After removing special teams touchdowns, the New York Jets’ offense has not generated more than 20 points in a game since before Halloween.
It’s January.
Suffice to say, the Jets fielded an atrocious offense in the 2025 season. They finished 30th in offensive DVOA and 29th in points per drive. No team had fewer passing yards, and only the Saints scored touchdowns in the red zone at a lower rate.
In just about every area, the Jets did nothing to inspire hope about their future on offense. The depth chart needs a complete overhaul, and the coaching staff needs to rethink its philosophy.
Only one significant long-term positive emerged for the Jets’ offense: The play of their young offensive tackles.
The progress shown by left tackle Olu Fashanu and right tackle Armand Membou is the only positive development for the Jets’ offense that will have major implications on the team’s future.
Fashanu, Membou lay foundation for Jets’ offense
It was probably hard to notice amidst all of the incompletions and turnovers, but the Jets’ pass protection was decent this season.
As a team, the Jets finished with a pass-blocking grade of 68.2 at Pro Football Focus, which ranked 16th out of 32 teams. Pass-blocking was the Jets’ second-highest ranked facet among the five on offense, outperforming the Jets’ passing (30th), receiving (32nd), and run-blocking (22nd) while marginally trailing the Jets’ rushing (15th).
Fashanu and Membou are to thank for the Jets’ surprisingly respectable pass protection, particularly through their improved play late in the year.
Both young tackles got off to shaky starts. Throughout an extended stretch of games that began in mid-October, the talented duo hit its stride in the passing game.
From Weeks 7-18, Fashanu earned an 80.2 pass-blocking grade at PFF, ranking seventh-best out of 32 qualified left tackles. Over the same span, Membou earned a 75.8 pass-blocking grade, placing ninth-best out of 32 qualified right tackles.
Together, Fashanu and Membou formed one of the NFL’s best tackle duos over the last 12 weeks. From Weeks 7-18, the Jets’ offensive tackle unit (mostly composed of Fashanu and Membou, with 10 pass-blocking snaps sprinkled in from Max Mitchell) combined for a pass-blocking grade of 77.3, ranking third-best in the NFL and tops in the AFC. Only the Buccaneers (78.3) and Giants (78.1) received better pass protection from their tackles over this span.
Although Fashanu and Membou improved down the stretch, you don’t have to cherry-pick the last 12 weeks to identify them as one of the NFL’s best tackle duos of the 2025 season.
Even over the course of the entire season, the Jets’ offensive tackle unit combined for a 73.5 pass-blocking grade, ranking sixth-best in the NFL.
Best cumulative pass-blocking grades from offensive tackles, 2025:
- Denver Broncos (79.2)
- Philadelphia Eagles (75.6)
- Indianapolis Colts (75.2)
- New York Giants (74.4)
- San Francisco 49ers (74.4)
- New York Jets (73.5)
- Seattle Seahawks (72.8)
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers (72.7)
- Detroit Lions (72.5)
- Miami Dolphins (71.7)
With Fashanu and Membou still just a combined age of 44 years old, they are only due to continue improving in 2026, especially after sustaining a long stretch of improvement throughout the course of the season.
Jets are set at tackle, but can they make it count?
There aren’t many other nice things that we can say about the Jets’ offense right now, but at the very least, they can rest assured that their highly drafted quarterback will be well-protected on the edges.
That’s a pretty huge deal.
If the Jets play their cards right, they are not far off from having a strong supporting cast around the young signal-caller they will likely bring in. A duo like Fashanu and Membou is quite rare for a team picking second overall. Toss in a star WR1 like Garrett Wilson, along with the pieces that will be added with their plethora of cap space and draft picks, and the Jets are equipped to put their new face of the franchise within a solid depth chart.
The biggest question about the quarterback’s supporting cast will continue to be an Aaron Glenn-led coaching staff that was severely outcoached in 2025, largely due to its archaic philosophies.
And considering that Glenn insisted after Sunday’s season finale that he “is not going to waver on his beliefs of what he thinks wins games in this league,” it doesn’t seem likely that the Jets’ strategy will change significantly in 2026.
That could spell doom for the Jets’ young quarterback.
At the very least, though, the youngster (whether it’s Fernando Mendoza, Dante Moore, or Ty Simpson) should take far fewer hits off the edge than Zach Wilson and Sam Darnold did in their Jets tenures. Whether that will be enough to overcome the coaching—or if the coaching can change/improve enough to maximize that caliber of protection—remains to be seen.
