​If you’re reading this, Intrepid New York Jets Fan, you deserve praise for sticking with a franchise that hasn’t enjoyed a winning season since 2015, hasn’t reached the playoffs since 2010 (back in the Rex Ryan/Mark Sanchez era), has weathered more bad quarterback stints than most teams should endure, once hired Adam Gase as head coach on purpose, and has posted the NFL’s worst winning percentage since 2016 at .297, a record that translates to a 49-116 mark. The faint glimmer of hope arrived with new head coach Aaron Glenn in 2025, the former Jets first-round pick and ex-Detroit Lions defensive coordinator who seemed to bring something different to the table that his predecessors hadn’t. Yet the 3-14 season—Jets’ worst since Gase’s 2-14 finish in 2020—made it feel as if Glenn was another coach who wore the big green suit only to spill it all over.
The truth, however, lies in a factor that Glenn couldn’t fully control. In today’s NFL, a team without a legitimate quarterback might as well cancel the season before it begins. The Jets had cycled through Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor, and Brady Cook, and in the near term they welcomed Geno Smith back, a quarterback who might still have more left in the tank than he showed in the Las Vegas Raiders’ malfunctioning offense in 2025. If the Jets can recapture even a portion of the Geno Smith revival that propelled his career in Seattle, that would be one major box checked. Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey also worked to check other boxes by overhauling the roster through free agency, trades, and the draft. The Jets’ 2026 lineup is poised to look markedly different from 2025’s, and that’s not a negative.
There is nowhere to go but up, and the organization is embracing that reality. “I’ve learned a lot; we’ve learned a lot,” Mougey said at his end-of-season press conference in January, when asked why he remains confident in a turnaround after 2025’s chaos. “We’ve got a clear vision. AG and I talk daily about this roster, the vision, and this division. With the assets we have moving forward—the draft capital, the cap space—I know we’re going to continue to build and add good players who will help us win.”
Now, let’s shift focus to three players who could be the Hidden Gems of the 2026 New York Jets. We’re looking at one underrated veteran, one underrated free agent (technically a traded player, so I’m bending the rules here), and one underrated draft pick. Three players who could unlock at least a spark after a decade of setbacks.
When evaluating draft prospects and their transition to the NFL, there are times when college schemes can hinder development. This is especially true for defensive linemen coming out of programs like Iowa State, where the team runs a 3-3-5 base with minimal hybrid four-man fronts to optimize for SEO and general efficiency. Such schemes can complicate the transition for players who, in a different system, would be asked to line up in more conventional fronts and execute straightforwardly. That friction between college scheme and NFL expectations can obscure true upside and slow a player’s path to impact, making the discovery of hidden gems that much more valuable for a team trying to rebuild a long-suffering franchise.