Garrett Wilson Believes Jets Will Play 'Meaningful Football in December' This Year

New York Jets WR Garrett Wilson is entering Year 5 in the NFL and the talented playmaker believes this season will be different in a good way. 

Wilson thinks the Jets will play "meaningful football in December" in 2026. 

"I believe we have the pieces in place that will get us to playing meaningful football in December, something I've dreamed about doing for a long time," Wilson told ESPN. 

The Jets went 3-14 last season and became the first team in NFL history not to record a defensive interception and lose five straight games by 23 or more points within a single season. They were a walking disaster in Year 1 of the Aaron Glenn era. 

Wilson appeared in only seven games last season because of injuries. He recorded 36 catches for 395 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns. 

A Chicago native, Wilson has played in 58 games with the Jets. He has 315 catches for 3,644 receiving yards and 18 receiving touchdowns.

New York acquired Geno Smith from the Las Vegas Raiders in the offseason. Frank Reich is the new OC and Smith has Wilson, Adonai Mitchell, Omar Cooper Jr., Mason Taylor, Tim Patrick, Kenyon Sadiq and Breece Hall as playmakers to work with. 

Smith is looking to turn back the clock in his second stint with the Jets after leading the NFL in interceptions last season with the Raiders. Smith's best seasons in the NFL came with the Seattle Seahawks in 2022 and 2023. He made the Pro Bowl in 2022 and 2023 and won the 2022 AP Comeback Player of the Year Award.

A West Virginia product, Smith enters this season with 22,168 passing yards, 124 passing touchdowns and 89 career interceptions in the NFL. His starting record is 42-56-0.

After the Jets acquired Smith from the Raiders, Wilson called Seahawks superstar Jaxon Smith-Njigba to get some insight. Smith and Smith-Njigba were teammates in Seattle and Wilson and Smith-Njigba are close friends. 

"Yeah man, when I heard we signed Geno, initially for me it was like I immediately hit up my dawg Jax, who had played with him for two years out in Seattle," Wilson said on the Jets' official podcast, via Heavy Sports. "He had a lot of good insight. He just loved Geno, he spoke so highly of him.  

"All of a sudden, I'm pumped, I'm excited, and then once I got to meet the guy, which would have been a month ago now, mid-April, I had constructed this view of him in my head and how he was going to be. It was cool, right? I couldn't wait to meet him based on what I had constructed in my head. Then I met him and he just blew that out of the water."

Even though Wilson is high on Smith, New York is actually better suited to have a bad record again in 2026 so the franchise gets a top pick in the 2027 draft and can select Arch Manning or Dante Moore.

Whether or not Wilson has the patience for that is another story.