris Banjo (ST coordinator)

But hey, we have an ace in the hole: Chris Banjo! That's right, our special teams coach. According to Jets X-Factor's reporting of FTN's figures, the Jets' 10.2% special teams DVOA led the league last season and ranked fifth-best since 1978. DVOA measures performance against a league-average baseline, accounting for the situation.

One of the best memories of an otherwise putrid season was Will McDonald blocking a field goal and returning it for a touchdown against the Bucs to take a one-point lead. Aaron Glenn was high-stepping on the sideline, but I vividly remember not even celebrating the moment in the slightest. When my wife, who was watching with me, asked why, I said, "Because we are going to lose the game anyways." I was right.

Anyways, special teams also helped us win a dismal game against the Browns last year, when the Jets had both a kickoff return and a punt return for a touchdown. Although it apparently didn't matter THAT much, because the Jets still went 3-14. If anything, you could argue special teams cost us the first overall pick, but also may have saved us from drafting Fernando Mid-doza. I expect some regression for the unit as a whole since Nick Folk is gone, but from a coaching standpoint, I like where we stand on special teams.

Summary

If I had to assign a letter grade to the coaching staff, I'd give it a C. It's not so bad that I think the season is completely hopeless, but I think we will be at a disadvantage in that department in any game against a halfway decent coaching staff.

Position Groups

The charts below follow the Jets’ published unofficial depth chart as of the time of writing, including its personnel groupings and players listed together. A dash means no player is listed in that slot. Some entries lag roster moves, which I’ve noted alongside the charts.

QB

Jets unofficial depth chart:

Position	First team	Second team	Third team
QB	Geno Smith	Cade Klubnik	—

QB1 is Geno Smith. The Jets once wrote him off, but he didn't write back. After spending a few years as a backup and making some spot starts for Mr. Unlimited, Russell Wilson, Geno was given the Seahawks' starting job after the Broncos traded a boatload of picks and maybe even a few of the Waltons' Walmarts for Wilson.

Between 2022 and 2024, the Seahawks went 9-8, 9-8 (8-7 in games Geno started), and 10-7 with Geno as their starting quarterback, and went 0-1 in the playoffs. In two of those three seasons, he threw for over 4,000 yards. I'd sign up for that. However, last season, Seattle decided to replace one written-off Jets quarterback (Geno) with another written-off Jets quarterback (Sam Darnold) and traded Geno to the Raiders. They were clearly onto something, because they went on to go 14-3, get the No. 1 seed, and win the Super Bowl. Impressive, sure, but what would REALLY be impressive is if they could win a Super Bowl with Zach Wilson. Let's see you try it, Seattle. I dare you.

Anyways, Geno was traded to (cue Boomer voice) DA RAIDERRRS. They were awful, though. They went 2-13 in games Geno started. Was Geno good? Absolutely not. But I'm not sure any QB would have been. Their one legit WR, Jakobi Meyers, was traded to the Jaguars. Brock Bowers played only 12 games, and the O-line looked below average at best.

It also didn't help that Pete Carroll, a guy who also coached Geno in Seattle, hired Chip Kelly as OC. To my eyes, Kelly's college offenses looked much more prolific when he had a talent advantage (see Oregon and Ohio State) than when he didn't (see UCLA). Kelly somehow got fired before Steve Wilks, and even before Thanksgiving. So I'll give Geno a partial pass for last season's debacle in Las Vegas.

The 35-year-old Smith is now back on the Jets, a full-circle moment. All we've gotten to see from him in the preseason is a single drive where he went 7-for-7 with a touchdown against Pittsburgh. That defense looked like it was legitimately trying to me. Geno has a legitimate chance to have the best season a Jets quarterback has had since Ryan Fitzpatrick in 2015. I think the talent around him should help him return to the league-average quarterback play of his Seattle days. And if it does, that would indeed be the best QB play since 2015. Let's just hope he stays healthy, because Cade Klubnik is the backup...

I'd grade the QB room a C+. That might sound bad, but as a Jets fan, you have to understand a C+ is very good for us relative to what we are used to. I'd give it a B- if we had a better backup.

