New York Jets fans would agree that their team is “a pain in the butt” on most Sundays—to their own mental well-being, rather than to the opposing team.
But one NBC Sports analyst and former NFL quarterback says that the team could be providing that pain to opponents in 2026.
Speaking on “PFT Live,” Chris Simms praised the direction of the Jets and highlighted them as an underrated team going into the upcoming season.
“Now, this is the first year in a while I think you can look at it and go ‘Hmm, there’s some light at the end of the tunnel,'” Simms said of the Jets’ future.
“If you look at teams that were in the bottom of the barrel last year, that you could see maybe getting up to fringe-playoff, pain in the butt, yeah, the Jets are one of those teams you look at to go, ‘They got a possibility there.'”
As far-fetched as it may seem for Simms to laud the Jets’ 2026 outlook after a 3-14 season, NFL fans should learn from history to cultivate greater optimism about the potential for last-place teams to take substantial jumps.
Three of the eight teams to finish fourth in their division during the 2024 season went on to make the playoffs in 2025. Two additional teams, the Jaguars and Panthers, won five games or fewer and went on to make the 2025 playoffs.
After 15 straight non-playoff seasons, it seems preposterous to suggest that the Jets could take that type of overnight leap. But any normal NFL fan would have laughed in your face if, at this point one year ago, you predicted that the Bears, Jaguars, Panthers, and Patriots would all make the playoffs, and one of those teams would make the Super Bowl.
And Simms isn’t even suggesting a playoff appearance is on the horizon. He merely suggested that the Jets are trending in the right direction and could be a “fringe-playoff” team.
Perhaps that means seven wins, perhaps eight, perhaps nine—who is to say? As long as the Jets come out of the 2026 season feeling like they have set the foundation for sustainable playoff contention moving forward, it can be considered a successful season.
Still, Jets fans would love to come out of a season with a real playoff appearance for once, rather than mere promises of playoff appearances to come. In a league where nearly half of last-place teams often surge to the playoffs the following year, what’s stopping the Jets from finally having their turn at going worst-to-first?
