It's going to be hard.
NFL analyst Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report believes a miracle needs to happen for the New York Jets to make the playoffs.
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.
In Year 2 of the Aaron Glenn era, the Jets face the Tennessee Titans, Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, New England Patriots, Miami Dolphins, Las Vegas Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles Chargers, Denver Broncos, Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings.
FanDuel has the Jets' win total at 5.5. That won't be enough to make the playoffs in the AFC.
While all signs point toward the Jets missing the playoffs again next season, Glenn's group shouldn't be the laughingstock of the league again after having a strong draft and offseason transaction cycle.
In the 2026 draft, the Jets did pretty well. They selected David Bailey, Kenyon Sadiq, Omar Cooper Jr., D'Angelo Ponds, Darrell Jackson Jr., Cade Klubnik, Anez Cooper and VJ Payne.
Before the draft, the Jets acquired Geno Smith from the Raiders, Minkah Fitzpatrick from the Dolphins and T'Vondre Sweat from the Titans and signed Demario Davis and Tim Patrick in free agency.
It will be fascinating to see how many games NYJ wins in 2026. The Jets are actually best suited to have a bad record again so they can have a high pick in the 2027 draft and select Arch Manning or Dante Moore.
Smith enters next season with 22,168 passing yards, 124 passing touchdowns and 89 career interceptions in the NFL. His starting record is 42-56-0 and he threw 17 interceptions last season. The odds of him turning back the clock are very low.
For what it's worth, Garrett Wilson is actually excited to catch passes from Smith next season. After the Jets acquired Smith from the Raiders, Wilson "immediately" called Seattle Seahawks superstar Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Smith-Njigba and Smith were teammates in Seattle.
"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."