RB

Jets unofficial depth chart:

Position	First team	Second team	Third team
FB	Andrew Beck	—	—
RB	Breece Hall	Braelon Allen	Isaiah Davis

Graphic: New York Jets.

Breece Hall signed an extension with the Jets this offseason. Normally, I'd say a rebuilding team giving a running back a big extension is probably not the best use of the salary cap. But for a guy as talented as Breece, I'll allow it. Non-Jets fans may not fully appreciate Breece because he has only eclipsed 1,000 yards rushing once (last year).

First off, he's a top-tier pass-catching running back. Even on bad teams with bad QB play, Breece had 76 receptions in 2023 and 57 in 2024. Second, he is capable of turning any play into a breakaway explosive play. Jets X-Factor reports that his 36.8% breakaway percentage was fifth among 49 running backs with at least 100 carries in 2025. That's the share of his rushing yards gained on runs of at least 15 yards.

Lastly, the guy has had to face defenses loading up against the run. Glenn acknowledged late last season that teams were stacking the box and daring the Jets to throw. Now that the Jets have what looks like a competent passing game with Geno, Wilson, Mitchell, Cooper Jr., Sadiq, and Mason Taylor, plus a solid O-line, Breece should have more room to run.

The backups are solid too. Braelon Allen is a power back who is capable enough to at least do the basic things in the passing game, and Isaiah Davis averages 5.6 yards per carry over 73 career attempts. That depth matters with Hall working back from a groin injury.

I'd give this RB room a B+.

WR

Jets unofficial depth chart:

Position	First team	Second team	Third team
WR	Garrett Wilson	Omar Cooper Jr.	Arian Smith
WR	Adonai Mitchell	Isaiah Williams	Tim Patrick

Last year, the receiver room was abysmal to start the season. It was Garrett Wilson, who is awesome, and literally no one else worth talking about (or covering). As much as I think Justin Fields was bad last year and held the ball too long, I will say I don't totally blame him, because there probably wasn't anyone open. The Jets did trade for Adonai Mitchell and also acquired John Metchie III during the season. Mitchell showed some pretty nice flashes, and Metchie had some pretty devastating drops. Mitchell stayed, and Metchie left for Carolina.

This year, the Jets return Mitchell along with Garrett Wilson. They drafted national champion and YAC-inducing Omar Cooper Jr.. They have Isaiah Williams, a great returner and a guy who is competent enough at receiver to get playing time there too. All of these guys have the speed to make explosive plays, either down the field in the air or by catching it short and getting yards after the catch. I like the potential of this unit a lot. But that potential needs to become production if the Jets want to win games.

I'd give this WR room a C+.

TE

Jets unofficial depth chart:

Position	First team	Second team	Third team
TE	Jeremy Ruckert	Jelani Woods	—
TE	Mason Taylor	Kenyon Sadiq	—

Are the Jets finally stacked at TE? Okay, let's calm down. They aren't stacked. But they are deep. The headliner is first-round pick Kenyon Sadiq. He is closer to a receiver than a traditional tight end, but he is strong enough to block when needed. He also ran a 4.39-second 40-yard dash at the combine, one of the fastest times recorded there by a tight end.

Mason Taylor is the other tight end, and he was a second-round draft pick last year. He had 44 catches in only 13 games. The Jets also have Jeremy Ruckert, who I don't love as a starter but is fine as a third stringer, and Jelani Woods, who Frank Reich seems to be obsessed with. Sadiq is still building back after a setback following offseason hernia surgery, so the depth could matter right away.

I'll give this unit a B-.

O-line

Jets unofficial depth chart:

Position	First team	Second team	Third team
LT	Olu Fashanu	Max Mitchell	—
LG	Dylan Parham	Anez Cooper	—
C	Josh Myers	—	—
RG	Joe Tippmann	Kohl Levao	—
RT	Armand Membou	Chukwuma Okorafor	—

Look, I'm not capable of giving serious offensive-line analysis. I have a day job.

The chart still lists Anez Cooper, who is on injured reserve, designated to return. Kohl Levao is on the practice squad, while Jordan Meredith is on the active roster but not yet listed in the chart.

