It’s now or never for NY Jets to flip stunning stat

It’s a shocking number that keeps the New York Jets’ coaches up at night: 127.

That’s how many consecutive passes that opposing QB1s have thrown at the Jets’ secondary since they last threw an interception.

Save for two picks against Miami Dolphins backup Tyler Huntley in the 2024 season finale, the Jets have not picked off the QB1 on a team’s depth chart since Tony Adams intercepted Matthew Stafford on the Los Angeles Rams’ first drive of their eventual 19-9 win in Week 15 of last year.

Since then, the combination of Stafford, Josh Allen (twice), Aaron Rodgers, and Baker Mayfield have combined for 19 straight interception-free quarters against the Jets’ defense.

For a team that is dedicating the seventh-highest cap spending at the cornerback position this year ($25.4 million, per Over The Cap), that is a startling and downright unacceptable number.

The Jets will try to snap their streak on the road against the Miami Dolphins and QB1 Tua Tagovailoa this week. Playing away from MetLife Stadium, their ineptitude is even more jaw-dropping.

If you want to find the Jets’ last interception on the road against a QB1, you have to go back to Week 5 of the 2024 season, when Brandin Echols got one off Sam Darnold. That was a neutral-site game in London, though. The Jets’ last true road interception against a QB1 was in Week 2 against the Titans’ Will Levis; also secured by Echols.

That… is pretty bad.

Reasons for the interception drought

While interceptions can be hard for a player or team to control on a play-to-play or even game-to-game basis, there is little excuse for failing to pick off a true starting quarterback over the course of nearly five whole games.

So far in 2025, the Jets’ failure to generate an interception comes down to a combination of poor capitalization and poor opportunity creation.

In Week 1 against Aaron Rodgers, the Jets had multiple opportunities they failed to capitalize on. Michael Carter II and Brandon Stephens – who are each making eight figures per season – failed to secure passes that hit both of their hands.

But since then, the Jets have not come anywhere close to an interception. Across Weeks 2 and 3, there were no particular plays where it felt like the quarterback threw a pass that had a legitimate chance of being intercepted.

The Jets must put opposing quarterbacks under more pressure if they want more interception opportunities to spring up. Baker Mayfield was pressured on just 28.6% of his dropbacks in Week 3 despite being blitzed at a very high rate of 40%. That’s an unacceptable ratio. If you blitz that much, you had better get home, and the Jets failed to do so, yielding ample chances for Mayfield to attack one-on-ones in the back end.

Not to mention, Mayfield’s track record suggested that the Jets were much more likely to pick him off if they went with a lower blitz rate, as 21 of his 26 interceptions since 2023 were thrown against fewer than five pass rushers. Ignoring this advice was a poor coaching move that lowered the Jets’ odds of picking Mayfield off. Those odds were further worsened by the blitzes not even getting there.

In Week 2 against Josh Allen, the Jets went with a light-blitzing approach despite Allen’s track record suggesting that a high blitz rate was clearly the best strategy against him. They blitzed Allen only 20% of the time, and Buffalo’s offensive line had no problem with the Jets’ four-man rush, as Allen was pressured on a measly 23.3% of his dropbacks.

Before spotlighting the secondary for New York’s lack of interceptions, the Jets’ front seven and coaching staff must be better at generating pressure. The pass rushers, outside of Quinnen Williams and Will McDonald, must show some semblance of life. The coaches must do a better job of scheming around their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses.

Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks must also be less predictable with the timing of his blitz packages. We all know that on third down, the Jets are sending the house with single-high in the back end. And if we know it, so does the opponent. The predictability of the Jets’ play calling is part of why their high blitz rate was so ineffective against Mayfield.

Can’t ask for a better opportunity

This week against the Miami Dolphins, it’s now or never for the Jets to snap their interception-less streak against starting quarterbacks.

Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa has uncorked four interceptions this season. A whopping 4.5% of his pass attempts have been intercepted, the second-highest rate in the NFL behind Jake Browning.

You can trace Tagovailoa’s interception woes back to Miami’s brutal offensive line. The Dolphins have the league’s third-worst pass-blocking grade at Pro Football Focus (43.3).

If the Jets can’t get a pick in this situation… they may never get one again.

That is obviously an exaggeration – watch, Tua will drop 30 points and no picks on the Jets, only for them to shut out Dak Prescott and pick him off three times, because that’s the weird way the NFL works – but if the Jets want to be taken seriously on defense, they must tee off in Week 4.

Some might counter those expectations with statements like “this is just who the Jets are,” or “they just don’t have the talent for that.”

That’s not the case.

The Jets’ pass defense features a $120.4 million cornerback, a $96 million defensive tackle, two first-round edge rushers (although one has been absent and will miss this week’s game), two additional cornerbacks on deals for over $30 million, and a safety making $8.5 million for one year. Not to mention, their defensive coordinator and head coach both have backgrounds as defensive backs coaches and have extensive experience as defensive play callers.

As low as the Jets’ team-wide expectations may be, there is a ton of capital invested into this pass defense. They are not supposed to have zero interceptions through three games, along with the sixth-highest opponent passer rating allowed (107.6).

Low expectations are fair for the Jets’ offense, but there is no excuse for this group to be performing poorly. If they cannot turn things around against a flopping Dolphins offense, it will be time to sound the alarms.