The New York Jets’ biggest enemy isn’t an AFC East rival.
It’s time.
So much can change between when the NFL schedule first comes out in May and when the regular season actually starts. The Jets are witnessing that as we speak.
When the schedule first dropped, many folks viewed the Jets’ opening stretch as the “challenging” part of their slate. After Week 1 against the Tennessee Titans, Gang Green was set to face three highly competitive NFC North teams: the Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, and Chicago Bears.
The hope was for the Jets to leave that slate 2-2, expectedly taking care of business in Tennessee, which they did, and stealing one of their three games from Weeks 2-4. The latter didn’t ultimately come to fruition. Gang Green came close, losing two games by one score, but unfortunately, “almost” doesn’t count as a win.
The Jets’ NFC North slate turned out to be more favorable than it appeared when the schedule was initially released. Opposing stars Micah Parsons, Josh Jacobs, Brian Branch, Kerby Joseph, and Caleb Williams all sat out of their teams’ games against New York. Yet, the Jets failed to take advantage.
So, not only are they 1-3, but their upcoming stretch doesn’t look to be nearly as easy as many projected when the schedule first launched, whereas the opening stretch was more attainable than expected.
Jets’ upcoming games will not be freebies
The difference in the NFL between 1-3 and 2-2 is night and day. At 2-2, you are at .500 and could afford to lose a game while still remaining afloat. When you’re 1-3, though, Week 5 essentially becomes a must-win.
Falling to 1-4 pretty much ends a team’s playoff hopes, barring a miracle. For the Jets, winning on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns is integral. If they fall to 1-4 before heading to Foxborough to play the reigning AFC champion New England Patriots, they would be in dire straits.
The Browns are nowhere near the pushover many expected when the schedule came out, as they are riding a three-game win streak into Week 5. It looks like they have found a spark under first-year head coach Todd Monken, and quarterback Deshaun Watson is playing some of his best football in years.
Then, the Jets head to Foxborough to play the 2-2 Patriots. No matter how the Patriots may look, the Jets are 2-18 in their last 20 games against New England at Gillette Stadium. That alone gives the Patriots an upper hand from the jump.
Next, the Jets host the 0-4 Miami Dolphins before facing the Las Vegas Raiders, another team, like Cleveland, that has been much better than expected. Vegas is 3-1, with their lone loss coming by just three points last Sunday against the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs.
Things change quickly in the NFL. That’s another reason the Jets couldn’t afford to lose to the Green Bay Packers in Week 2. Even if they were on a two-game losing streak entering this week, taking losses to Detroit and Chicago, 2-2 is a much different conversation than 1-3.
Aside from all of this, there is the Aaron Glenn conversation.
Look, I’m not going to sit here and argue that Glenn should be fired if the Jets lose on Sunday. But also, let’s not pretend that he is completely off the hot seat.
In his first 21 games as the Jets’ head coach, Glenn is 4-17, the second-worst start over 21 games among New York’s 19 full-time head coaches, better than only Rich Kotite.
We’ve seen Woody Johnson fire coaches in season, most notably Robert Saleh after a 2-3 start in 2024. Yes, the circumstances were very different, and those situations aren’t completely comparable. However, Johnson wants to win. That’s obvious. He could look around the league, see the success of first-year head coaches like Monken and Kubiak, and ask, “What are we doing here?”
Who knows what will happen? We’ve seen crazier things with the Jets’ organization.
If the Jets get their teeth kicked in against the Browns on Sunday, it wouldn’t be the most surprising thing in the world to see Glenn’s job security come into question. I’m not advocating for that; frankly, I think firing him in-season would be pointless, but it certainly isn’t off the table if the season goes awry.
At this point, Glenn’s chances of earning a third season as the Jets’ head coach are slim. A loss on Sunday would decrease his chances of even making it through the season.
Time is running out for Glenn to prove his worth. After a 3-14 season last year, he has yet to show that he isn’t holding the team back. One of the main reasons New York isn’t 2-2 is Glenn’s horrific game management against Green Bay down the stretch.
The Jets’ standards simply have to be raised. Just because they left Week 1 with a win over the Titans (who are now 0-4) and “fought” against the Packers and Lions, it doesn’t mean that all the conversations surrounding Glenn should go away. An ugly loss to the Chicago Bears brought back all of the familiar concerns from Glenn’s debut season.
Overall, Glenn seems to be the common denominator behind all of this. He can only preach patience for so long, and the continued success of first-year head coaches doesn’t particularly help his case. One of those successful first-year head coaches will be across from him on Sunday.
At some point, Glenn’s team actually has to give its fans something more than reasons to believe things are getting better behind the scenes: winning games.