There are two first-round picks at tackle and a solid guard in Joe Tippmann. Josh Myers is fine, and I will concede I don't like Dylan Parham just because he's from the Raiders, and they had a bad O-line last year. Depth is also a bit of a concern. Cooper looked okay in the preseason, but is hurt. I have no idea who Jordan Meredith is, and I wish I didn't remember how bad Max Mitchell is. Still, four of the five starters from last year return, and while there was a lot of bad on the Jets last year, the O-line was a bit of a bright spot.

ESPN gives the Jets the 15th-best O-line group. I'm okay with that.

I'd say the starters alone are a B, but the lack of depth is concerning because football is not a sport where health is guaranteed. So I'll bump that down to a B-.

D-line

Jets unofficial depth chart:

Position	First team	Second team	Third team
EDGE	Kingsley Enagbare	David Bailey	—
DL	Harrison Phillips	T'Vondre Sweat	—
DL	Jowon Briggs	—	—
DL	David Onyemata	Darrell Jackson Jr.	—
EDGE	Joseph Ossai	Will McDonald IV	Braiden McGregor

Kingsley Jonathan is on injured reserve; Tyler Baron is on the reserve/PUP list. Ossai is week-to-week with a foot injury.

I'm not an expert in D-line analysis. But I know last year's squad was horrendous against the run: 139.5 rushing yards allowed per game, fourth-most in the league. In theory, adding T'Vondre Sweat and holding onto Harrison Phillips should help with that.

McDonald isn't going to help much against the run, I worry. At this point, he looks like a pass-rushing specialist. Not that this is a terrible thing. He's still a damn good pass rusher, but he's gotta get better against the run for this Jets defense to get into the pass-rushing situations he thrives in in the first place.

David Bailey—first name of my uncle and last name of his son—the Jets' second overall pick and consolation for missing out on No. 1, has the potential to be Will McDonald but on steroids (figuratively speaking, of course). He's an elite pass rusher who needs to get better against the run, but from what I've read in camp and seen in the preseason, he should get there.

Kingsley Enagbare and Joseph Ossai are new, and I'm not going to pretend I know much about them, but they should add depth to the D-line at the very least. In 2025 overall defensive grade, PFF had Enagbare 71st of 115 qualified edge defenders, which isn't great but could be worse. Ossai was 69th. PFF is not the be-all and end-all, but I think the Jets will need these guys to get a little better to become a league-average defense.

All in all, I think this D-line unit is fine. Not great, not terrible.

I'll give it a C+.

Linebackers

Jets unofficial depth chart:

Position	First team	Second team	Third team
LB	Jamien Sherwood	Marcelino McCrary-Ball	—
LB	Demario Davis	Kiko Mauigoa	—

I love Demario Davis, even at his age. Last year, he ranked sixth among 88 qualified linebackers in PFF overall defensive grade. I'll take top-20 linebacker play this year. Sherwood ranked 35th, which is fine. I think part of his struggles last year can be attributed to a weak defensive line. Kiko Mauigoa is a weak spot, ranked 80th of 88 qualifying linebackers by the same measure. I guess he can't get worse!

I'll give this group a B-, with Davis carrying the group.

DBs

Jets unofficial depth chart:

Position	First team	Second team	Third team
NB	Jarvis Brownlee Jr.	D'Angelo Ponds	—
CB	Brandon Stephens	Qwan'tez Stiggers	—
CB	Azareye'h Thomas / Nahshon Wright	—	—
S	Minkah Fitzpatrick	Andre Cisco / Dane Belton / Malachi Moore	VJ Payne
S	Andre Cisco / Dane Belton / Malachi Moore	—	—

Tre Brown is on injured reserve, and VJ Payne is on injured reserve, designated to return.

Aaron Glenn clearly has a thing for big corners. Nahshon Wright is 6'4" and Brandon Stephens is 6'1". In 2025 PFF overall defensive grade, Wright was 48th out of 114 qualified corners, and Stephens was 38th. I will admit I was wrong about Stephens, who I thought would be a disaster. He definitely did not start off great, but he really improved as the season went on. Wright had five interceptions last year. Given that the Jets had zero as a team, I'll be happy if he just gets a few.

