Fresh off three straight losses, the New York Jets are still trying to master a skill that has evaded them for 15-plus years: winning football games.
Nonetheless, New York’s first four games of the 2026 season have not been without their fair share of positives. The team has been fairly respectable overall, tying for 17th in the NFL with a -8 point differential. Given that body of work, there have been plenty of individual players who have looked solid despite the underwhelming record.
These have been the Jets’ top five players of 2026 at the quasi-one-quarter mark.
5. RT Armand Membou
Despite some ugly blunders in crucial spots, the Jets’ pass protection has been a strength for certain stretches.
Through two weeks, the Jets were Pro Football Focus’ highest-rated team in pass protection. They have fallen down the list over the last two weeks, but through Week 4, the Jets still have a solid pass-blocking resume overall.
Currently, the Jets rank 13th in PFF’s team pass-blocking grade (65.3). Quarterback Geno Smith has taken the 11th-lowest pressure rate (36.5% of dropbacks) out of 31 qualified quarterbacks, even with an 11th-ranked average of 3.02 seconds to throw, which is a combination that sheds a positive light on the pass-blocking.
Right tackle Armand Membou is among the individual players who deserve the most credit for New York’s solid overall pass-blocking results.
On film, No. 70 can often be seen building a brick wall to Smith’s right side. Membou frequently clamps one-on-one matchups in dominant fashion with no help, beautifully framing rushers, mirroring them, and anchoring down.
The numbers aren’t the greatest right now; his 62.6 overall PFF grade ranks 21st among right tackles. That should even out and catch up with the film over time, though.
It is also worth noting that Membou has been placed in an unfavorable spot to be productive from a statistical standpoint. He faces difficult assignments at a higher rate than most tackles.
According to PFF, a whopping 55.6% of Membou’s pass-blocking snaps have been charted as “true pass sets” (passes with 4+ pass-rushers, straight QB drop to 7+ yards, no play action, no screens, and over 2 seconds to throw). True-pass-set reps are far likelier to yield pressure than non-true-pass-set reps; this year, the average pressure rate allowed by tackles on true pass sets is 8.8%, compared to 3.2% on all other plays.
Essentially, the Jets’ scheme puts a lot of pressure on their tackles. Frank Reich has called low rates of quick passes, screens, and play action, combined with a heavy reliance on traditional dropbacks. This creates extra opportunities for the offensive linemen to make mistakes than the average linemen, which could hurt a player in metrics like their PFF grade and pressures/sacks allowed.
Even so, Membou has only allowed eight total pressures and one sack through four games, while committing no penalties. Those are solid numbers given the scheme he is playing in.
In the run game, Membou has been up-and-down, featuring high peaks but overall inconsistency. He is still looking to become more reliable in that area. His pass protection, though, consistently stands out on tape as one of the Jets’ best individual offensive weapons.
4. RG Joe Tippmann
The Jets extended Joe Tippmann to a four-year, $62 million deal earlier this offseason. So far, he has played up to that contract, and then some.
Tippmann has been credited with allowing just three total pressures (including zero sacks) on 145 pass-blocking snaps. His allowed pressure rate of 2.1% ranks ninth-best among 63 qualified guards.
Keep in mind that Tippmann is playing under the same circumstances as Membou in the Jets’ offense. He has faced a true pass set on 55.8% of his pass-blocking snaps, ranking third among guards. It only further adds to the impressiveness of Tippmann’s pressure and sack numbers.
While Tippmann has been involved in some communication breakdowns in the Jets’ run-blocking scheme, his individual run-blocking has been solid. His 72.3 run-blocking grade at PFF ranks 11th among right guards.
At the very least, the Jets seem to have the right side of their offensive line locked down. The other three spots, though, remain uncertain long-term.
3. S Dane Belton
In free agency, Dane Belton was a prudent upside swing for just one year and $4 million, offering an intriguing amount of potential for such an affordable price. Through four games, he has delivered on that upside, making him one of the league’s best value signings of free agency so far.
Playing all 267 defensive snaps for the Jets, Belton has emerged as one of the league’s top safeties in terms of both playmaking and avoiding mistakes.
Belton has already racked up nine defensive stops, tying him for third among safeties with five other players, including Ravens star Kyle Hamilton. His nose for making key stops short of the line-to-gain has shown up in both phases; he has five stops in the pass game and four stops in the run game.
To boot, Belton has been a reliable last line of defense. He has yet to allow a touchdown in coverage; his 153 coverage snaps without a touchdown are the 10th-most among safeties. Belton also has yet to commit a penalty, tying for fifth among safeties in total defensive snaps without a penalty. The only safety to play more snaps than Belton without allowing a touchdown or committing a penalty is Kevin Winston Jr. of the Titans.
In coverage, Belton has kept everything in front of him; 8 of 11 throws in his direction have been completed, but they netted just 59 yards, averaging modest totals of 5.4 yards per target and 7.4 yards per reception. Overall, Belton has allowed 0.39 yards per coverage snap, placing 19th out of 66 qualified safeties.
If Belton keeps this up, he will go down as of Darren Mougey’s best moves as the Jets’ general manager.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of Belton’s outlook is that the best could be yet to come. He still has yet to flash the most appealing part of his game coming into 2026: his knack for splash plays.
