New York Jets: Slip Sliding Away
· Yahoo Sports
The New York Jets got the 2026 season off to a rousing start as they dominated the Tennessee Titans on their way to a 23 – 10 opening day victory. It was their first win since November 30, 2025, and only their third double digit win since the 2023 season. It has been a long time since the Jets have looked dominant. Unfortunately, it didn’t last.
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Since that big opening day win the Jets’ fortunes have been gradually sliding downhill. They dominated the Titans all game in week 1. In week 2 the Jets dominated the Green Bay Packers for 49 minutes before they collapsed and allowed 13 unanswered points to close the game in an overtime loss. In week 3 against the Detroit Lions the Jets never dominated, but they kept the game close and were in position to tie the score late before Geno Smith lost a fumble on the Jets’ final drive of the game. In week 4 against the Chicago Bears the Jets were thoroughly dominated from start to finish in a 23 – 12 loss that was not nearly as competitive as the final score might indicate.
The trend here is not encouraging. The Jets have gotten less competitive with each passing game, culminating in a game against the Bears on Sunday where the Bears outgained the Jets by well over 300 yards and the Bears had more first downs on offense than the Jets offense had plays. That is annihilation.
The loss brought the Jets 2026 record to 1-3. Playoff hopes are already growing faint, as teams starting the season 1-3 have only made the playoffs a little over 13% of the time since the 2012 season.
For Aaron Glenn the loss was his 17th in a little more than a year as Jets head coach. He has a 4-17 record overall, good for a .190 winning percentage. The Aaron Glenn Jets have lost 8 of their last 9 games and 10 of their last 12. That is a very troubling record.
The Jets have had 13 head coaches who have coached the team at least two full seasons. In chronological order they are as follows:
Sammy Baugh
Weeb Ewbank
Walt Michaels
Joe Walton
Bruce Coslet
Rich Kotite
Bill Parcells
Herm Edwards
Eric Mangini
Rex Ryan
Todd Bowles
Adam Gase
Robert Saleh
Of these 13 head coaches, only Rich Kotite had fewer wins than Glenn after 21 games. Kotite was arguably the worst head coach in Jets history, and one of the worst in NFL history.
Only two of these 13 Jets head coaches had less than 10 wins after two seasons: Rich Kotite and Adam Gase. Both were fired after two seasons with the team. For Glenn to get to 10 wins over two seasons he would need to win at least six of the remaining 13 games in the 2026 season.
Glenn has a .190 winning percentage in his head coaching career with the Jets. Just one Jets head coach has ever been worse in his first two years: Rich Kotite.
Glenn’s Jets had a -203 point differential in his first season as Jets head coach. Not even the lowly Kotite ever posted a worse point differential. In fact there has only been one worse season in Jets history. Adam Gase posted a -214 point differential in his 2-14 2020 campaign. He was promptly fired.
The Jets season looks like it is already slipping away. Glenn’s career as Jets head coach may follow suit. It is difficult at this point to identify much that Glenn has excelled at. It is not difficult to point to areas in which he has struggled. With three more first round draft picks in the 2027 draft soon to be made and the Jets very likely selecting a quarterback with one of them, can the Jets afford to allow the Glenn regime to make those picks if we don’t soon see a major turnaround? Six first round picks in two years represent an historic opportunity for a quick turnaround. It would be a major disappointment if the team invested a regime that has shown little chance of success thus far with that opportunity.
The Jets have had just 13 playoff seasons in their 66 year history. Only two of them involved a start with 1 or fewer wins in the first four games of the season. It happened in the 1991 season when the Jets improbably sneaked into the playoffs with an 8-8 record with a dramatic overtime victory over the Miami Dolphins on the last day of the regular season. They were then unceremoniously bounced out of the playoffs with a loss in the Wild Card round. The Jets did not return to the playoffs for seven years after that loss.
If you’re looking for a silver lining, here it is. In 1981 the Jets had not made the playoffs since the 1969 season, an 11 year drought that was the longest in Jets history until the current 15 year streak. The Jets hadn’t had a winning season during that 11 year stretch, a streak that exceeds any other such stretch in Jets history, including the current 10 year streak.
That 1981 Jets team was led by first time head coach Walt Michaels, who had never posted a winning record in his first four seasons as Jets head coach. The 1981 season gave no indications it would be different after the first four games. The Jets opened the 1981 season with a 31 – 0 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills. After three games the Jets were 0-3 with a -60 point differential. The season was threatening to spiral out of control.
Then something clicked. The Jets won in week 4. That started a 10 game stretch in which the Jets lost just one game. By the end of the season the Jets were 10-5-1 and in the playoffs for the first time since 1969. They lost in the Wild Card round to the Buffalo Bills, but that 1981 season was the beginning of the legendary New York Sack Exchange Jets. Seemingly overnight the LOL Jets were transformed into a force to be reckoned with. They went on to make the playoffs four of the next six years, the best sustained stretch of Jets football in their history. Eventually the Sack Exchange grew old and broke up, and the Jets entered a decade of terrible football from the late 1980s through the late 1990s. But for a short time in the early to mid 1980s the Jets were a dangerous football team, led by a head coach in Walt Michaels who had never had a winning season before the turnaround.
Can Aaron Glenn follow in Walt Michaels’ footsteps and usher in a new era of sustained Jets success? Based on what we’ve seen from him thus far, it doesn’t seem likely. But Michael’s dramatic turnaround in 1981 seemed just as unlikely after four games of the 1981 season. Then everything changed.
Whether Glenn has it in him to engineer such a turnaround is the question the Jets must answer this season. Right now the season, and Glenn’s Jets career, appear to be slip sliding away. Time is running out for Glenn to change this. If we don’t see major progress soon, the Jets will need to once again move on and start over.