Game-planning for Week 1 of an NFL season always carries immense uncertainty.

That’s doubly true when game-planning for a team debuting a new head coach and coordinators.

The New York Jets are faced with the challenge of preparing to open the 2026 season against a Tennessee Titans team that will be rolling out new offensive and defensive play-callers in Brian Daboll and Robert Saleh, respectively. Aside from vanilla preseason tape that carries little to no value, the Jets have no idea what the Titans’ revamped schemes might look like.

For that reason, New York will have to rely on old tape from Daboll and Saleh’s previous tenures in the NFL to get an idea of what to expect on Sept. 13.

It won’t be a perfect guide, as both coaches will adapt their schemes to fit the personnel of their new team. But one can expect that, like most coaches, Daboll and Saleh will largely stick to the bread-and-butter philosophies and concepts they have established for years.

That’s why the Jets should be eager about one particular mismatch in their favor against Daboll’s offense—an advantage that Tennessee gift-wrapped for them.

New York’s big (literally) defensive mismatch over Tennessee

One of the hallmarks of Daboll’s offensive play-calling with the New York Giants was his propensity for running up the middle.

Across Daboll’s four-year tenure with the team (2022-25), the Giants ranked sixth in the NFL with 14.7 rush attempts per game that were directed toward either “left guard”, “middle”, or “right guard”, as labeled in the official play-by-play.

This should be expected to continue in Tennessee, as the Titans’ starting running back, Tony Pollard, is ideally suited for this type of scheme. Over that same four-year span, Pollard ranked eighth among running backs with 478 rush attempts in one of those three directions.

Why is this scary for the Titans? Well, the Jets possess the last man that a between-the-tackles-rushing attack wants to see on the other side… 366-pound nose tackle T’Vondre Sweat.

Yep, the same T’Vondre Sweat who wore Titans powder blue in 2025.

The Jets acquired Sweat from the Titans in a February trade for edge rusher Jermaine Johnson. It was a swap that perfectly encapsulated the dueling defensive philosophies of Robert Saleh and Aaron Glenn.

As Jets fans know, Saleh prioritizes explosive, one-gapping pass rushers up front, and hardly gives a hoot about run defense. He had no place for a 366-pounder in his scheme. Meanwhile, Glenn, as he recently explained to the media, cares immensely about size and run defense in the trenches, so Sweat was tailor-made for his defense.

As a result, the Titans accidentally gifted their Week 1 opponent with a weapon who perfectly counters the run-game philosophy of their new offensive coordinator.

Sweat has established himself as one of the most effective run-stuffers in the NFL. In 2025, his 79.3 run defense grade at Pro Football Focus ranked fourth-best among 113 qualified defensive tackles. That was no fluke, as the 2024 second-round pick posted a 75.0 run defense grade in his rookie year.

Sweat arrives in New York on an upward trajectory as he prepares for his age-25 season. The first opponent in front of him will be the team that drafted him, led by an OC who tends to call a heavy dosage of inside runs.

It’s a mismatch that will keep Daboll up night, and one that should have Glenn sleeping quite well.

Making Daboll’s nightmares even more terrifying is the player that will be lining up across from Sweat: center Austin Schlottman.

The Titans signed Schlottman, who follows Daboll over from the Giants, to a two-year, $9 million deal this offseason. Schlottman is a career backup, having started 18 of his 85 appearances in seven seasons, including four of his 17 games for the Giants last year.

Schlottman competed for the Titans’ starting center spot and won the role. That’s a nice accomplishment for him, but it should have Tennessee fans biting their nails, especially as he prepares to block an overpowering force they are very familiar with.

Schlottman does not have a good track record as a run blocker. Over his career, he owns a composite PFF run-blocking grade of 59.3. For perspective, that would have ranked 28th out of 34 qualified centers last season.

To recap, the Titans:

  • Are debuting a new OC who has a track record of running up the middle at a top-tier rate
  • Have a running back who is consistently among the leaders in carries up the middle
  • Have a starting center who is a career backup with low run-blocking grades

Across from Daboll, Pollard, and Schlottman will be a 366-pound nose tackle with a track record of elite production against the run, along with an insatiable hunger to make a statement to his old team.

Advantage: Jets.