Coming into the year, Belton had six interceptions, four forced fumbles, and four fumble recoveries in 66 career games despite starting just 22 of them. Belton still has zeroes in those categories through four games, so he is due to make some game-swinging plays soon.
With Belton thriving and the Week 4 return of Minkah Fitzpatrick, who even recorded an interception in his first game back, the Jets could end up having one of the league’s best safety duos this season.
2. QB Geno Smith
We have not witnessed many stretches in Jets history where the team played losing football in spite of solid quarterback play, but that is precisely what we saw over New York’s first four games.
If games were determined by head-to-head quarterback play, the Jets would arguably be 3-1 right now. Smith has given the Jets more than enough productivity to have a chance to win each week.
Smith’s numbers and rankings among 29 qualified quarterbacks are well beyond what many skeptics believed he would bring to New York:
- 81.5% adjusted completion percentage (1st)
- 109.0 passer rating (4th)
- 0.126 adjusted EPA per play (13th)
- 60.5 QBR (14th)
- 6.3 net yards per attempt (16th)
- 4.3% touchdown pass rate (17th)
- 0.0% interception rate (1st)
Going game by game, it is clear that only one Jets player (the one ranked atop this list) has been a more consistent net-positive for New York than Smith.
In the Jets’ Week 1 win over Tennessee, Smith was near-flawless, throwing the ball with pristine accuracy as he led an efficient day of offensive football.
In Week 2 against the Green Bay Packers, Smith’s consistency declined from Week 1 in a rainy affair, but he did enough to give the Jets a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. When the Jets choked the lead away, there were a plethora of culprits above Smith on the list, including the special teams, play-calling, clock management, defensive penalties, and run game.
Smith’s Week 3 performance against the Detroit Lions was one of the best quarterbacking performances in Jets franchise history, hands down. The Jets played poor defense, could not run the ball, and even struggled to pass-protect, but Smith delivered dime after dime while dealing with pressure and throwing into tight windows. It felt like a game that the Jets were only competitive in because of Smith, Garrett Wilson, and Kenyon Sadiq’s outstanding individual execution.
In Week 4 against the Chicago Bears, Smith certainly had his worst performance, missing a few throws he should have made while taking sacks that could have been avoided. However, he only got to throw 15 passes in a game where the Jets held the ball for under 18 minutes, making it essentially a half-game’s worth of reps. The offensive line and run game were also more detrimental than Smith.
The Jets’ starting quarterback has been a net positive. There have been multiple instances over the last 15 years when a full season of Smith’s recent level of play would have likely been enough to push the Jets from a losing team to a playoff team—2019, 2022, and 2023 come to mind.
Now, the Jets are finally getting the quarterback play they’ve been waiting for, and they’re wasting it. It goes to show how much the rest of the team needs to step it up.
1. WR Garrett Wilson
Buoyed by Smith’s accuracy, Garrett Wilson is playing the best football of his career, showing the world what he’s capable of when he has a competent quarterback throwing him the ball.
In terms of raw box-score metrics, Wilson’s numbers do not stand out too much from the rest of his career. Through four games, he has 24 receptions for 270 yards and two touchdowns, putting him on pace for 102 receptions, 1,148 yards, and 8 touchdowns. All of those would be career-highs, albeit only slightly compared to his 2024 season (101/1,104/7).
Where Wilson’s heightened impact really stands out is in the efficiency department. Unlike in years past, when the Jets needed to spam Wilson with targets to get his numbers up (since inaccuracy caused such a low percentage of those targets to be completed), Wilson is putting up better numbers with fewer targets.
Wilson is averaging a career-low 7.8 targets per game, yet, he is averaging career-bests in receptions per game (6.0), yards per game (67.5), and touchdowns per game (0.5). He is posting career-bests in catch rate (77.4%) and yards per target (8.7).
Within what he can control, Wilson has been nearly flawless for the Jets. He has no drops, no fumbles, no interceptions thrown on his targets, and, most impressively, has secured a mind-boggling 8-of-9 contested targets thrown his way.
According to NFL Pro, Wilson has a catch rate over expected of 22.9%, which leads all wide receivers with at least 25 targets.
Wilson’s incredible consistency highlights the fact that New York should be throwing him the ball more frequently. In recent seasons, it felt like the Jets were force-feeding shallow targets to Wilson to manufacture production that he was missing out on due to the deeper receptions that were left on the table due to the quarterbacks’ poor field vision and poor accuracy.
Now, though, the Jets are leaving meat on the bone by not force-feeding targets to Wilson. With the way he is playing and the way Smith is throwing the ball, those targets wouldn’t be “force-fed” at all; they’d be the highest-quality offense that the Jets could generate right now, especially with the rest of the receiving unit banged-up and the run game dormant.
The Smith-Wilson connection has been electric. Smith is an aggressive, accurate quarterback who seeks out one-on-one matchups and has a feel for throwing with ideal ball placement to give his playmakers the best chances to make plays downfield. Wilson is a gifted pass-catcher who can secure just about anything that he can get one hand on. Right now, anytime No. 7 chucks one up to No. 5, the odds of No. 5 coming down with it are ridiculously high.
New York must lean more heavily on the connection between their two best players.
