The 2026 season will be a unique for New York Jets fans. When things go right, they have the potentially to go very right.

In Week 5, Jets fans got to celebrate not one, not two, but three victories: the Jets over the Cleveland Browns, the Pittsburgh Steelers over the Indianapolis Colts, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the Dallas Cowboys.

The losses by Indianapolis and Dallas leave the Jets sitting pretty with three projected top-12 selections in the 2027 NFL draft. In fact, their own selection is the lowest of the three.

Here is how the 2027 NFL draft order is shaping up after Week 5 of the 2026 season:

  1. Tennessee Titans (0-5, .518 SOS)
  2. Los Angeles Chargers (0-5, .554 SOS)
  3. Miami Dolphins (0-5, .619 SOS)
  4. Houston Texans (1-4, .482 SOS)
  5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-4, .494 SOS)
  6. Arizona Cardinals (1-4, .536 SOS)
  7. New Orleans Saints (1-4, .536 SOS)
  8. Washington Commanders (1-3-1, .506 SOS)
  9. New York Jets, via Dallas Cowboys (2-3, .471 SOS)
  10. Philadelphia Eagles (2-3, .476 SOS)
  11. New York Jets, via Indianapolis Colts (2-3, .488 SOS)
  12. New York Jets (2-3, .500 SOS)
JET XFront Office
2027 OFFSEASON

What’s your first offseason move?

Opening roster · Choose one move

Effective cap$79.54MStarting snapshot
Roster39Starting snapshot
2027 picks9Starting snapshot
Choose one to see the results.

The thinking behind the decision

Set the direction.
Own the decision.

Although over $100M in dead cap is coming off the books, the New York Jets have plenty of tough decisions to make during the 2027 offseason. Deciding which of these decisions is the most important may shape the direction the organization takes.

Your choice changes this single-scenario snapshot. A release or trade opens a roster spot; a restructure creates current-year room at a future cost; a fifth-year option decision looks one year further ahead.

These are alternatives, not a sequence of moves. The opening effective cap is the current simulator package’s $99.23M total room minus $19.70M net draft reserve. The figures are projections, not a live team ledger.

Dallas climbed to the ninth pick with a shocking 24-16 home loss to the previously winless Buccaneers on Thursday Night Football. The Colts’ two-game win streak came to an end with a 34-22 loss in Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers’ season has new life after a dominant 31-7 home win over the Chicago Bears. Courtesy of the Quinnen Williams trade, the Cowboys owe New York the better first-round pick between their own and Green Bay’s; they own the Packers’ selection via the Micah Parsons trade.

Interestingly enough for Jets fans, the Packers and Cowboys are set to square off in Wisconsin this coming Sunday night. It will be something a rooting dilemma for Jets fans.

On one hand, rooting for Green Bay would yield the highest possible draft pick for New York in the present, as a Packers win would send the Cowboys to 2-4, whereas a Cowboys win would leave both teams at 3-3.

However, given that Dallas is commonly viewed as the better team with a stronger outlook, and that they arguably play in a weaker division, the Cowboys may still have a solid chance of finishing with a better record than Green Bay even if they lose on Sunday. The Packers are riddled with long-term injuries, and it was only two weeks ago that they were widely viewed as one of the NFL’s weakest teams; they seemingly have more “disaster” potential than Dallas.

If you are in the camp that thinks Green Bay has a lower floor over 17 games regardless of Sunday’s outcome, you might prefer to root for the Packers to start stockpiling losses. Otherwise, you might prefer to see the Cowboys drop to 2-4 and let things play out from there.

Either way, the Jets set themselves up beautifully for the 2027 draft with their 2025 trade deadline deals. Considering that neither star dealt in those trades has transformed the team that acquired them, the Jets look like the early favorites to win both deals.