Four Non-Divisional Games the Jets Could Feasibly Win in 2026

Aaron Glenn watched the tape more than once. He had to. A defense that plays an entire NFL season without intercepting a single pass, that’s not just a bad year, that’s history, the wrong kind, the kind nobody in the building at 1 Jets Drive wanted to be part of. It had never happened before. Not once, not to any team, in any season, ever. And it happened to his.

The season started 0-7 and never really recovered. Somewhere in the middle of that collapse, Glenn fired his own defensive coordinator, Steve Wilks, the guy he’d hired, the guy he trusted to run his defense, because the alternative was riding it out and hoping things would improve. He didn’t hope. He acted. And when it was over, at 3-14, tied for the worst record in the league, Glenn stood in front of reporters and said the quiet part out loud: his own learning curve as a first-time head coach had been “a huge deal.” Everybody in that building heard it. Everybody around the league heard it too.

Jets Offseason Rebuild

Ownership backed him anyway. But backing Glenn didn’t mean protecting his staff; 12 of the original 22 assistants are gone, wiped out in an offseason purge that left Glenn calling his own defense in year two, no buffer, no delegation, just him and the results. Frank Reich comes in to run the offense. Brian Duker takes the defensive coordinator title under Glenn. And GM Darren Mougey went to work like a man building a life raft and a lifeboat simultaneously, spending the No. 2 overall pick on edge rusher David Bailey while also trading for a $40 million safety in Minkah Fitzpatrick and a proven veteran quarterback in Geno Smith, plus running it back with linebacker Demario Davis.

Heading into 2026, however, online betting sites could hardly be less optimistic about the Jets’ upcoming campaign. The early 2026 NFL odds have priced up a win line of just 5.5, with the under narrowly favored at -125 compared to the over at -105. Such a line and its pricing are a damning referendum on a franchise that hasn’t sniffed the playoffs in fifteen years, tied to a coach whose seat may depend on clearing a number nobody outside the building expects him to clear.

And the honest starting point for getting there isn’t some counterintuitive road upset, it’s Miami, twice, because the Dolphins might be even worse off than the Jets are.

Will Miami Yield Two Jets Victories?

The Dolphins started 1-6 last term. Chris Grier, the GM, got fired in October, mid-season, no cushion, no grace period. By Week 16, Miami benched Tua Tagovailoa, its franchise quarterback, for rookie Quinn Ewers, which is about as public an admission as a franchise can make that the season was already dead.

They finished 7-10. Mike McDaniel got fired too, closing out a 35-33 tenure that never found an identity worth keeping. The new regime, GM Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley, didn’t tinker at the edges. They released Tua. They released Tyreek Hill. They released Bradley Chubb. That cleared over $56 million in cap space, but it also meant absorbing a league-leading $179 million in dead money, just to get the books clean enough to start over.

The Miami Dolphins have released WR Tyreek Hill…

After suffering a devastating knee injury in September, his status for 2026 is up in the air

Where should he sign once he’s healthy? pic.twitter.com/mvWfFYhFta

— Ozoon (@Ozoon_CA) February 16, 2026

Miami used thirteen draft picks this spring, a league high, because that’s what it takes when you’re hitting reset that hard. Malik Willis is the presumptive starter now. But even so, two wins over that mess aren’t a guarantee. But it is the foundation. Here are four other games where the Jets will be sniffing a chance of victory.

Tennessee: Week 1

Robert Saleh is the coach the Jets fired five games into 2024, and now he’s on the other sideline in Nashville, opening the season against the franchise that let him go. There’s a story in that alone. But the bigger one is a Titans roster with zero live-game reps together, a defense-first program under a new staff, Cam Ward entering year two under a brand-new offensive coordinator in Brian Daboll, a patchwork line, a receiver room that just got its first real weapon in Carnell Tate.

GM Mike Borgonzi spent big on pass rusher John Franklin-Myers and added Jermaine Johnson II, Solomon Thomas, Alontae Taylor, and Cor’Dale Flott, talent, sure, but talent that’s never played a snap together. A Week 1 road game against a team that is unfamiliar with itself is exactly the kind of spot a rebuilding team should circle.

Cleveland: Week 5

The Browns just traded away Myles Garrett, the NFL’s single-season sack record holder, to the Rams, and they still don’t know who’s playing quarterback. Deshaun Watson is back from a second Achilles tear while Shedeur Sanders waits in the wings after some solid if unspectacular displays toward the back end of last season, performances that somehow garnered him a Pro Bowl nod.

Kevin Stefanski is gone after six seasons, replaced by Todd Monken, and nobody in that quarterback room has secured the starting job. Five weeks in, is Cleveland even sure who it is? A defense stripped of its identity and an offense still auditioning starters is a team the Jets, with actual continuity and three first-round draft picks, should be favored to beat at home.

Las Vegas: Week 8

Klint Kubiak inherits a rookie quarterback in Fernando Mendoza and a bridge starter in Kirk Cousins, keeping the seat warm. Pete Carroll lasted one season before the league’s worst offense got him fired. GM John Spytek traded away his own starting quarterback, Geno Smith, to the Jets, no less, and is betting the year on patience instead of results.

Ashton Jeanty and Brock Bowers give Vegas talent, but a rookie quarterback and a new system rarely click by Week 8. Is Vegas still “patient” if Mendoza looks overwhelmed by October? That’s the window the Jets need open.

Arizona: Week 15

Nine straight losses closed out 2025. Jonathan Gannon got fired despite a promising 2024. Mike LaFleur inherits a team that just watched ownership cut ties with Kyler Murray entirely, leaving Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew, and rookie Carson Beck to sort out a quarterback room from scratch. Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison Jr. give Arizona talent to burn, but by Week 15, with the season decided and a coaching staff still finding its footing, does this roster even show up?

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