I recently asked Jets fans to explain what it feels like to support their team. “Weekly root canal” is mentioned nearly 13 times. More on that below.
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Gang Green gets honest
I thought they would be funny. That Jets fans would lighten my day. That for the first time since January 30, 2022, I’d be grateful to be a Bengals fan.
I was right. Jets fans may have Hulk hands, but they’re still human. They have feelings. Strong ones, too, which is understandable. Consider what they’ve been through. In the past decade, their team has:
Zero playoff appearances
Zero winning seasons
Zero better years than Adam Gase going 7-9 in 2019
This is the only franchise to win fewer than 30 percent of its games over the last decade.
Here were some of my favorite quotes.
💬 Being a Jets fan is like renewing a gym membership every January for half a century. Each year, you walk in, convinced this is the year everything changes. You buy into the plan, you picture the transformation … and by March, you’re back on the couch, sore, disappointed and somehow still paying for it. — Evan N.
Another put it similarly:
💬 It’s like getting great seats for opening day of a baseball season, but rain is predicted. Sure enough, it pours all day, and the game is called before you even leave the house. There is no hope, but even worse, you’re not even in the ballpark. — JJ
Someone should hire this writer:
💬 My 5-year-old daughter asked me what the difference between baseball and football is. In her estimation it was: ‘Baseball is the one where they hit the ball with the bat and run around bases. And football is the one where you stare at the TV and yell, “F—!“‘ — Steven C.
One last word, from Matt:
💬 Every Sunday feels like your father who left for ‘milk’ is going to come back. You sit on the porch, looking at the driveway, thinking this week will be different, imagining his beat-up 2010 Honda Civic will pull up on the gravel. However, the sun sets, the car has not arrived, and you go back inside, ready to do it all again the next week and the week after.
Yikes. Bleak. Here are over a hundred more responses, including: “Rooting for the Jets is like rooting for the bad guys in ‘Home Alone.’”
Going forward, could things change for these people? I think so, actually. (I know, I can’t believe I just wrote that. Let me explain.)
Jets: Time for hope?
After shipping out multiple stars during the 2025 season and trading up in April’s draft, the Jets amassed a combined six first-round picks between this year’s draft and next year’s. What an opportunity.
But won’t New York just squander it, like always? Well:
“The (2026) draft I really liked — and this is kind of crazy — is the Jets’,” one exec told Sando. “Just looking at their roster and what they have done, they are competent quarterback play and good play calling away from having a really good offense.”
I haven’t been able to find a team that drafted six first-rounders in a two-year span. A couple who came close suggest this could go one of two ways:
The Cowboys picked five in 1991-92 before winning three Super Bowls in four years.
In 2021-22, these Jets also drafted five. Nearly all hits, in fact. Dane graded their 2022 class the league’s best.
But as you know, this team did not win three Super Bowls in four years. In fact, it’s been the league’s worst team since 2021.
That’s because New York was missing a quarterback. Those ’90s Cowboys had the steady Troy Aikman, who’d been the No. 1 pick in 1989. Once surrounded by other Hall of Fame talent, his play was more than enough.
That’s actually promising for the Jets, once you look ahead to 2027. Just consider how tightly teams have clutched their 2027 first-round picks, due to that potentially loaded quarterback class. Yes, the Jets — holders of their own first, plus Dallas’ and Indy’s — are in an enviable spot for once.
Here’s Dane’s early 2027 mock, where New York lands a promising QB without even using its best pick on the position:
One thing is clear, unfortunately: The Jets should probably continue to suck in 2026. With such big-name quarterbacks up for grabs, gang green should want to lose to avoid others besting them in the draft order. If that happens, the Jets may want to trade up to land one of the two elite quarterbacks.
If there’s any franchise that could mess this up … it’s this one: “Being a fan is like having a colonoscopy exam while having kidney stones AND a wisdom tooth removal EVERY SUNDAY from September to December.” Thanks for that visual, Lorenzen.
Raiders: Mendoza makes his mark
The Raiders might not have six first-round picks in two years, but they might have someone even better than that, depending on how he turns out. Possibly much better. A No. 1 quarterback.
Here’s what our new Raiders beat reporter, Sam Warren, has learned after Fernando Mendoza’s first weekend of NFL minicamp:
Vegas is focused on under-center play. After Mendoza took only 3 percent of his 2025 snaps behind center, there’s a learning curve in Klint Kubiak’s dropbacks-heavy offense.
“I believe it’s the added footwork,” Mendoza said of the biggest adjustment. “Instead of being back there in shotgun, you really have to get back to make sure you get depth so you can best serve your offensive linemen, still be on time, still decipher the defense.”
During Saturday’s practice, Mendoza took every snap under center, then spent extra individual time on dropbacks. “The quarterback has cajoled his young teammates to get added reps in during their off time, whether on the field after practice or in their temporary home,” adds Sam.
Plenty more details on Mendoza’s sparkling first impressions in Sam’s full story, unlocked for you here.
Extra Points
👀 Best UDFA fits. Nick Baumgardner combed through free-agent prospect signings. One Diego is mentioned, but not the Heisman-finalist quarterback. Read that here.
⭐ For an update on that other Diego, our Ravens beat reporter shared takeaways from Baltimore’s rookie minicamp.
📓 All-32 notebook. As noted, our reporters shared post-draft outlooks for all 32 teams. Can Chicago’s defensive front rebound? Can the Cowboys defense slow anyone down?
📺 More Russell Wilson. Our Andrew Marchand reports the 37-year-old is in “deep discussions to go into television, which could mark the end of what is likely a Hall of Fame career.” Details here.
▶️ Friday’s most-clicked: NFL execs shared unfiltered thoughts on the NFC side of the draft. (The AFC version is here, ICYMI.)
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