The Jets: Dysfunction that Never Ends
There’s bad luck. There’s incompetence. And then there’s whatever has been happening inside the New York Jets organization for the better part of the last decade.
The Jets closed the 2025 season by getting curb-stomped by Mitchell Trubisky and the Buffalo Bills. If the 35–8 loss and 3–14 record weren’t humiliating enough, New York also managed to make history—going the entire season without recording a single interception.
In a league engineered to manufacture turnovers through scheme, pressure, and pure randomness, that level of defensive futility feels almost impossible. And yet, the Jets pulled it off. A statistical embarrassment that doubles as the perfect metaphor for the franchise itself: unprepared, uninspiring, and completely detached from how modern football actually works.
The Jets’ lack of success isn’t bad luck—it’s structural. And it starts at the top.
The Coaching Carousel
Over the past decade, the Jets have hired four head coaches, plus an interim: Todd Bowles, Adam Gase, Robert Saleh, Jeff Ulbrich, and now Aaron Glenn.
Bowles and Saleh at least flashed competence. But the organization’s inability to identify, hire, and empower leadership capable of building a sustainable program has been staggering. Every regime arrives preaching culture and patience. Every regime leaves with excuses.
Despite all of this, the Jets announced they will retain Aaron Glenn. Glenn looked overmatched from the jump—eerily similar to what Jerod Mayo looked like with the New England Patriots last season.
That decision looks even worse when you consider the success the other coaches hired within the same coaching cycle have had. Mike Vrabel. Ben Johnson. Liam Coen. All three stepped into new situations and immediately elevated their franchises into legitimate Super Bowl contention.
The Jets? They took a step backward, earned the No. 2 overall pick, and—if history is any indication—will be shopping for yet another head coach this time next year.
The Quarterback Curse
Of course, coaching is only half the equation. The other half—the quarterback position—has been a masterclass in failure.
Over the last decade alone, the Jets have tried everything. Veterans. Projects. High draft picks. Band-aids. Long shots.
They rolled with Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh McCown. Then they traded up to No. 3 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft for Sam Darnold. Despite recent success elsewhere, Darnold went 13–25 as a starter in New York, never developing into the franchise savior he was promised to be.
Three years later, the Jets hit the reset button again—selecting Zach Wilson No. 2 overall in 2021. That experiment imploded almost immediately. Poor development. Poor support. Poor results. Another quarterback broken before he ever had a chance.
So the Jets pivoted again—back to the “win-now” veteran approach. They brought in Aaron Rodgers to finally stabilize the position and save the franchise. Instead, it became another Jets punchline. Between injuries, chaos, and unmet expectations, the experiment never came close to delivering what was promised. When that failed, they doubled down once more by turning to Justin Fields—another reclamation project sold as a fresh start. The result? More losses. More inconsistency. More proof that simply swapping quarterbacks without fixing the foundation guarantees the same ending every time.
Different coaches. Different quarterbacks. Same outcome.
The Common Denominator
At some point, the excuses run out.
When every coach fails, it’s not the coach. When every quarterback busts, it’s not the quarterback.
The problem is the organization.
Until the Jets prove they can identify leadership, develop talent, and build something resembling stability, nothing will change. The uniforms will look the same. The press conferences will sound the same. And the results will be exactly the same.
Bad teams lose games. Broken franchises repeat themselves.
And no one does that better than the New York Jets.
