It’s something that has not happened since Geno Smith was a freshman at West Virginia:
The New York Jets starting 3-0.
The year is 2009. Boisterous Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan has been hired as the Jets’ new head coach, and talented USC prospect Mark Sanchez has been dubbed the team’s “Sanchize” quarterback.
Ryan led the Jets, who had relatively low expectations entering the season (over-under of 7.0), to a surprising 3-0 start. A roller-coaster regular season followed, but the result was a 9-7 record and a trip to the AFC championship game.
Could Smith, now a 35-year-old NFL veteran with 14 years of experience, lead the Jets to their first 3-0 start since Ryan’s magical debut season?
The way the chips have fallen, Smith and the 2026 Jets certainly have a unique opportunity to do just that.
Of course, the players and coaches themselves must take things one week at a time—first up are the Tennessee Titans, and nothing beyond that should matter to them right now. But from an outsider’s perspective, it’s hard not to look ahead and see a golden opportunity on the Jets’ schedule from Weeks 1-3.
If the Jets handle their business, the red carpet to a fast start has been rolled out for them by the football gods.
Week 1 at Tennessee Titans
On paper, the Jets and Titans have similar expectations coming into the season—New York has an over-under of 5.5, while Tennessee’s mark is set at 6.5. The Jets are also playing this game on the road.
So, we have a matchup between two fairly evenly-matched teams, and the Jets are on the road. That makes New York slight underdogs (+1.5, per ESPN). How, then, is this part of a golden opportunity for a hot start?
Well, the Jets drew the Titans at the absolute best time.
Tennessee is debuting a new head coach and a new offensive coordinator. Under center is a second-year quarterback in Cam Ward who had one of the least efficient rookie seasons in recent memory. Around Ward are two new starting wide receivers (one being a rookie) and two new starting offensive linemen.
The Titans will be working out the kinks in Week 1. That should be a significant advantage for a Jets team with plenty of veteran experience on both sides of the ball, especially under center. Geno Smith’s experience and higher baseline should give the Jets a quarterback advantage on Sunday as Ward endures the growing pains of adapting to a new scheme and a nearly half-rebuilt supporting cast.
If the Jets played the Titans later in the season, this matchup would be a lot more daunting. Once he gets time to gel with his new teammates and learn Brian Daboll’s offense, Ward could hit his stride and become a dangerous quarterback.
But in Week 1, the Titans will be at their most vulnerable. Given that the Jets arguably have more talent on paper (with coaching being the edge in Tennessee’s favor), this is a perfect opportunity for them to catch an opponent at the right time and steal a road victory, setting them up to enter their home opener with a 1-0 record.
Week 2 vs. Green Bay Packers
Green Bay seems like a frightening home-opener matchup at first glance, but a major injury to the Packers’ defense has already made this game look significantly more winnable for the Jets.
Superstar edge rusher Micah Parsons will be out in Week 2, having been placed on the PUP list as he recovers from a torn ACL. It cannot be understated how massive of a loss this is for the Packers.
In Parsons’ debut season with Green Bay, the Packers went 9-3-1 and allowed 19.0 points per game in 13 games with a healthy Parsons. However, in five games with Parsons absent (including the game when he was injured after playing 59% of the snaps, as the Packers blew a lead after he exited), Green Bay went 0-5 and allowed 28.8 points per game.
Four of those five losses were on the road.
Playing at home against a Parsons-less Packers team, the Jets will have a tremendous opportunity to steal another upset victory in Week 2. Green Bay has yet to prove they can win without Parsons.
Perhaps the Packers will change that before Sept. 20 by picking up a road win against the Vikings in Week 1, but either way, their track record without Parsons will still be poor heading into MetLife Stadium.
Week 3 at Detroit Lions
For the second straight week, the Jets will face an NFC North team that already suffered a major blow to its defense before the season began.
Detroit Lions safeties Brian Branch (Achilles) and Kerby Joseph (knee) have both been placed on the PUP list, ensuring they will miss the Week 3 game against New York.
