The New York Jets’ initial 53-man roster has hit the interwebs, and, boy, is there a lot to unpack.

Plenty of surprises were featured across the back end of New York’s initial 53. One of them was quite a pleasant surprise. Three of the other surprises, though, raise questions.

Here are three questionable decisions made by the Jets with their initial 53-man roster. Keep in mind that the roster is still subject to change.

Kohl Levao over Marquis Hayes

The Jets’ initial 53-man roster features only eight offensive linemen, although that number will increase to nine once the trade for center/guard Jordan Meredeith becomes official (the initial roster actually includes just 52 players, due to the Meredith trade not being processed yet).

New York surprisingly released Xavier Newman, who was poised to be the team’s backup center. They also placed rookie guard Anez Cooper on injured reserve with a shoulder injury.

The absences of Newman and Cooper, coupled with the Meredith trade to fill one of those spots, left one vacant roster spot on the interior. That spot went to guard Kohl Levao, a surprising choice given how the preseason played out.

Logging 80 snaps across all three interior spots (23 at left guard, 25 at center, 32 at right guard), Levao had a rough preseason in pass protection. Over three games, he allowed four total pressures on 47 pass-blocking snaps, giving him an 8.5% pressure rate that is very poor for an interior lineman. Two of those four pressures were sacks.

To Levao’s credit, he earned a strong 79.0 run-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus. However, the Jets had another interior lineman who thrived in both phases: Marquis Hayes.

Not only did Hayes earn an 80.0 run-blocking grade, but he allowed just one total pressure on 44 pass-blocking snaps, a 2.3% pressure rate. He gave up no sacks, no hits, and one hurry.

Meanwhile, Levao posted a 38.1 pass-blocking grade.

You can take PFF numbers for what you will; perhaps the Jets completely disagree with those metrics. They are completely within their rights to override a small sample of preseason stats based on their evaluations of game and practice film, especially since they know what they are looking for from their players while outsiders do not.

However, the statistical gap between Hayes and Levao was wide. Not only that, but this is not the first time it’s happened. Hayes outshone Levao in last year’s preseason, too.

Both players were in New York last year. Levao posted four allowed pressures, two penalties, and a 60.5 overall PFF grade over 161 snaps, while Hayes posted one allowed pressure, three penalties, and a 78.8 overall PFF grade over 127 snaps.

Hayes has significantly outperformed Levao across a two-year sample of preseason games with the Jets. Again, that’s statistically speaking—clearly, the Jets must have seen it differently, and that’s fine. But the statistical gap is wide, so the decision remains a questionable one from the outside.

Keeping Arian Smith

The 53-man roster is not final just yet, so the Jets could still end up trying to stash Arian Smith on the practice squad if they make any more additions to the team.

For now, though, the Jets did what fans feared they might: Justify a roster spot for Smith based solely on draft pedigree despite his on-field performance coming nowhere close to roster-worthy.

Let’s tell it how it is: Smith is on the team right now because he was a fourth-round pick last year by the current regime. Full stop. If you look solely at what he’s done in the NFL without attaching draft pedigree to it, he does not have the track record of a player who should be on a 53-man roster.

Smith needed a big preseason after a silent rookie year, and he instead looked like one of the Jets’ most useless players. Across three games, Smith was targeted twice on 45 routes run, and one was a drop that turned into an interception, while the other was a 5-yard catch in garbage time of the final game. On special teams, his only notable moment was a penalty.

While going with five wide receivers is light, there were better ways to utilize Smith’s roster spot than forcing him onto the team just to hit the six-receiver quota and/or continue gambling on his supposed potential as a fourth-round pick from last year. We shall see whether Smith remains on the 53 going into Week 1, or if he is among the players cut to make room for new additions.

Braiden McGregor over Nate Lynn

Nate Lynn burst onto the scene over the Jets’ final two preseason games. After signing with the team in mid-August, he racked up three sacks and three hurries (6 total pressures) on just 31 pass-rush snaps (19.4% pressure rate).

Usually, it’s wise not to read too deeply into these random blips of preseason production from players signed off the couch, but Lynn is a unique case. His two-game run of dominance in New York continued the track record he had accumulated over two preseasons in Detroit.

A 2024 undrafted free agent, Lynn was equally outstanding across five preseason games with the Lions, recording 15 total pressures on 83 pass-rush snaps (18.1% pressure rate), including two sacks.

Overall, across seven career preseason games, Lynn recorded multiple pressures in six of them. That’s a sustained track record of consistency, one that demands a roster spot for a 24-year-old player at a premium position who has yet to get his first crack at a regular-season opportunity.

Instead, the Jets released Lynn and kept the likes of Braiden McGregor.

Like Lynn, McGregor was an undrafted free agent in 2024, signing with the Jets. Unlike Lynn, though, McGregor has received ample regular-season opportunities over his first two NFL seasons, and those opportunities have shown us that McGregor does not appear to be a roster-worthy edge rusher.

Across 348 career defensive snaps (19 games), McGregor has recorded just one sack and 11 total pressures on 154 pass-rush snaps, a paltry 7.1% pressure rate. He also graded poorly as a run defender in 2025, earning a 33.2 run defense grade from PFF. His 25.0% missed tackle rate was abysmal, too.

McGregor was drastically outplayed by Lynn in this year’s preseason. McGregor had no sacks and two total pressures on 52 pass-rush snaps (3.8% pressure rate), while his run defense was mediocre (63.4 grade) despite facing weak competition.

In a vacuum, NFL teams should not be faulted for keeping a player with multiple seasons of regular-season experience over a player who has never played in the regular season and just so happened to randomly have two awesome preseason games shortly after being signed by the team.

This was a unique case. Lynn didn’t come out of nowhere; he sustained the track record of excellence that he had already been building over multiple preseasons. He also significantly outplayed McGregor, a player who already should have been considered far away from a roster spot considering how poorly he performed in last year’s regular season.

The Jets had better hope that Lynn clears waivers and they can re-sign him to their practice squad, or they may rue this decision. This is not to say that Lynn will be a future Hall-of-Famer, but it’s fair to argue that the Jets may have just risked losing a decent rotational pass rusher to keep a player who has not proved useful in any way going into his fourth NFL season.