Talk about “night and day”.

Fresh off one of the worst defensive seasons in franchise history, the New York Jets have fielded one of the NFL’s best defenses through the first two games of 2026.

Granted, they have benefited from some favorable competition—the next two games will test them much more thoroughly—but the numbers remain staggering.

The Jets have allowed a league-best 197.0 total yards per game, including a top-ranked 18.8 yards per drive. They have also yielded the fewest first downs per game (13.5) and the second-lowest third-down conversion rate (23.8%).

Yet, the Jets still have room to get even better on this side of the ball.

Here are three avenues to pulling it off.

1. Getting back a healthy Minkah Fitzpatrick

While the Jets have been dominant at stopping opponents from moving the ball, they still aren’t thriving at forcing takeaways. They have only generated two turnovers so far, including no interceptions.

No player on the roster offers more interception-generating upside than safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. Unfortunately, he could not get through a quarter before going down with a groin injury.

Fitzpatrick is being evaluated on a week-to-week basis. When he returns, he could galvanize the Jets in the interception department.

The five-time Pro Bowler is tied for seventh among active players with 21 interceptions. While only two of those came within his previous three seasons, the Jets plan to play him back at free safety, giving him more opportunities to rack up interceptions compared to recent years, when his roles with the Steelers and Dolphins did not put him in favorable spots to make plays on the ball.

Detroit Lions free safety Kerby Joseph racked up 17 interceptions in three seasons under Aaron Glenn’s defensive play-calling, including a league-best nine picks in 2024, Glenn’s most recent play-calling season before 2026.

Fitzpatrick has the ball skills to put up similar numbers.

2. Getting back a healthy Joseph Ossai

Fitzpatrick isn’t the only Jets starter who has been absent so far. New York’s defense is also thriving without edge rusher Joseph Ossai, who missed the first two games with a foot injury.

The rest of the Jets’ edge unit has picked up the slack for Ossai, namely fellow free agent pickup Kingsley Enagbare. When Ossai returns, though, the unit will get even deeper.

New York’s edge unit has already been quite productive. According to Pro Football Focus, the Jets’ edge rushers have combined for 19 total pressures, ranking ninth-best among edge units.

All 19 of those pressures have come from the trio of David Bailey (8), Will McDonald (5), and Enagbare (6). The No. 4 player in the rotation, Braiden McGregor, has zero pressures on 21 pass-rush snaps.

When Ossai returns, McGregor will either be buried in a minuscule role or bumped out of the rotation entirely. His pass-rush chances will be redistributed among the other four players, and the Jets will almost certainly get more production out of them.

With Ossai in the fold, the Jets will be four-deep with quality edge rushers, a luxury that few teams have. They may lack a top-flight edge rusher, but their depth will put them among the game’s better units.

3. Optimizing the defensive tackle snaps

One of the most intriguing storylines from Week 2 was the re-emergence of Jowon Briggs, who skyrocketed to a 59% snap count after playing a shockingly low 20% of the reps in Week 1.

Briggs rewarded the Jets for their belief in him by delivering a big performance. He had four total tackles and two total pressures, including a strip-sack.

This wasn’t surprising at all, given how well Briggs played in the latter half of 2025. His minimal snap count in Week 1 was surprising.

However, the spike in playing time was at least partially due to the early groin injury suffered by David Onyemata, who exited after only 13 snaps. It remains to be seen whether Briggs’ increased snap count will hold when all of the Jets’ defensive tackles are healthy, but the Jets would be foolish not to stick with it.

Generally speaking, New York can do a better of job of dispersing snaps along the defensive line. Right now, one man is taking up too many snaps: Harrison Phillips.

While the veteran is a tremendous locker-room leader and a sturdy run-stuffing presence, he is a complete non-factor as a pass rusher, which makes his role difficult to justify. Phillips leads the Jets’ defensive tackles with 59 snaps, 11 more than any other player in the unit. He played a 54% portion in each of the first two games.

That doesn’t make much sense for a player with such paltry pass-rush production. Phillips has one pressure over 39 pass-rush snaps this year. Dating back to 2025, he has racked up just a half-sack, two quarterback hits, and 12 total pressures over 19 starts with the Jets, despite getting 382 pass-rush snaps.

That’s downright poor, no matter how you slice it, especially when the Jets have a similarly dominant run-stuffer in T’Vondre Sweat who is also far more effective as a pass rusher. Since 2025, Sweat has two sacks, three quarterback hits, and 20 total pressures over 14 games, all with only 227 pass-rush snaps, not even three-fifths of Phillips’ count.

Making Phillips’ usage even more baffling is that the Jets are occasionally playing him on the edge. In Week 2 against the Packers, Phillips played 9 of his 32 snaps (28%) as a 5-technique defensive end (over the tackle’s outside shoulder). That role makes minimal sense for a 307-pound defensive tackle who can’t even win on the inside, let alone around the corner against offensive tackles.

Phillips’ snap count should be significantly cut. He can be useful as a rotational run-stuffer who plays on early downs and in short-yardage situations, but should never be on the field for an obvious passing situation.

If the Jets cut Phillips down to a 20-25% snap count, that leaves plenty of extra snaps for Briggs and Sweat to eat up, without having to cut into the role of Onyemata, who played very well in Week 1.

The Jets can also create more reps for Briggs and Sweat by cutting fourth-round rookie Darrell Jackson Jr. out of the rotation when everyone is healthy. Jackson has played 21 snaps through two games (19%), but his play doesn’t justify any snaps at the moment with four useful veterans in front of him.

An ideal snap distribution for the Jets’ defensive tackles, with everyone healthy, could look something like this:

  • David Onyemata: 60%
  • Jowon Briggs: 60%
  • T’Vondre Sweat: 40%
  • Harrison Phillips: 30%

Compare this to the Jets’ actual snap distribution in Week 1, with all players available:

  • David Onyemata: 70%
  • Harrison Phillips: 54%
  • T’Vondre Sweat: 30%
  • Jowon Briggs: 20%
  • Darrell Jackson Jr.: 16%

With these changes to the rotation, the Jets are featuring their best interior pass-rusher (Briggs) and decreasing the quantity of pass-rush reps wasted on Phillips. All the while, they don’t sacrifice much run defense, as Onyemata is still playing a featured role, while Sweat takes over some of Phillips’ snaps without giving anything back in the run game. Plus, Sweat is more of a pass-rush threat than Phillips.

After Briggs’ statement game in Week 2, keep an eye on how the Jets manage the defensive tackle rotation moving forward, particularly when everyone is available. There is untapped value to be gained by re-distributing the snaps compared to the Week 1 rotation.