The New York Jets got the 2026 season off to a hot start as they dominated the Tennessee Titans en route 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’s been a while since the Jets looked dominant. Unfortunately, it didn’t last.
Since that big opening day, the Jets’ fortunes have been on a downward spiral. They dominated the Titans in every game in week 1. In week 2, the Jets dominated the Green Bay Packers for 49 minutes before falling and allowing 13 unanswered points to close out 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 fumbled on the Jets’ final drive of the game. In week 4 against the Chicago Bears the Jets were completely dominated from start to finish in a 23 – 12 loss that wasn’t nearly as competitive as the final score might suggest.
The trend here is not encouraging. The Jets have been less competitive in every passing game, culminating in a game against the Bears on Sunday where the Bears outgained the Jets by over 300 yards and the Bears had more first downs on offense than the Jets had. That is annihilation.
The loss brought the Jets 2026 record to 1-3. Playoff prospects are getting worse, 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 more than a year as the head coach of the Jets. 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 coach the team for at least two full seasons. In chronological order they are as follows:
Of these 13 head coaches, only Rich Kotite has fewer wins than Glenn after 21 games. Kotite is 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 in two seasons, he needs 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. Only one Jets head coach has been worse in his first two years: Rich Kotite.
Glenn’s Jets had a -203 point differential in his first season as the Jets’ head coach. Even the lowly Kotite never posted a worse point difference. 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 immediately fired.
The Jets season seems to be slipping away. Glenn’s career as the Jets’ head coach could follow. It’s hard at this point to recognize how good Glenn is. It is not difficult to point out the areas where he struggled. With three more first round draft picks in the 2027 draft up for grabs and the Jets likely to select a quarterback in one of them, can the Jets afford to allow the Glenn regime to make those picks if we don’t see a major turnaround? Six first round picks in two years represents a historic opportunity for a quick turnaround. It would be a huge disappointment if the team invested in a regime that has shown little chance of success so far in that instance.
The Jets have only had 13 playoff seasons in their 66-year history. Only two of them involved starting with 1 or fewer wins in the first four games of the season. It happened in the 1991 season when the Jets likely entered the playoffs with an 8-8 record with a dramatic overtime victory over the Miami Dolphins on the final day of the regular season. Then they were suddenly eliminated from 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 haven’t had a winning season in those 11 years, a streak that exceeds any other stretch in Jets history, including the current 10-year streak.
That 1981 Jets team was led by first-time head coach Walt Michaels, who never posted a winning record in his first four seasons as the Jets’ head coach. The 1981 season gave no indications that it would be any 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 are 0-3 with a -60 point differential. The weather threatens to spiral out of control.
Then something clicked. The Jets won in week 4. That started a 10 game stretch where the Jets only lost one game. At 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 fell apart, and the Jets entered a decade of terrible football from the late 1980s to the late 1990s. But for a brief period 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 the footsteps of Walt Michaels and usher in a new era of continued Jets success? Based on what we’ve seen from him so far, it seems unlikely. But Michael’s dramatic turnaround in 1981 seemed 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 career with the Jets, appears to be slipping. Time is running out for Glenn to change this. If we don’t see significant progress soon, the Jets will need to move on and start over.