New York Jets

The New York Jets finished 2025 at three and fourteen, missing the playoffs for the fifteenth straight year after a thirty-five to eight Week 18 blowout in Buffalo. Under first-year head coach Aaron Glenn, the building called this a rebuild year, and the field agreed. They lost their first seven before breaking through in Cincinnati in Week 8, a thirty-nine to thirty-eight shootout that still stands as the signature day of the year. Then the November 4th trade deadline shipped out Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams, reframing the season as a teardown — and the wheels came off. The Jets were outscored by one hundred and seven points in December alone, an NFL record. This team got muffed, and they got muffed badly.

The team by the numbers is historic in the worst way. The Jets finished thirty-second in point differential, thirty-second in turnover differential, and thirty-second in yard differential — the first team ever to finish dead last in all three. They forced just three takeaways, and here's the stat that will follow this team forever: they became the first team in NFL history not to record a single interception in a season since the league began tracking them in 1933. The offense converted thirty-five percent of third downs and scored touchdowns on just thirteen percent of red-zone snaps — genuinely broken. Outside of the Bengals win, the Cleveland win in Week 10, and the Atlanta win in Week 13, this team was rarely competitive, dropping each of its final five games by twenty-three points or more. Not boom-or-bust — just bust, with three brief flashes.

Now let's talk about the passing offense. The Jets threw for one hundred and sixty-two point eight yards per game, fifteen passing touchdowns against twenty-one offensive turnovers, and a total passing expected points added of minus one hundred point zero — bottom of the league, with a per-play figure of minus zero point one eight that means every dropback actively hurt them. They also gave up sixty sacks. Sixty. The quarterback room was a carousel — Justin Fields started, got benched Week 7 against Carolina, Tyrod Taylor took over, and by December they rolled with undrafted rookie Brady Cook. Fields was the closest thing to a pulse: one thousand two hundred fifty-nine passing yards, seven touchdowns and one interception across nine games, plus three hundred eighty-three rushing yards and four scores on the ground. A steady disaster — twelve points or fewer in seven games — with the Bengals shootout as the lone week the passing game actually smashed.

Now let's dig into the rushing offense. The one unit that kept its head above water. The Jets ran for one hundred and twenty-three point nine yards per game on four hundred and fifty-three carries, with a total rushing expected points added of minus twenty-seven point six but a per-carry figure of just minus zero point zero six — league-average efficiency on the ground. Breece Hall carried the load: one thousand and sixty-five rushing yards on two hundred and forty-three carries, four rushing touchdowns, plus three hundred and fifty yards on thirty-six catches across sixteen games. Hall's fifty-nine-yard touchdown run against the Patriots in Week 17 — a straight shot up the middle in a game the Jets were already losing by thirty-nine — kept his individual tape alive as the team around him collapsed. Steady floor, low ceiling — eleven rushing touchdowns on four hundred and fifty-three carries tells you the finishing wasn't there.

Next up, the pass defense. This is where the season truly got muffed. The Jets allowed two hundred and twenty-six point four passing yards per game, thirty-six passing touchdowns, and posted a passing expected points added allowed of plus one hundred and thirty-seven point three — and remember, on defense you want that number to be a big negative, so plus one thirty-seven is catastrophic. The per-play figure of plus zero point two five means opposing quarterbacks were printing expected points on every dropback. They generated just twenty-six sacks and, again, zero interceptions all year. Trading Sauce Gardner on November 4th accelerated a unit that had already regressed from third in total defense in 2024 down to twenty-fifth, and coordinator Steve Wilks was fired along with seven assistants, with Glenn taking over play-calling himself. The one bright moment came in Week 10 against the Browns, when Will McDonald sacked Dillon Gabriel for a seven-yard loss on fourth-and-one late in the fourth to seal the twenty-seven to twenty win — one of three all year. A unit that could neither rush the passer nor take the ball away, and that's how you give up thirty-six touchdown passes.

And the run defense. The Jets allowed one hundred and forty point nine rushing yards per game and twenty rushing touchdowns on five hundred and eleven carries, with a rushing expected points added allowed of plus seventeen point seven — positive numbers on defense are bad, and teams moved it on the ground with ease. The per-carry figure of plus zero point zero three is roughly league average in isolation, but the volume told the real story: opponents ran it over thirty times a game because they were ahead all day. Trended down late — Jamien Sherwood and company stuffed the Saints' Taysom Hill on a fourth-and-one in Week 16, and the front held up on a couple of early short-yardage stops against the Bills, but twenty rushing touchdowns allowed is a bottom-five number, and when you can't stop the run, you can't get off the field. The run defense didn't just get muffed — it got worn down, week after week, in a season that couldn't end fast enough.