New York Jets fans are tired of waiting. For 15 years, they have watched their team not only miss the postseason but also fail to come close to a winning record for most of that time.
The 2025 season was a boiling point.
Despite welcoming a first-time head coach, new players in key areas, and a new outlook on the organization, Jets fans are furious after a 3-14 season in which the team was mostly uncompetitive. In many ways, their frustration is deserved.
While players share in the fanbase’s frustration, though, many believe the anger is misplaced.
At locker room cleanout day, many of New York’s top starters made it clear that the sins of past years, which Jets fans have endured, shouldn’t be felt by the current roster.
Jets preach grace and patience
Defensive tackle Harrison Phillips has only been with the Jets for five months, having been acquired just before the start of the regular season. The former Minnesota Viking understands how frustrating it is for fans to go through the entrenched losing that Jets fans have seen.
But he also has a message for those same fans: perspective is essential.
“For 15 years, I can get your frustrations, but you know, for us, new people to this organization, it’s our first year, and you’ve got to give us some grace,” Phillips said. “So if we have the same conversation, you can ask me this question next year, and I’ll be able to have a more direct answer to the fans. But for right now, it’s year one. There’s so much [expletive] that we have to figure out.”
Jets fans may not want to hear it, but Phillips is fair with his request. Many Jets fans attribute the previous 14 years of futility to the current coaching staff and roster. They believe every player who dons a Jets jersey must know, feel, and act on the previous decades of struggles.
Athletes do not think that way, though. They aren’t thinking about what happened before they arrived at their current situation. Their only focus is on improving the present.
That also doesn’t mean fans are inherently wrong to be frustrated over the struggles, either. Fifteen years is a long time between playoff appearances, and the 2025 season did little to prove the current group is anywhere close to fixing the many issues plaguing the franchise.
Coaching changes aren’t being made, though. A roster overhaul is coming. Fans can be upset all they want about the lack of production this season, but a fair amount of frustration stems from the team’s decades-long problems.
That isn’t fair to the current staff, front office, or players.
And as the roster closes the book on a miserable three-win season, that perspective is something players want to see fans take in. It may be the catalyst to something bigger in 2026 and beyond.