Branch and Joseph have been two of the NFL’s best safeties in their respective roles over the past few seasons. Branch earned Pro Bowl honors in 2024 as the Lions’ Swiss Army knife at strong safety, while Joseph was named an All-Pro as the Lions’ roaming free safety in the back end.
Injuries plagued both players’ 2025 seasons, and their value to the team was demonstrated late in the year when Detroit had to operate without them. Over the final four weeks of the season, the Lions went 1-3 with both Branch and Joseph absent, allowing 27.3 points per game.
Even if the Jets could rack up 27 points in Week 3, it will still be challenging to keep up with the Lions’ high-octane offense on the road. Branch and Joseph’s absences are not as crushing to Detroit’s chances of beating the Jets at home as Parsons’ absence is to Green Bay’s chances of beating the Jets at MetLife Stadium.
With that said, Branch and Joseph are star players. Their absences are extremely important. The final stretch of the 2025 season showed what can happen to the Lions’ defense when their special safety duo is out.
As a result, the Jets already have a better shot of stealing this road victory than it seemed when the schedule first came out.
The Lions lost three home games in 2025, and they allowed at least 27 points in each. They are beatable in Detroit, but only with a strong offensive outing by the opponent.
The first two weeks will tell us plenty about the Jets’ offense. If they can succeed against Tennessee and the Parsons-less Packers, they will feel great about their chances of keeping up with the Lions’ offense by taking advantage of the depleted secondary.
Don’t get too far ahead just yet, but be excited
First things first: The Jets have to beat the Titans.
Despite the advantages in New York’s favor, no game can be considered “favorable” for the Jets until they prove themselves as a competent football team. Every other team in the NFL views the Jets as a favorable matchup right now, and they absolutely should until the Jets give them a reason not to.
With that said, things have undoubtedly broken favorably for the Jets. We all know the franchise needs a fast start in the worst way, having not entered October with a winning record since 2015, and the path is laid out in front of them.
Now they just have to do what normal NFL teams do: make the opportunity count.
Football is a weird game. Oftentimes, the teams that win are simply the ones who don’t squander what’s handed to them. Another team suffers key injuries, another team makes dumb mistakes, a ball bounces your way, and suddenly, you’re victorious, just because you didn’t screw things up.
Well, as long as the Jets don’t screw things up, the ball has already bounced their way for the month of September. They will get to start the season against a rebuilding team in its most vulnerable form, followed by two teams that have already lost defensive stars, without whom they posted a combined 1-8 record last season.
Just don’t “Jet” this one up, and New York should at least be 2-1 when October rolls around.
That’s easier said than done for this franchise, though.
Now, more than ever, the Jets’ ability to avoid being “Jetsy” will be put to the test. That isn’t to say that a Super Bowl pursuit is on the horizon, but the stars are aligning for them to at least have their first “in the wild card race through January” season since 2015.
That should be the goal. At some point, enough is enough. A 58-season Super Bowl drought is one thing, but the Jets’ 15-year playoff drought is undoubtedly more embarrassing.
It is not all that shocking to not win a championship across 58 tries when only one out of 32 teams can win each year. But nearly half the league (over one-third before 2020) makes the playoffs each year. In a sport with only 17 games where many wins and losses are determined by random bounces and dumb calls, you should be able to luck your way into multiple playoff appearances over 15 years with your eyes closed.
Even the Cleveland Browns and Las Vegas Raiders have stumbled into multiple playoff appearances during the Jets’ drought.
It takes pure skill not to make the playoffs 15 years in a row. That seems like something one would have to actively attempt in order to achieve.
Failing to win more than seven games in 10 straight seasons is even more unfathomable.
There is no time like the present for the New York Jets. Forget the “March for Arch”. Forget “Suck For The Duck 2.0”. How about a season of competitive football?
The football gods seem to be extending an olive branch. Will the Jets take it?