Perhaps Glenn made an exception to that size rule when the Jets drafted D'Angelo Ponds, a 5'8" CB from Indiana who had several big plays during Indiana's national championship run. Brownlee was 103rd among those 114 corners in PFF overall defensive grade, so hopefully Ponds can either push Brownlee to get better or outright replace him. Ponds missed training camp with a calf strain, so he may need time to get up to speed. The Jets appear to have two good No. 2 corners, but zero No. 1 corners. I think the corner depth looks alright.

Fitzpatrick is a guy who always seemed to play well against the Jets, and I'm glad to have him on our team. Partially because our safeties last year were underwhelming, but also because he was seventh of 98 qualified safeties in PFF overall defensive grade last year. Cisco was 63rd of 98, which sounds about right to me. He was pretty underwhelming.

All in all, this unit should be somewhere between not awful and okay. If Ponds has a good rookie year and Stephens takes another step, maybe it can elevate from okay to pretty good. But I wouldn't hold your breath.

I'd grade the unit a C-.

Special Teams

Jets unofficial depth chart:

Position	First team	Second team	Third team
K	Jason Sanders	—	—
P	Austin McNamara	—	—
H	Austin McNamara	—	—
PR	Isaiah Williams	—	—
KR	Kene Nwangwu	Isaiah Williams	Isaiah Davis
LS	Thomas Hennessy	—	—

The published chart still lists Sanders at kicker; the roster has since changed. As of this writing, we are eight days away from the Jets' Week 1 game at Tennessee on September 13. Right now, I'm still not sure who will end up kicking. Neither of the two kickers we had competing in the preseason is on the active roster, so now we are onto Blake Grupe, with Jason Sanders on the practice squad.

Grupe has made 81.9% of his career field-goal attempts and is 19-for-27 from 50-plus yards, which seems good. But his previous teams, New Orleans and Indianapolis, played their home games in domes, and MetLife is not a dome. I'll plug my nose and hope for the best, but I am worried this turns into another 2024, when it felt like our kicking kept finding ways to cost us games.

Austin McNamara was PFF's second-highest-graded punter in 2025, among 32 qualifiers! I have no idea what goes into that, but I'll take it. He certainly had plenty of opportunities to punt last year... hopefully he'll have fewer this year.

Isaiah Williams had PFF's highest returner grade in 2025, using a minimum of 20% of snaps, according to the Jets' season review, and my eyes can confirm. He was pretty awesome last year. Unfortunately, it never felt like the Jets' defense forced enough punts...

Kene Nwangwu is the kick returner, and he has the same big-play potential as Williams. Enough to make the roster despite being a complete non-factor as a running back.

I'd love to give the unit an A-, but the elephant in the room is the kicking position. That brings this unit all the way down to a B in my opinion. Why didn't we just keep Nick Folk?

General Expectations

As I look up and down the roster, I see some legitimate potential. I don't think any unit is good enough to be considered elite (I think RB is the closest), but I don't think any unit is a tremendous liability. This is a team that's talented enough that Glenn will have no excuses. I still need to break down the schedule, but just going through the roster, this feels like a team that should finish with between seven and nine wins. I think some close-game and turnover luck will be required to get this team into the playoffs, and I think bad injury luck and bad breaks in close games would be required for this team to be at the bottom of the league again.

Overall, I believe the team will be good enough to make the games semi-enjoyable to watch. Is a middling season the best thing for the Jets' long-term future? I personally don't subscribe to tanking. I think it's bad for team culture, so I am fine with it.

The Jets have three—that's right, three—first-round picks in the 2027 draft: their own and the Colts' pick, plus the earlier of Dallas' and Green Bay's picks, coming through Dallas. I imagine the Colts' pick will be between 10 and 20. The Cowboys are higher variance, but I imagine their pick landing between 15 and 25; the pick we get could be earlier if Green Bay finishes worse. And I can see the Jets' pick being between 12 and 22.

That, plus a future first-rounder, should give the Jets a strong package to try to trade up for a QB they really like—assuming someone is willing to deal. I personally am against trading up, but that's a post I can wait until the offseason for.

Next Up

I'll break down the Jets' schedule and how I see them performing this year on a game-by-game basis.